Emma Goldman: Voice of Reason or Leader of the Misguided Rich People?

A lot of characters act as “connectors” throughout the novel, or cross paths with a wide variety of other characters, but I find Emma Goldman interesting for the continuous impact and shift she makes to other characters’ worldview. She isn’t like Houdini, crossing paths with one character and than another in slightly bizarre encounters that ultimately only seem to make significant impact to himself. Goldman, on the other hand, encounters another character and sends them off with a whole new, highly radical, outlook on life. She’s like a wise, advice-giving grandmother whose advice turns people to anarchism. We have Evelyn Nesbit, Mother (peripherally, via mention of her magazine), and Younger Brother so far that have fallen into her orbit. Although for Mother, Goldman might kind of just be one of those well-known figure in the radical left that inevitably becomes a lot of people’s introduction to the subject. 

Still, the amount of impact Goldman has on the other characters in the story is highly notable, and kind of complicated my thoughts about what Doctorow is trying to do with her character, and how he views his character. In class, it seemed like we had two main views on Goldman’s depiction in the book - either she was dropped into the book to act as a respected voice of reason, or she was inserted as the subject of mockery and irony from Doctorow, both towards her character, her viewpoints, and her feminist ideas. Initially, I was quick to side with the former view and dismiss the latter, since a lot of the ideas Goldman preached aligned with the points Doctorow seemed to be trying to push elsewhere in the novel - exploitation of workers and people in general by those in power, anti-police themes, etc. But it was specifically the role that Goldman played in “converting” others to anarchism that made me question my quick decision a bit. 

I still don’t think Doctorow disagrees with most of the inherent views Goldman holds (I’m still split on the whole feminist part, since I’m also split on almost everything else he’s done with his female characters this book, I think I’m gonna stay split until I see how their storylines wrap up). However, the way she affects the people around her does sometimes seem like ironic or mocking commentary on the sheep-mindedness and futility of people who think they’re being progressive or helping some big issue. 

It’s only middle/upper-class people that we see Goldman “convert”. Tateh is pretty standoffish to Goldman, despite seeming to somewhat respect her as an anarchist to his socialist stance. But it’s American icon Evelyn Nesbit and classic suburb family members Mother and Younger Brother that dive headfirst and wholeheartedly into Goldman’s rhetoric (Mother less so, simply because we have not seen as much from her). Another person made a blog post about Evelyn, talking about how she still isn’t really thinking for herself even after seemingly escaping the abusive men in her life, she just blindly follows Goldman now instead of thinking for herself. I could see this criticism applying to the other two as well, making the irony not necessarily stem from Goldman herself, but the effect she has on the upper class people around her.

I also found it kind of interesting that most of the time when Doctorow has a character monologue the way Goldman often does, it’s generally supposed to be an ironic moment, one to poke fun at the person monologuing - like the entire Pierpont Morgan chapter. When Doctorow is trying to make a genuine point, it’s typically done not through explanations from characters, but  rather the mocking of those explanations, or some kind of panoramic view of the state of America.

Anyway, this was just a long and rambling post about some of my thoughts of what Doctorow is trying to do with Emma Goldman as a character, and I think my final view on every subject I discuss here depends entirely on how the novel progresses and ends, since so many threads and storylines are still up in the air and incomplete.