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.

Living through Billy

In my paper i'am going to attemt to explore what the rlationship is betwene Docotorw and Billy. Im also goign to analyze what Dutch Schultz and the rest of the gang symbloize and mean according to Billy. I believe that the gang sereves as a type of family that Bully never had. I also think that Docotrw wrote it so we can interprut this way due to his family being the way they were. As a young kid I'm assuming that Docorow was an outcast and a loner, and wanted someoine other thna his family to care about him. His shyness and lack of confidence though lives through Billy, and I believe is showing us what it was like in a sense to have grown up in Doctorow's shoes. I also believ that Doctorow is trying to show us that berman is on to his little secret obssesion he has with his mother. I believe that Berman is telling him to do things that will make it eventually come out, and Billy will have to confess. IM also goign to explore in my paper the relationship, and all of the finite details that go along with Billy and his mother. I have done some research on the internet, no knowing how reliable the source really is, but it was talking about Docorow growing up until he became a known author. he had a pretty rough life, and many of my therories have been proven correct about how Docotorw has been living through Billy.

psychoanalysis of Billy Bathgate

After I was done reading the chapter on psychoanalytic criticism, I’ve made up my mind that much of what Doctorow says, and tells about in Billy Bathgate comes from reality and from his dreams. Much of what Doctorow talks about in the book makes me believe that in a way he is living through Billy. I think that all of the dangers of being affiliated with the mafia, and talking risks left and right is something that Doctorow wishes that he could have had the chance to do. Whether he came up with this idea in a dream or while he was awake is a mystery. In an informal way, and not great detail, Bressler even says that, “many times writers come up with ideas in their dreams.
Another major thing that I have picked up on in Billy Bath gate is the way that Doctorow describes Billy’s sexual encounters as a child through the eyes of Billy as an adult. I feel that the only way Doctorow could have thought of all these things is if this happened to him as a child and he’s thinking back to it and remembering what happened to him, and using it for Billy Bathgate. This also brings me back to a point that I read about Drew and how Billy interacts with her. He basically is fighting over her with his father unconsciously, which is pretty weird if you ask me. Billy is always looking for time in which its just the two of them and he can show her how much he loves and cares about her. His father though never catches wind of this, and Billy I believe is just a cover up for what Doctorow was really like as a child.
Freud is basically the leading person when it comes to psychoanalytical analysis. He is the capatainm of the whole thing. From his readings I have made my conclusion that Billy was for sure just a kid to have around for really nothing other than enjoyment in the small gang. Dutch Schultz is the head of the whole thing and what he says goes, and Berman is the one who holds it all together. After revieing Bresslers chapter on psychoanalysis I have made up my mind that Billy is actually Doctorow, and some of it is reality, and some of it is dreams.

The War and Immigration

E.l. Doctorow has many different ways of showing how America felt about the war going on at the time the novel takes place, and what the war was doing to our country. A good example of this is when father is spots a ahip dropping immigrants off. his first reaction wasnt agood one, and I think thats how it was for mast poeple in that time. many poeple in the book were not fond of forgeiners or their countries. Father was not very fond of seeing boat loads of women with scarfs over their heads, and men you could only see their eyes. The way that father describes the immigrants coming off the boats is very dark , and I believe racist. I also see this when Frued was visting America for his first time and all he had to say was negative things about it. Even when he was looking at some of the most beautiful sites, such as Niagra Falls, and the many great architecture works. I believe that he was showing extreme patrionism for his country, and would not accept that anyhting from any other country is better than his. This all leads me back to the point about the war. Everyone in America at the time was afarid of the unknown, and would not accept foreingers, which were very different than people they were used to. E.L. Doctorow really showed this though through father, who showed much racism and dislike toward immigrants. I believe that there was also tension between the older and the newer immigrant populations. This was sparked by the New York economy. With this type of economy older immigrants act poorly, and much differently than immigrants who have traveled to America in the past. Overall America was not a good place to be if you were a immigrant of any kind and expected to be accepted by people in a whole new place.

