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.