Houdini Trapped

Chapter 27 might be my favorite section of the book so far. Houdini, who we have seen multiple times, and who has previously appeared as a very respectable, very reasonable man, begins to break down. The great escape artist, who earlier seemed to very much be anchored in a realm of realism, begins to try to communicate with his dead mother. This self-made man who works hard and long to perfect his act and his body seems based in science; he exudes an image of a middle-class, working man who does not buy into mysticism. He is an escape artist, not a magician. When he escapes from the prison cell across from Thaw, he uses method and tools. He seems almost the antithesis to J. P. Morgan, an heir to a fortune who believes in reincarnation and Egyptian mysticism. That is, until his mother’s death. At this point, the sensible Houdini loses it. He breaks away from his former scientific reasonableness and questions the afterlife. He starts falling apart; he no longer can beautifully control an audience; his problems now obvious to the audience, who are scared by his increasingly dangerous stunts. As Doctorow says:

Every feat enacted Houdini's desire for his dead mother. He was buried and reborn, buried and reborn. One night, at a single performance only in New Rochelle, his wish for his own death was so apparent that people began to scream and a local clergyman stood up and shouted Houdini, you are experimenting with damnation! Perhaps it is true that he could no longer distinguish his life from his tricks.

As Houdini seems to be falling apart, the line between him and Morgan blurs. He starts to seem more like Morgan, and he begins to question what he once took for granted. He, the untrappable escape artist, becomes trapped by his love for his mother. And in this trapping, his strong identity becomes compromised, showcasing Doctorow’s propensity for crafting situations in which the reader is forced to question what makes things so different. How is Houdini different from Morgan? How is Ford different from Morgan? How is Coalhouse different from a terrorist? Why? 

Emma and Evelyn

The character of Evelyn Nesbit is an interesting one. Her odd behaviors and odder situation when we first meet her in the novel cause her to stand out early on as a very important character in a book full of colorful, bizarre people. What I think helps to make Evelyn stand out is her background; in a novel which looks unashamedly at class differences, we see Evelyn bridge the gap between the affluent wealthy and the troubled working class. She is used as a device to show the differences and animosity between the opposite ends of the wealth spectrum as seen when Tateh finds out she is of the notoriously indulgent/crazy upper class and makes a break for it. Her love for a child growing up in the same poor conditions as her is interesting and could lead to many things.

The most interesting moment in which Evelyn is used is her private “conversation” with Emma Goldman. Goldman criticizes many things about Evelyn; she dislikes the ridiculous web of lies in which Evelyn lives and is disgusted by the lengths to which she goes to appear attractive in the eyes of others. Emma’s varied kindness, seen through her creepy massage, and frank coldness in criticizing Evelyn make a real impact on the reader. Emma forces the reader and Evelyn to question her lifestyle. “Because like all whores you value propriety. You are a creature of capitalism, the ethics of which are so totally corrupt and hypocritical that your beauty is no more than the beauty of gold, which is to say false and cold and useless.” I believe that after this “calling out” of Evelyn, Emma then starts to compare them to show Evelyn that while they are in very different situations, they are still very much alike, and Evelyn can be happy like Goldman if she can realize the fallacies in her lifestyle and fix them.