Realism and Manhattan Transfer

To begin this discussion of realism, I would like to start, as does Eric J.

Sundquist, with the early twentieth century satirical cynic Ambrose ierce. In The
Devils Dictionary, ierce defines realism as !the art of de"icting nature as it is seen by
toads. The charm suffusing a landsca"e "ainted by a mole, or a story written by a
measuring worm# $ierce %&'(. )nfortunately, this is not e*actly the ty"e of definition
we require, but "erha"s ierce has a "oint. +erha"s realism is a relati,e term and the
boundaries between literary "hases and genres are so blurred that they become almost
absurd. -n a more serious note, Sundquist "oints out that !.o genre/ if it can be called a
genre/ is more difficult to define than realism, and this is "articularly true of American
realism. In material it included the sensational, the sentimental, the ,ulgar, the scientific,
the outrageously comic, the des"erately "hiloso"hical# $,ii(. It is thus ,irtually
im"ossible to define a work as being com"letely and totally realist, or com"letely and
totally naturalist, surrealist, hy"errealist, romantic, etc. 0owe,er, after substantial
research, I ha,e concluded that Manhattan Transfer does indeed fit much of the criteria
established for realism. 1ollowing a definition of realism and a brief discussion of
"sychologism, I will look at four characteristics crucial to realist fiction2 the narration, the
use of language, an obsession with things, and a focus on day to day occurrences. )sing
,arious sources, I will attem"t to "ro,e, systematically, that 3os +assos has written an
essentially realistic no,el, though it is one that contains elements of naturalism and
hy"errealism.
A Glossary of Literary Terms, a res"ected source in the literary world, "ro,ides us
with the following definition of realism2
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It is more useful to identify realism in terms of the effect on the reader2
realistic fiction is written to gi,e the effect that it re"resents life and the
social world as it seems to the common reader, e,oking the sense that its
characters might in fact e*ist, and that such things might well ha""en. To
achie,e such effects, the no,elists we identify as realists may or may not
be selecti,e in sub5ect matter/ although most of them "refer the
common"lace and the e,eryday, re"resented in minute detail, o,er rarer
as"ects of life/ but they must render their materials in ways that make
them seem to their readers the ,ery stuff of ordinary e*"erience. $Abrams
678/7%(
This is a relati,ely o"en ended definition9 by stating that !realists may or may not# it
actually gi,es the reader ,ery little to work with. The assum"tion here is that realism is
determined by the effect a work has on the reader. -ther critics ha,e "laced realism in a
"rimarily historical conte*t2 !the "eriod between the :i,il ;ar and ;orld ;ar I is one in
which American writers felt most com"elled, and tried hardest, to become <realists=/and
failed. ;ith im"erial relentlessness they sought to master a bewildering society that
seemed always, in turn, to be mastering them# $Sundquist >(.
Although !realists did not uniformly rally around a single set of "rinci"les#
$orus %7(, Edwin 0. :ady manages to set forth si* ma5or characteristics of realism2
0istorically that realism ?from %'78/%@%8A a""ears to e*hibit si* ma5or
characteristics. It began as a negati,e mo,ement with $%( the customary
features of a literary re,olt and $6( a new notion of reality from which to
be critical of its "ast. It de,elo"ed $B( a "ositi,e method and content, and
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$C( its own ethical outlook. It $&( in,ol,ed itself in a ma5or, but losing,
battle for American "ublic taste. 1inally $7(, in its latest stages it turned
toward the "sychologism which was to succeed it. $:ady 7(
E,en here, by stating that it !a""ears to e*hibit,# :ady reminds us of realism=s
ambiguity. It is :ady=s si*th characteristic, the "sychologism of realism, which brings us
to our discussion of Manhattan Transfer.
3os +assos wrote Manhattan Transfer, "ublished in %@6&, towards the end of the
realist "eriod. y this "oint, realism had had a chance to e,ol,e. :ady=s si*
characteristics "ertain to the realism of %'78/%@%8, but he mentions the "sychologism
that would succeed realism. Rather than succeeding realism, the "sychological elements
in Manhattan Transfer contribute to its realism. rian Dee suggests that, !;hat makes
Manhattan Transfer so different is that it is a "roduct of a new mode of a""rehension, a
different way of looking at the world. Its e*clusi,eness is based more on "hiloso"hical
and "sychological "rinci"les than on "olitical ones# $Dee %'%(. In addition, :ady
suggests that two forces "ro"elled the mo,e towards "sychological realism, the second of
these forces !arose from the "ractices of realistic fiction itself. The more one confronted
the mystery of "ersons li,ing out their fates and struggling toward death, the more his
scrutiny turned from the outward sign to the inward "rocess# $:ady %B(. Abo,e all
things, Manhattan Transfer is a story of "ersons li,ing out their fates and struggling
toward death. 3os +assos "resents us with a montage of characters, each of whom is
formed by the world around them and unable to esca"e their fate. E,ery one of these
characters is in,ol,ed in a struggle towards or against death9 these characters die both
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literally, as is the case of ud=s suicide, and meta"horically, as in Jimmy=s de"arture
from Eanhattan.
