The Destruction of Gotham

Hello my name is Enis Bektesevic, I am a student at LaGuardia Community College. In am studying violence resulting from rioting in past America in my Violence in American Art and Culture class. The course has covered important riots that are often overlooked today. Currently, our class is reading Joaquin Miller's fiction novel The Destruction of Gotham.

Dot Lane is a very young character from the story whose father, a southern American soldier, passes away at war with her mother dying shortly after. According to a passage from chapter three, Dot is all alone in the big city of Manhattan appearing to be so small and insignificant in her new environment (28). According to the text, "every poor waif of this world, no matter how poor, lone, friendless, despised, did, at one time, fill some such young mother's cup of life completely with unalloyed delight."(28). The narrator suggests that observing a "wretched" person will make more fortunate people feel "tender" for such a person (28). Furthermore, a "waif" at some point in the past could have meant the world to someone else, therefore the narrator may be suggesting that we should try to relate and feel sympathetic for a person in this situation.

In another passage, Dot Lane is sitting on a bench with her daughter. The day drags on and Dot is feeling very idle (54). Then, "She suddenly sprang to her feet" (54) after seeing the father of her child (Matherson) walking towards her, "her face radiant with love and hope and fear, her glorious eyes glowing with uncommon fire, her whole frame quivering and trembling with a wild delight."(54). Matherson's presence completed shifted the mood of the passage and Dot's emotions after making her face "radiant with love and hope and fear,...) (54). Furthermore, this shows that Dot is extremely emotionally attached to Matherson. The connection between these two passages is that both give different angles of how significant others are emotionally attached to another person. Dot meant the world to her mother, and Matherson means the world to her.