In class the other day we talked a little about how the plot starts halfway through the book. I was thinking about it a bit, and it makes sense to me why the book was laid out in this way. We get a chance to see all the characters’ backgrounds and how each person functions independently. All this background is the basis for which all the plot is set upon so that Doctorow doesn’t have to spend the type trying to develop each character and taking away from the huge plot that he’s trying to present.
There was a lot of talk though the first few days of reading this book about how Doctorow’s irony and sarcasm was more prevalent in the first half and then gets more serious as the main plot starts unfolding. Since most of the background chapters on the characters are small tidbits of “normal” life, irony makes them a lot more fun to read while still getting across the information. It also helps make sure that we’re thinking about the characters and developing opinions about them so that when the plot starts, we already know everything we need to know about the character’s motives. Once the plot starts with regular characters appearing and building on happenings, the story is interesting enough without tons of irony added in. Perhaps Doctorow thought that making the main plot ironic would be overkill. With such drastic change from lots of irony to minimal irony, he’s letting us see that he’s serious and that the content is very serious at this point, making us focus more.
Do you have any thoughts on why Doctorow decided to make the layout of the book this way? Do you think the book would have a different feeling if the layout was different (with the background inside the plot, no background, etc.)?
I agree with you. I think that Doctorow took the time at the beginning of the story to lay out the characters fully before the plot came in so that he could pout all of his focus into the plot. As we were discussing the end of the book in 3rd hour's discussion, we were talking about how the ending seemed rushed. It was almost as if Doctorow felt as though he told the story he wanted to tell and he was just going to rap up the ending for the reader's sake. I think that your reasoning behind Doctorow's actions could explain that feeling we get as readers towards the end of the book.
ReplyDeleteThe first half of the book was a little confusing to me at first simply because I wasn't used to Doctorow's writing style of skipping around from character to character. However I do agree we learn a lot about the backgrounds of the different characters and get a sense of their ever day life so we as readers can really see them develop from the beginning of the book to the end.
ReplyDeleteI think the book wouldn't have had the same effect on the reader if Coalhouse's story had been paced differently. The unconventional way the background is established (through unrelated characters, irony) makes one think more about the text they're reading instead of taking everything at face-value.
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