Blog 6 — Narrative Elements

Instead of using straightforward argument, Doctorow used more descriptions either through characters or the environment surrounded them to present his ideas.

For example, in chapter 19, the historic figure in the US – Pierpont Morgan appears. To show how prestigious he was throughout the nation, Doctorow describe a lot of people’s reactions when seeing Morgan. ” When he stepped out of his limousine the car robe fell around his feet. One of the several bank officers who had rushed out to meet him disentangled the robe and hung it over the robe rail on the inside of the door.” The descriptions of those people’s craziness or insane indicates how eager they want to have a chance to meet Morgan, and thus Morgan is in a very high and important status.

The most interesting part is the description of Morgan’s nose. Besides the sense of humor,the sentences “To Morgan, the disfigurement of his monstrous nose was the touch of God upon him, the assurance of mortality. It was the steadiest assurance he had” has an implication that Morgan didn’t feel secured at such a high status and lonely. “Somehow he had catapulted himself beyond the world’s value system.”

Overall, I am very impressed by the descriptions in the book, which makes the characters more vivid to readers.