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?