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.