“Every experience, no matter how bad it may seem, brings with it a blessing of some kind. The goal is to find it.” (Buddha) The difference between the New York bestselling book Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen and the People's Choice Award winner for favorite drama Water For Elephants is obvious. Despite the similarities in plot, the differences between the two are clear. The film adaptation portrays the characters differently, which, in turn, affects the plot. For example, August's character's personality and way of handling situations are changed, while Jacob's character is not shown as a bitter and sad old man in the film, and the character of Uncle Al, the circus owner, is removed . The situations that August's character encounters are similar from the novel to the film, but the way he behaves in the novel and the film is undeniably different. August's character in the novel is more of a passive person when it comes to Marlena and Jacob's relationship. Watch from afar as they dance or when they have “moments” (Water For Elephants) as Jacob said. August knows full well that Jacob is interested in Marlena but chooses not to believe it. He puts those thoughts aside until the day he catches them throwing his surprise party where he believes they were trying to get some alone time. When this happens, we begin to see his character as the villain when he attacks Jacob. In the film, August's character is very dominant towards Marlena and we see that he believes he has a sense of ownership towards her. As the film progresses, it becomes more and more violent. When he realizes that a relationship is developing between Jacob and Marlena, Jacob confronts them and Marlena kneels down tr...... middle of paper...... Rosie, but also the red light attendants when they are injuries or illness, animal cruelty, disrespect towards his peers and destruction of the circus. We see him as a man with many problems, who vents his anger on Marlena or Rosie, two very important roles in both the film and the novel. Removing Uncle Al from the film introduces a completely different perspective on the way the circus is run by August and makes us understand the extent to which there are much bigger problems with him than what we read about in the novel. When his mental illness combines with power and jealousy, he goes to great lengths to hurt those he supposedly loves. As seen above, the film adaptation portrays the characters differently, which, in turn, affects the plot. The personalities of the three characters are alternated, swapped and tampered with to create a more dramatic Hollywood-style film.