Am I the only one...

Wouldn't, "felt sorry for August" have been good topic header. Would have saved me clicking.

Well, don't fret, it'll never happen again.

Perhaps the OP just wants to reach out for some sense of community.

I certainly did not feel sorry for August but I can see where you are coming from. He was a complex character and we can understand why he acted the way he did. He was under a lot of pressure and clearly had awful ways of dealing with it. Everyone else in the circus was under pressure too - performing and threatened with the possibility of getting thrown off a moving train at any given moment. I'll say that August had different worries about his livelihood and since he was so insecure, he acted like a bully does in that he reflected his insecurities on to others in violent and unessesary ways. He felt like he had to do what he had to do to keep his livelihood during the depression and I get that. Despite all of that I did get a sense that all he wanted was his girl and the circus to perform correctly, just a simple life really.

I wouldn't say I felt sorry for him but I can see where you are coming from. All he wanted was Marlena and for the circus to perform correctly. The reality was that the pressure he was under cause him to have a lack of compassion, beating animals and throwing people off of moving trains as a solution for keeping the circus afloat. He wanted the results anyone would want, but his methods of acheiving success were born of blind anger, frustration and a lack of self control. One could understand why being in charge of a circus would be stressful. So his character was very complex!

Replied twice... It said my first post was deleted, which clearly it was not lol