;ith the constant consideration that !realism was not the only genre of the late
nineteenth century and, as we shall see, not all realist te*ts follow the same "rinci"les#
$orus '(, I will "roceed to look at se,eral traits "resumed to distinguish realist fiction.
In turn, I will relate each of these traits to Manhattan Transfer.
The first defining quality I will e*amine is the narration. According to orus,
!Realist narrators were generally disembodied, coherent sources of the no,el that
tra,ersed the entire range of acti,ities they related# $6B(. Reading Manhattan Transfer, it
is unclear who the narrator is e*actly. There are ra"id, cinematic scene changes, and with
each change in scene comes a change in "ers"ecti,e. The first "erson is occasionally
e*"ressed through brief interludes into a character=s head, for e*am"le, at the beginning
of the second cha"ter the reader witnesses Ed Thatcher in both the first and the third
"erson2 !I must com"ute the com"ound interest on fi,e hundred and twenty dollars at
four "er cent. 0e walked e*citedly about the narrow room. ?. . .A reathing dee" he
folded the "a"er and laid it on the table. ?. . .A I want to "resent you my little girl, my
wife. I owe e,erything to her# $3os +assos %B(. The narrati,e ski"s around, from the
first to the third "erson and back and forth among the ,arious characters. 0owe,er, the
third "erson narrator is ne,er omniscient. Dike the characters, the narrator takes life as it
comes and sha"es itself to the circumstances "ro,ided. There is no narrati,e
commentary, !Realist narration disdained the inter,ening narrator, who "aused and
commented u"on the action# $orus 6B(. The reader is left to assume his or her own
"osition.
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The narrator is ne,er disclosed as being a "artici"ant in the story. .or is the
narrator necessarily the author=s ,oice. :ady discusses what he calls the !dramatic
method#2
The realists= fa,orite "ositi,e technique became what they call the
<dramatic method.= It demanded the su""ression of the <author= from his
scene in the no,el as the "laywright was e*cluded from all drama ?. . .A It
demanded the creation of <trans"arent= narrators who seemed ne,er to
intrude between the reader and his ,ision of the characters, who s"oke,
when <scenes= and <"ictures= could not sim"ly be "resented, in an
unobtrusi,ely <middle= ,oice. $'/@(
This method can be a""lied to Manhattan Transfer. 3os +assos himself is e*cluded and
instead "ro,ides the reader with a constant stream of scenes and "ictures "ro,ided by an
un/intruding narrator. .e,er does the narrator interfere with what the reader sees in the
characters9 the characters and the story are "resented almost "urely through images and
dialogue.
0and in hand with the narration is the use of language. In Writing Realism, 3a,id
0. orus "ro,ides an e*cellent descri"tion of the language of realism2
elie,ing that rhetoric distorted the im"act of literature by announcing
that its material was lofty, distant, and "ri,ileged, they chose a linguistic
style that more closely resembled <normal= or <a,erage= usage.
Attem"ting to a""ro*imate word and thing, they stro,e to con,ey to
readers the e*istence of a reality <out there.= In discarding the
circumlocutions of earlier literature for a direct and sim"le "resentation,
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they ho"ed to make the no,el read as if it were an account of actual
e,ents. Aiming for a direct im"ression that corres"onded to the way in
which readers e*"erienced their li,es, realism in the )nited States
generally a,oided the tem"tation to in,est things with contri,ed meaning.
)sing the most neutral language "ossible allowed things to s"eak, as it
were, in their natural ,oice and with the meaning that human "ur"ose
actually assigned to them. To rely u"on an artificial language and
contri,ed construction to con,ey the natural struck realists as an ob,ious
intellectual inconsistency. $6B(
In Manhattan Transfer, 3os +assos des"erately seeks a language to fit the urban world
that he is attem"ting to de"ict. The language is direct and sim"le and does resemble
normal usage. The ,ocabulary is not "retentious and e,en the narrator s"eaks as the
characters would.
