E.L. Doctoro
E.L. Doctoro is a representative of American critical realism in the 20th century, representing the Age of Ragtime, Homer and Langley, and The Water System.
Doctro was born in the 1930s during the Great Depression and War. It was in this turbulent environment that he grew up, which undoubtedly had a great impact on him. These experiences are also reflected in his works, and he has a unique understanding and profound understanding of the changes in human civilization, the changes in American society, and the changes in the values of modern people. Let's take a look at his work.
The Age of Ragtime
The Age of Ragtime is Doctorow's most iconic work, revealing the hypocrisy of American society during industrial civilization. To a certain extent, it shows the American society at that time, showing the various problems hidden under the so-called "prosperous America" in the early twentieth century, including racial conflicts, labor relations, equality between men and women, class antagonisms, and so on.
The story begins with a white family, where the father, mother, and little boy live peacefully and richly in New York City. One day, the mother rescued a black baby buried in the soil in the garden. In a fit of anger and shock, the mother found the baby's mother, the black girl Sarah. Sarah was taken in by her mother. The baby is the result of sarah's love affair with black musician Colehouse Walker Jr.
Soon, Colehouse Walker Jr. visited Sarah at a white house. Although he was black, Walker was a well-mannered gentleman who was proficient in piano playing. Walker's appearance caught the attention of the white family. His mother's younger brother was an introverted and romantic young man who admired Walker's talent and style. He later followed Walker in a series of anti-government armed activities.
At the time, my brother was madly infatuated with a famous beauty, the socialite Evelyn Nesbitt. On one trip, Nesbitt passes through the ghetto market and is attracted to a pretty little girl. Thus Nesbitt became acquainted with the jewish girl and her father. The Jewish dad was a folk artist who was proficient in paper-cutting.
Jewish families live in slums. The Jewish mother was forced into poverty, reduced to a prostitute, and expelled from the house by her father. Although Neisbitt's fortune came from marriage or her lover's wallet, she was willing to pay for the Jewish girl and her family. Later, during a political event at a market, jewish papa learned the true identity of Nesbitt.
He then left the city with the little girl and moved to Atlantic City. There, Jewish families and white families met.
In short, three different families were involved, middle-class white, Jewish immigrants, and black families. It exposes the terrible fate and resistance brought by industrialization, urbanization and modernization to people, and recreates the broken and ragged era.
《Water Supply System》
"Water Supply System", also known as "Waterworks", in the late 19th century, the rapid industrialization, urbanization, and modernization of the United States, tells the story of a morally depraved doctor, Satrius, under the protection of the local government official Tweed, and the sponsorship of many urban tycoons such as Augusta, in the Croton Reservoir in New York City, through surgery to implant the organs of poor street children in New York City into adults to prolong the life of rich white people in New York City.
Augusta was a rich man in New York City. He became rich through the American Civil War, obtained a lot of money, and became rich overnight. As he grew older, he developed pernicious anemia, so he bid farewell to his family and went to the Adirondack Sanatorium for treatment. The treatment was fruitless, and he eventually died in a nursing home and was buried in the Adirondack Mountains.
In fact, Augusta is not dead, this is just a blind spot for him to give the world. In fact, he had already transferred all his money to the genius doctor Satrius in order to help survive through modern medical technology.
Satrius is proficient in modern medicine, and has long been immersed in the art of rejuvenation, exploring the medicine of immortality, and devoting himself to medical experiments to prolong human life. He gathered the old, sick and disabled rich people of New York City at the Croton Waterworks and conducted medical experiments on them, allowing them to prolong their lives. The secret is to conduct human experiments on the seriously ill rich and homeless street children, transplanting the children's blood and cells into these dying and wealthy elderly people.
Augusta made a deal with Satrius. Augusta abandoned her family and secretly transferred all her possessions to fund Satrius's human experiments to prolong his life.
To that end, Sattrius established the New York City Children's Welfare Institute, which housed street children abducted from the streets of New York for their experimental use. As a result, the so-called experiment turned the seriously ill rich into active skeletons, eventually dying one by one, and many of the street children who were used by it quickly aged and even lost their lives.
At the end of the story, Dr. Satrius is taken to the lunatic asylum on Blackwell Island. And the rich, half-dead like Augusta, left Satrius's perverted medical skills, and one by one, they cried out for their lives.
After reading this story, it is simply appalling, what kind of society is this, and why is the United States like this?
Story backdrop
In 1865, after the end of the American Civil War, it cleared the way for large-scale industrialization, urbanization, and modernization of the United States, and then the United States achieved rapid development. Science and technology have developed rapidly, the level of productive forces has been greatly improved, laborers have created a lot of wealth, and the material wealth of American society has been greatly concentrated.
In the late 19th century, the United States became one of the world's great powers and became the world's largest industrial power. In the 1920s, the United States had the largest GDP in the world.
Such a progressive American society presents a thriving scene to the world, and on the basis of such a social material basis, it has gradually become a long-term proud survival belief of Americans - the American Dream, that is, an ideal that believes that in the United States as long as they can get a better life through their own unremitting struggle.
Specifically, the American Dream refers to the fact that in the United States, regardless of differences in status, origin, race, and gender, as long as there are the necessary conditions such as intelligence, hard work, and perseverance, anyone can compete fairly with others through their own honest labor under the same conditions, achieve ultimate success and happiness, and make their dreams come true.
As society develops, the "American Dream" becomes more and more elusive, because the whole society is increasingly invaded by power and money. Especially interpersonal relationships.
A society of interpersonal alienation
Industrialization, urbanization, and modernization have brought about a wealth of materials, making cities continue to expand and a large number of people concentrated in cities. In cities, we can meet more people, and although the population we contact is expanding, the relationship between us is becoming more and more distant. The original sincere communication language between people has evolved into a simple exchange of benefits.
Through the city's growing architectural ensemble, people feel more and more clearly that they are small and wandering, and the rapid pace of pedestrians on the streets and the increasingly fast transportation speed up the rhythm of the city and deepen people's anxiety.
At the same time, traditional interpersonal relationships are also facing bankruptcy, and the relationship between love, family affection, friendship between husband and wife, parents and children, brothers and sisters, relatives, and friends has been greatly challenged. There is no warmth between family members, father and son look at each other, brothers and sisters fight openly and secretly, and the husband and wife are broken.
In a society with limited resources, the relationship between people is highly strained, and people lack trust and support for each other, lest the other party get more benefits.