E.L. Doctorow

Our culture deserves to be preserved and not just in simple concepts. Some of this can be attributed to Disneyland in a roundabout way. The second problem is that because Disneyland is immensely busy at all times, visitors on different rides who are supposed to be having their own unique experience on their ride sometimes witness patrons on other rides which is of course not supposed to happen in this fairytale world. Looking at the reason for Daniel’s visit to Disneyland, an attempt to resolve issues about losing both his parents, these two references can be seen as somehow implying that it is ironic how Daniel is going to Disneyland to try to reconcile his family issues while at the same time Disneyland is a big producer of perfect and wholesome families to American pop culture. This remark is an incredibly powerful statement about the American population.

Right after the comment on the naïveté of Americans Doctorow makes a hilarious observation about what a study of cartoons from the twenties, thirties, and forties would reveal about American’s thought process. Simply knowing the plot of a great novel does nothing to educate one on the issues in conflict in the book, where one learns about pillars of culture. Of course not everyone needs to be ultra sophisticated and high-brow in an obnoxious way but it wouldn’t hurt us if more people retained the cultural ideas of our past. Doctorow’s comment on American culture is that it is on a decline currently. The first major problem is that the simulated plant, animal, and geologic surroundings fail in their attempt to look genuine. These observations range from believing that people are animals, the flesh can be sawed, crushed, frozen, stretched, burned, bombed, and plucked for music, or even that we are able to walk on air, but only as long as our illusion supports us. It certainly seems like the author is trying to make a point of something in this passage. Mark Twain wrote the book on the subject of the conflict between childhood and American social reality. It’s a shame if some people don’t already see this.