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.