Dark Tide
Two aspects of Dark Tide that i favor is the author's organization and style. Dark Tide uses rather specific time settings by incorporating specific days and times. This allows me, the reader, to better imgine what was going on during a certain scene. This organization is shown in mainly the chapter headings but occasionally during the reading itself. I also appreciate Stephen Puleo's ability to incorpoate real pictures of what had happened or what something looked like, because it makes the understanding a bit more easy.
I like also how the author's use of the narrative style allows the reader to see through a variety of character's eyes so we get a full point of view of what was specifically happening. It allows us to see the story from every angle. This is shown in chapters six and seven most notably, the day that the tank collapsed. In chapter six, it shows a variety of diffrent people's perspectives on what they were doing that day and in the following chapter how quickly, hours later, things could go terribly wrong. For example they show Martin Clougherty in chapter six simply walking home from the Pen and Pencil Club and reviewing his thoughts on prohibition and moving and then in chaper seven struggling for his and his family's lives.
Freakonomics
A question I have about Freakonomics is, how and why did the authors choose these very specific comparisons for this book? So far this book has been quite entertaining with the comparisons and hidden connections between what seemed to be very different topics. For example I am perplexed as to how they decided to compare the cheating ways of sumo wrestlers and school teachers when many other groups of people cheat ; or how they decided to compare specific cases such as Roe vs. Wade and the sudden drop in crime rate when the drop in crime could have been for a million other different reasons.
I am interested to see how each of these books play out and also what my fellow classmates' thoughts on these books are.
I also like how in Dark Tide you're able to have the story told from different viewpoints. It's interesting to see it through other characters' eyes. I noticed that, too, how Martin Clougherty's life was changed so quickly from chapter 6 to chapter 7 after the tank collapsed, along with all of the other characters.
ReplyDeleteIn response to Leighann's question about Freakonomics, the reason the authors chose very specific comparisons was to show the exact reason for an occurance. For example, crime rate dropped in the 1990's significantly, when it was expected to go up. Specifically in New York City, where the Mayor and the Police Department were praised for this improvement. However, after looking at the statistics, the real reason was because of the Supreme Court decision legalizing Abortion. Thus eliminating a population of people bound to be criminals. The reoccurring theme is conventional wisdom ( in this case being that the NYPD deterred crime) is often a fallacy, and for this reason the authors much search for answers to these questions, regardless of how absurd they may be.
ReplyDeleteLike Leighann, I also liked how Stephen Puleo incorporated the views of different people from the North End that were affected. I was reading the book as fiction at first, but once the flood happened in the book it hit me that these were real people. People who were struggling to survive. Even though all the lives that were lost and injured were sad, Martin Clougherty and Giuseppe Iantosca were the two people that made my heart go out to them. Clougherty had just received enough money to move out of the North End and get his family into a safer and quieter neighborhood. Iantosca was watching his son hide behind the tank from his window and then watched his son disappear under a wave of molasses. Being able to read the story from their perspectives made the story come alive.
ReplyDeleteDark tide was a novel that gave the readers a first person view point of the molasses flood. I felt as if I was in the North End when the Molasses tank burst. Puleo's multiple view point writing style made me feel the victims pain and sorrow.
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