E.L. Doctorow

The book Ragtime really shows what E.L. Doctorows beliefs are as well as the era in which he has written it. In the book Doctorow does not come out and say what his political views are. He keeps them hidden in a way and tells about how America was in the past. he tells alot about early American history, rather than in the time he had wrote the novel at the tail end of the Veitnam war. Doctorow can be recognized as a racist to some, but at the same time he is in favor of immigrants, and African Americans. The book of Daniel is the book that really got him going with his career. It was published in 1971 and was nominated for the national book award. the book was inspired by the Atom Spy Trials during the anti communist movement in the early 1950's.

Daniel

When I hear about how Daniel is abusive toward some of the only people in his life that care about him, I think of it as a big psychological problem that dates back form when he was a child. Hearing about Phylis and his small son getting abused is almost disturbing. the reason I think its horrible is because he dosent try to make an excuse or any reason up for what he is doing to his family. I htink that Daniels childhood made him this way though. I went on the internet and searches for people have have abusive problems, and what it stems from. Almost all of the articles that I read had to do with either drinking problems, or psychological problems dating back from the abuse that they recieved in past years. I think Daniel cant control himself and takes up a lot of the built up anxiety and pain from his past out on his wife and child. I find it hard to put this all inot reality, and even harder to try too telate to the narrator like I normally would in any other book. For example I think its horrible how he forced Phyllis inot carrying out all sorts of sexual acts to him and even bunt her with a cigarette lighter. I think Daniel is a very sick indivdual, even thoguh I know its fiction, it just angers me reading how horrible he treats people that love him.

Crime and Punishment

A topic that was briefly talked about in the discussion board is about crime and punishment, and how it can vary greatly based on what class you are labeled in society. Even though this idea goes against all the capitalist laws, and what our countrys, goverment is formed around, it still occurs. Daniel thinks that if a lower class person commits a crime against someone in an upper class, the person who commited the crime, whether its his fault or not will be the one who suffers the much greater consequenses. Now for example if someone from an upper class in society murdered someone in a lower class it would be looked at as self defense, or something much more minor than if a lower class perosn murdered someone in a higher up class. Another way of looking at how Daniel thinks is if a perosn from a lower class committed a crime on another person froma lower class, then whats the big deal. Another thing that relates to this is how authority dosent put the legal pressure on the upper class neighborhoods and societies, because the people in auhtority feel that the rich people have a lot more to lose in life if they commit a crime so they must not commit any at all. If a lower class person commits a crime they dont have anyhting to lose and should be punished as much as possible. The topic of class based punishments also brings up the topic of racism. I believe that this happened to black people in the U.S as well. If two black people killed one another then it wouldent be looked at as much of a big deal. If a black man killed a white person they would suffer a lot different punishment. Overall crimes and punishment have gotten a lot better over the years but were not where they should have been in Daniels eyes.

Emma Goldman

Emma Goldman was a very interesting character to hear about in Ragtime. I really just wanted to know some interesting things about her that werent in the story, because she was an anarchist. Emma was born in Kaunas Lithuania, and lived from 1869- 1940. She was known all over for her speeches and writings. Her nickname was Red Emma. She grew up in a jewish family and had a father who tried to marry her off at the age of 15. She refused though and did not do it. At the age of seventeen she got shipped to the U.S with her half sister, soon to find out America is not all its shaped up to be if your jewish. Goldman was widely believed by the authorities to have been involved in the planning stages of the Frick assassination attempt, but Berkman and the other conspirators refused to give evidence against her, and she was not charged in the indictment. Emma went to prison in 1893 for telling unemployed workers to tell people to give them work, and if they said no then ask them for bread. Then she told them if they said no to giving thme bread, take it anyways. She later in her life during the year of 1916 found herself right back in prison because she was distributing birth control literature. then in 1917 she went back for a final time for trying to obstruct the draft of world war one. Emma Goldman was an intersting, and very powerful lady. She has been in trouble more times than one can count , but the more she got in trouble the more stuff she rebelled against. Emma was a very intersting character in the book, and thats why I chose to figure a few things out about her. I got all of my information from, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma_Goldman.

