Era of good feelings Essay

Submitted By Mhelou2015
Words: 945
Pages: 4

Socratic Seminar
1. Let The Great World Spin is told through the eyes of eleven different characters. Each character is essential to the universal truth of the novel. The universal truth to this novel is how one moment in time can cause the world to stop and bring people together however, after this moment everybody will continue on with their life. Without a full understanding of each character in the novel the reader would not be able to draw parallels. With the knowledge of each characters life, the reader has the ability can obtain knowledge that the characters in the book are unaware of. For example, when Solomon is presented with Tillie and Jazzlyn's case, he notices Corrigan standing with them. His first assumption was that he is a "Irish pimp" who follows these prostitutes. However, the reader knows that Corrigan is a humble man who comforts these prostitutes. Corrigan provided a home for these women and even took beatings for them. He tried to give these women some sort of goodness in their sorrowful lives. “The house of justice had been vandalized, he said. Young girls like Jazzlyn were forced to do horrific things. As they grew older the world had demanded terrible things of them. This was a vile world. . . . The only way to fight it was with charity, justice, and goodness. It was not a simple plea, he said, not at all. Goodness was more difficult than evil ” (p. 145). McCan wanted to give his audience a chance to connect these characters and events together without the luxury of having it written out. If I had to choose one character to narrate the whole novel I would choose Corrigan's brother, Ciarin. Ciaran possessed a many links with numerous of the other characters in the novel. Laura became his wife and they moved to Ireland together. He also knew of Gloria because her and Corrigan lived in the same apartment building. If the novel was told through the eyes of only one character, then the novel would lose its diverse settings. For example, if the novel was told through one Claire's point of view the reader would not be aware of the street life in the Bronx. They would be unaware of the struggle that Jazzlyn had gone through. It is very easy to compare and contrast the different lifestyles and culture that each character possesed. "The hooker emerged with her lipstick bright and new clack in her step. The sharp smell of perfume filled the air. She blew me a kiss, waved the parasol, left" (p. 25). " It was there in the mansion that Joshua learned to play the piano. Five years old. He sat in the wooden stool, slid his fingers up and down the keys. When they got back to the city they arranged lessons in the basement of the Whitney" (p. 80).
2. McCann weaved in the tight rope walker because on the day he walked the rope, all of the characters stories came together. They all watched this event unfold on the streets of New York. “It was the dilemma of the watchers: they didn't want to wait around for nothing at all, some idiot standing on the precipice of the towers, but they didn't want to miss the moment either, if he slipped, or got arrested, or dove, arms stretched” (p. 7). "Walking was a divine delight. Everything was rewritten when he was up in the air. New things were possible with the human form. It went beyond equilibrium He felt for a moment uncreated. Another kind of awake” (p. 8). McCann attempted to portray his allegory for 9/11 through this event. At the time of the bombings everybody in America was going through