Journal Entry #5

Jacob and Marlena plans a surprise party to celebrate August becoming a better person. August walks in too early and assumes that Jacob and Marlena must be on a secret date. August is outraged. Jacob and Marlena try to explain what's going on but he does not listen. August accuses Jacob of sleeping with Marlena, screaming at both of them. He pushes Marlena to the ground and almost chokes her to death. Jacob saves her and gets into a fist fight with him. The circus workers break them up.August tries to apologize to Marlena but she doesn't accept it and in turn, is leaving him. Marlena stays in a hotel for the time being and she and Jacob declare their love for each other. They plan to run away together. One night, Jacob takes a knife and goes to August's room with the intention of killing him. However, Jacob couldn't do it so he returns to his train car. When he gets back he sees that his room mates have been red-lighted and he realizes that the same fate was suppose to happen to him as well. Marlena tells Jacob that she is pregnant with his baby and it occurs to them that they have to run away before something happens to them too.

August is definitely an unstable person as said before in the previous entries. Marlena states"When he's happy, he's the most charming creature on the earth. But when something sets him off...He beat one of the menagerie workers so badly he lost an eye. Three weeks later, another menagerie man lost his arm while helping August feed the cats. He died of blood lost before anyone could find out the details"(271). This further explains is outrageously bipolar behavior. Marlena had also said that he is a paranoid schizophrenic. I feel pity for August because it's not his fault that he acts this way, it's just the way he is. I think he should get help from a
psychiatrist or any other professional help since he clearly cannot control himself.
He killed many people already and he almost killed his wife. Clearly, he needs to be kept in a mental ward.
The story is climaxing at this point of the story. While reading this part I felt a lot of suspense and I wondered what might happen to Jacob and Marlena. They are in such a hard position especially since they have a baby on the way. I also wondered why they didn't use protection, but then I realized there probably wasn't any at that time. Though it hints in the book that the story takes place during the Great Depression, protection was invented before that time period.