E.L. Doctorow: Exploring the frontier of one's identity
What is fact? A simple synonym search in Microsoft word produces these results: information, detail, truth, reality, actuality and verity. All these words are very powerful in the English language. College, supplemented by this class, has taught me to question what fact really is. Inundated everyday by media and information, it is important to distinguish what is true, and what is fabricated. If anything, it will just make you a more informed person. Even as late as high school, I use to trust what was in my history text. I thought I was memorizing for that 4.0 grade and 5 on my AP test, but little did I know that by doing so, I believed everything that my textbook said. I never questioned the other side, the untold story, or what really happened. It wasn’t really until my encounters with E.L. Doctorow, did the line between fiction and history start to blur. E.L. Doctorow became famous by disintegrating the very line between historical fact and literary fiction. Through his captivating style, it provides a catalyst to make an interesting point. In his essay, False Documents he states, “Fiction is a not entirely rational means of discourse… illusion of suffering an experience not his own” (Doctorow 16). By almo
What is the role of literature in telling history? What is the line between fact and fiction? If the interactions of famous people in Ragtime were fabricated, and if the events in The Book of Daniel are completely fictitious, than what role does text have in the telling of the past? Doctorow’s essay, False Documents, highlights his opinion that history is like a wealth of knowledge that is supported, if not dependant on literature. After all, what is history if no one acknowledges it? Many aspects of history actually are untold. American society, in its do everything as fast as we can attitude, often misses these never heard of narratives. If something took place, than it has its place in history. The Cold War, the Rosenberg Trial, A young college student wrestling with his “radical” ideas, a young boy displaced by the violent waves of sporadic ideals. These all took place at the same time, and only acknowledging one of them is not only wrong, it’s unfortunate. That’s not to say that there is no end to the quest for truth, but more that the search is in itself, what leads to discovery and the fundamental ideas in the creation of “history”. According to Aristotle in his work Poetics, history is “the thing that has been”, whereas the poet writes about “the thing that might be”. As a result, “[fiction] is more philosophical and more significant than history” (Bloom 124). As Bloom states, this is because fiction then deals with human nature rather than one specific moment in time. Doctorow utilized fiction and literature to advocate his stance on the current political and social issues at the time. In all of Doctorow’s works, historical events are the backdrop. Ragtime is set in the first decade at the turn of the 20th century, and The Book of Daniel is set during the Rosenberg trials, before the McCarthyism Era. st blending literature into the works of fiction, one comes out with a richer understanding of what really went on by taking in a personal perspective to the account. The 1960’s were a tumultuous time for America. Protests, vocal opinions, and new thinking lead to the creation of what came to become the New Left. This is the landscape that Doctorow uses to create The Book of Daniel. Doctorow’s opinions on social and political issues can be felt in many passages of this text. The story of a young boy, the main character Daniel struggles with life and coming to terms with his past. Paralleling the Rosenberg case of that era, this book is a metaphor for the agony of the American left (Levine 38) as it portrays the hardships that the young new radicals felt. Many had a hard time coming to terms with who they were, and what they actually stood for, because, in
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Approximate Word count = 1851
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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