Sherman

Much of what is said about Sherman in the March is a very distasteful, and can be taken in a few differnet ways. I feel that Sherman, like so many other characters in Docotorws novels is a mean, cruel and vulgar man. The one thing that is hard for me to cope with about Sherman is trying to understand is why he is the way he is because he is a high ranked general in a war. Or is he the way that he is because he is just a heartless, very mean man. The part that really bugs me about him is that it seems like he dosent care about anybody but himself. It seems as if he only cares about what the outcome of the war is, and how many enemy soldiers are killed. In my view a general should lead his army more, and care about his soldiers more than himslef. I felt that Sherman definetly wasnt doing any of this, and his power that he had over the other soldiers was going to his head. Overall the wordage he used to describe ceratin things, and the carelessness he showed for his soldiers I thought proved him to be a horrible general, and horrilble person overall. I dont believe I'am the only one who feels this way either

Doctorow in my Eyes

As I read more and more of what Doctorow wrote in his novels that our class has read this semester, I have found that most of what Docotorow talks about is horrible in one way or another. i belive that Doctorow had to have a troubled life in one way or another gowing up. h etalks about domestic abuse in the case of Daniel. he goes inot very sexual context when he tlkaing about Billy coming on to his mother. he also talks a lot about gang affiliation and violence. It seemed as i read more and more it alway had something to do with violence. i understand that Doctorow is a very creative man, but is all of his ideas and thoughts completly fiction to him? Another example of the way Doctoorow comes off as kind of a sick man to me is when he shows how much affection, and sexual desire he has for his mother figure Drew. She has been through a lot with Billy, escorting almost where ever he went, church, family dinners, and around town. What i dont understand is how Billy can sit at church or be around Schultz knowing what he is doing, and thinkning about his mother. Another part of Doctorows novels that blew me away is how he comes up with such crual and malicous acts of violence. for example in The Book Of Daniel, he describes daniel buring his wife with a cigarette lighter. We talked about it in class and some people agree with me that it was done on purpose, and some think it was an accident. from the way that Doctoorow wrote it, it didint seem like any kind of accident. It just seems to me that many of Doctorows characters have had a rough time growing up, with no one to support them, and end up hurting someone else. The final thing I have noticed most about doctorows is the sense of death in the air throughout all his books. Im not going to get into the people that have died throughout all the books we read this semster, but it seems like about half of the characters have. Why is this, is the question I ask myself everytime I think about Doctorows writings.

Pearl

We had a great disscussion in class today about the character Pearl from the March. Ny take on Pearl is that she harder to understand the more you look into her. She is a black woman, and as one would think she would have no relationship with white people, but she does though. I believe the man named Steve, who is the guy pearl had an inter racial realtioship with is more dependent on her then she is on him. I think that most of the class today thought the opposite though for many reasons. the biggest one that came to my mind is that pearl is afaraid in a way of what might happen to her because of the fact she is married to Steve. This can be looked at as a weakness, but can also be seen as a character builder by the end of the book. throughout the book i didnt really like pearl that much. She never really knew what to do with herself, and was always getting weaker mentally. I feel by the end though, pearl actually did find what she wanted. i feel that instead of her being at her weakest point, Steve was instead. The ending of the novel was pretty dissapointing in my mind, i knew how Pearl and a few of the other characters were goign to end up. I think the ending was actually a lot like Ragtime.

Doctorow's Style

This semester i have read some very great literature that was written by E.L Doctorow. Now that it has come to and end, and all of my reading is done I can come to a conclusion about some of the ways Doctorow tries to get points across to his readers. Doctorow goes about telling stoies about the early to mid 1900's. He goes about it in a very unorthadox way. He makes sure that it is a very fast paced, high enrgy book that one would have to keep reading just to see what happened next. Although his characters he uses are mostly fictional (there are some exeptions such as Emma Goldman in ragtime), and pretty outrageous at times, I believe some of the characters are in a way a little part of him. When Doctorow wrote Billy Bath gate for example I believe that some of the ideas and things that the characters carried out were either already done by Docotorow in his childhood, or were passions that he has laways wanted to live but never did. Another thing about the characters that he chooses is that sometimes he does use a real person. What he dosent do though is make it realisitc. he takes a character such as Haryy Houdidni for example. he takes Harry Houdidni and puts him in situations, and sceneces in the story where the reader would have to stop back up and make sure they just read that right. he uses characters and falsfies their lives. Altogther though E.L Doctorow books have been a pleasure to read and have so many twists and things that you would never guess to happen. With all of the jumping around form scene to scene, character to character, it sometimes is a trip trying to keep up with Doctorows fast paced, energetic novels.