Rencarnation

After reading more about Harry houdini i found it interesting to think of Harry Houdini as more than just a guy who traveled around and did amazing magic tricks. I believe that he was on a more of a mission to find somehting that he couldent do. right when he found out that he couldent escape the grave I believe was the turning point where he tried to communicate and look into life after death. i htink he realized that he could not escape death. he then became obssesed with unmasking fake spiritualism. he went around and revieled things to the public that showed that some of the magicians that say they can communicate with the other side were only tricking them , and actually didnt know anyhting about it. another reason i believe that Houdini was obsses with the after life was because he tried to talk to his mother after she was dead. He wanted to someway to communicate with the other side like no one else has before. Another guy in the book who thought he was genius for the same topic was JP Morgan. he believed that he was aferroah over two thousand years ago in his past life. Himself and Ford believed that rencarnation was easy for them to understand, and thought that it was very real. overall rencarnation was very symbolic and a big topic in this book.

The setting and atmosphere in Ragtime

Much of the novel Ragtime has to do with immigration, and poverty. Doctorow sets up the novel in new Rochelle in year 1902. the immigrant family that is talked about in the book is Mameh, Tahteh and the little girl. they live in the farthest thing from a wealthy community. They live in the lower east side of new Rochelle in the worst poverty I have ever read about. They are sectioned off from the middle class people, and the upper class. the book is also right aorund when WWI was just about to start and people were in a sort of utter worriness. the novel ends right around 1917. Toward the end though you can see that father and his family have adapted to the new povershed place they live in, and the changing of the times that have hit them. Doctorow expresses the change of the times a lot through the characters reactions. father has a very hard time adjusting when he comes bacj from his trip. he hated being away from his family for so long. on the other side of the family, mother seemed to be very happy to see the times changing and was welcoming it with open arms. She loved all of her new libertys and freedoms that were given to her. Doctorow gives this book some suspense when father travels to the north pole, and conklin damages Coal House Walkers car. Overal Im really looking forward to reading more of E.L Doctorows novels this semester.

Rag Time Using The Word Escape

Im not entirely sure on why the book used the word escape so much when it was talking about Harry Houdini in small declaritive sentences. My best guess would be though that it had to do with the watergate scandal which took place when nixon was in office. Or it had to do with Vietnam. The watergate scandal happened when members of the Richard Nixon administartion planted listening devices all over the hotel. This ultimately led to Nixons down fall, because he was being threatened with impeachment at the time. instead on August ninth, 1974 he chose to leave office making him the only president to ever resign. nixon basically had to hire a whole new staff to help resolve the issue of watergate. the press was also a big factor too, exposing the people that were all involved. Some of the members of the CIA were involved also. The same time that htis humiliating scandal was occuring, the vietnam war was taking place. I believe the book Ragtime used the word escape so much, and people loved Harry Houdini so much is because they needed a way to escape from reality. Society was in a bind and needed someway to forget about all of the troubles of the world they live in around them. This is why they used harry Houdidni as an escape method. I believe after reading Ragtime that society was asahmed of their country, and their president in a way and needed someone like harry Houdidni to help them get their minds off of the war and the very dissapointing scandal that led to the presidents resignation. i got my information on the watergate scandal from, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watergate.

Doctorows Twist to ragtime

As I read Ragtime I noticed that sometimes Doctorow would put a twist on some of his characters that some people may not pick up on unless you are a very careful reader. After doign some research about certain characters such as the characters Stanford White, Harry K thaw, and Evelyn nesbit. Even in real life these people all exist. Doctorow puts them in a fictional, very untrue setting though, and makes them out to be people that they they arent in real life. the seting and the surroundings that Doctorow makes up for thme in new York is not entirley true, and just about everyhting that happend to them is untrue. The question now is, is it ok to take actual peoples names, throw them in a fictional story and misconstrue their lives in ways that it never should have. Because when you think about it if you ever heard the name Harry K. Thaw or Evelyn nesbit after reading this book, and knowing nothing about their true life stories you might get the wrong idea about who they are. Another starnge thing to the whole character usage to me is, do you think that Doctorow expects everyone who reads the book that
some characters he uses are real?