The author prefaces Water for Elephants with an epigraph: “I meant what I said, and I said what I meant… / An elephant’s faithful—one hundred per cent!” This epigraph is from a children’s book by Theodor Seuss Geisel (under the pen name Dr. Seuss) called Horton Hatches the Egg, which is about an elephant named Horton who endures hardships in his quest to protect a bird’s egg abandoned by its mother. By using a quote from a children’s book about an elephant, Gruen lays the foundation for a story centered on a particular pachyderm. Rosie the elephant symbolizes important ideas in the novel. The novel opens with Rosie at the center of the pivotal stampede, and not until the end of the story does the narrative reveal the truth of Rosie’s involvement in that climactic event.

Circuses in the past prided themselves on offering a spectacle of extraordinary and exotic animals. Elephants, with their colossal size and keen intelligence, were the quintessential circus attraction. When the Benzini Brothers circus acquires Rosie, Al considers her the answer to restoring his failing operations and the symbol of their future success. However, Rosie won’t be easily tamed, especially when she becomes the object of August’s harsh abuse.