Feminism

I myself do not particullary agree with the thoughts and ideas that feminists have. the one part that I do agree with though is for women to be treated equal, and have the same opportunities as men they musts tart making a name for themselves., which has happened throughout the past century. i believ women are treated more equal today because of the fact that women are out in the world being more thna just moms, and housewives that have no life outside the house. Women have stood up for their rights and have started applying themselves to jobs, and opportunities that are stereo typpically male jobs. i felt that Bresslerr didnt do the greatest job with this chapter in the book. feminists are all about proving that being a female has nothing to do with the performance that they will have writing or doing any job for that matter. their mission is to prove that they can do everyhting just as well as males can. An example that came up in class is there are many great male, and female writers out in the world. if you never give the female writers a chnace though then no one will ever know what womeoin are capable of writing. I also feel that sometimes people do not know much about some female writers because they are under taught in some places. Some anti feminists, and women bashing males feel that all women literature is trash and should not be taught. How could this be though? There is a section in the chapter that talks about women using different tones and wordage than men do in their writing due to their biological make up. If this is true then why would men be interested in reading something different, with tones, and ideas to help them along in their novels. Wre have made a lot of prgress over the years when it comes to womens rights, and women literature. We are still not to the full standard of what it should be though.

The March

One of the main struggles I find when reading the March is trying to keep all of the characters staright, and who is narrating at the time something is said or thought. many times I find myself thinking that the narrator is someone, then a page later i think back to what i read and I change my mind. I find it very interesting how Doctorow jumps around from character to character so its difficult to pin point who the main charatcter, and narrator really is. another topic that plays with my ind a little is the assumption that many of the people are racist including the narrator. In the book african americans are called darkies. this to me is a racist name and was one of the only accounts of racist names I have come across so far. What nakes this interesting though is, if the narrator was really a racist type of person, why would he call Pearl beautiful. I have never personally known anyone that was racist that can actually say the type of person they dont like is beautiful. I'm also not to sure about Sherman yet either. You either love or hate him. Morrison states his opinion pretty openly about how he feels about General Sherman, but he feels this way due to Morrison wanting to have Shermans spot as the general. Then on page 70 you have Wilma saying good things about Sherman, and how he is a such a good leader. Much of the first section of the book is getting to know whos side people are on, and who is jealous of another person for the postion that they are in. One of the last parts that makes me wonder is, the narrator actually taking on the role of vocalizing the characters one by one. Or is all the narration just a bunch of opinons that are based off of given what postion people are in and situation. I really dont have any of the charatcers perosnalities nailed down yet due to all of them possibly being all opinions of characters that may or may not like other characters.

The Gift Drew Gives Billy

The character Drew has so mnay unique characterisicics about her it is hard to pick a spot to begin telling about her. My first impression of her is a very pretty elagant woman who is very mainioulative and controlling in he rown special way. She believs that men are not on this earth for women to worship or charish in any way shape or form. Her thoughts about men all revolve around controlling them. She isnt a very nice perosn about it either. Even the man who hangs someone y their thumbs gets walked all over by Drew. A big part of the reason that she gets away with whatever she wants to is the way that she looks. She is always beautiful, and when people see her they fell that she is always right in spite of her looks. throughtou tthe bok Drew teaches Billys many lessons about life. The biggest one that I think she taught him was about courage. I believe he displayed it a few times throughout the book. the first time is when he jumped in the water after drew even thoguh Billy isnt the greatest swimmer in the world. Another time he displayed courage ina a unorthadox way is when he took care of Bo's baby after he died. He kept his promise to take care of the child, and followed thorugh with it. I also believe that Drew taught Billy much more about women then he knew before in mnay ways that will benefit him fot he rest of his life.