Manhattan Transfer was written at the time of yellow 5ournalism, a time when
e,en language could not be trusted. +erha"s John -glethor"e "uts it best2 !I know that
e,ery sentence, e,ery word, e,ery "icayune "unctuation that a""ears in the "ublic "ress
is "erused and re,ised and deleted in the interests of ad,ertisers and bondholders. The
fountain of national life is "oisoned at the source# $3os +assos %@&(. 3os +assos is
reacting to this distrust of language when Jimmy, lea,ing the world of 5ournalism
"rofesses !If only I still had faith in words# $B77(. It is in the first "erson that Jimmy
declares this lack of faith, "erha"s 3os +assos is allowing himself to show through. -r
maybe 3os +assos is sim"ly telling the classic realist tale2 !the classic story told again
and again by such modern writers of social realism as 3reiser, 3os +assos, Steinbeck,
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and 1arrell was essentially the story of sensiti,e and often gifted "eo"le struggling for
sur,i,al and fulfillment against the "ressures of a "ro,incially o""ressi,e or
under"ri,ileged society and, as a rule, li,ing to disco,er that the struggle has forced them
to com"romise or corru"t the innocent idealism with which they began# $Aldridge %B%(.
This indeed describes Jimmy, the gifted "erson struggling to sur,i,e in an o""ressi,e
society with disillusionment or death as the only ,iable ends.
ecause of this disenchantment with language, 3os +assos creates his own form
of communication. The language of Manhattan Transfer attem"ts to ca"ture the life and
motion of the modern city. 3os +assos is trying to ca"ture a city without a center and the
result is nearly cinematic. Through e*tensi,e crosscutting and the use of montage, 3os
+assos successfully manages to create a book without a center.
Also crucial to the language of realism is the use of a "articular ,ernacular2 !In an
effort to "lace character, realists em"loyed dialect rendered as e*actly as "ossible and
liberal dosages of e,eryday s"eech# $orus 6B(. 3os +assos em"loys this use of the
"recise rendering dialect throughout Manhattan Transfer. The characters s"eak as they
would, not as 3os +assos or an o,er/educated author would. 3os +assos went to
0ar,ard, thus his use of common language shows his ability, not a lack of skill. A
s"ectacular e*am"le of this is 3os +assos= "ortrayal of :assie=s lis". :assie says things
like !=ut I lo,ed the twa,el "ictures, Eorris, those Swiss "easants dancing9 I felt I was
wight there=# $3os +assos %78(. E,eryday s"eech "er,ades this no,el9 for instance on the
ne*t "age Eorris is talking about his reasons for losing his 5ob2 !=0e=s a stinker d=you
know itF I wont take no more of his li". ;hen I was walkin outa the office he called
after me. . . . Goung man lemme tell ye sum"en. Gou wont ne,er make good till you
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learn who=s boss around this town, till you learn that it aint you=# $3os +assos %7%(. This
is not the language of a 0ar,ard cum laude9 it is the language of a nobody buying ice
cream for a girl with a s"eech im"ediment at a drugstore in :olumbus :ircle at the
beginning of the twentieth century. According to orus= ideas of realism and language,
this "re,ious discussion of language in Manhattan Transfer suggests that it is, in terms of
dialect and its use of common language, a realist no,el.
Another quality that Manhattan Transfer shares with realism is its near obsession
with things. orus notes that !realism was ,itally concerned about the relationshi"
between humans and things. At the same time that men and women li,ed their li,es in a
human en,ironment, they also were surrounded by things# $6%(. Indeed, things surround,
and often im"ose u"on, the characters in Manhattan Transfer. 1or the most "art, these
things are ad,ertisements, elaborate images, and other com"onents of city life. Eany of
the cha"ters are named for such ob5ects2 !Tracks,# !Hreat Dady on a ;hite 0orse,# !1ire
Engine,# !.ickelodeon,# !Re,ol,ing 3oors,# and !Skyscra"er,# 5ust to name a few. 1or
reasons I will now discuss, !Skyscra"er# and !Hreat Dady on a ;hite 0orse# are of
"articular im"ortance.
orus remarks that, !As human beings struggle to connect themsel,es with these
things, they find that these ob5ects influence and slowly determine their li,es. Realist
te*ts soak their characters in this en,ironment, which in turn e*erts "ressures on
indi,iduals# $66(. This is a""licable to Manhattan Transfer, a striking e*am"le being the
skyscra"er of the second to last cha"ter. At the o"ening of !Skyscra"er,# Jimmy 0erf is
lea,ing the +ulitIer uilding, 5obless. The second "aragra"h reads2 !:hockful of golden
richness, delight in e,ery bite, T0E 3A33G -1 T0EE ADD, s"ring rich in gluten.
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.obody can buy better bread than +RI.:E ADERT. ;rought steel, monel, co""er,
nickel, wrought iron. All the world loves natural beauty. D-JE=S ARHAI. that suit
at Hum"el=s best ,alue in town. 4ee" that schoolgirl com"le*ion# $3os +assos B&%(. A
5umble of buildings and ad,ertisements "ermeate Jimmy=s life9 he absorbs them so
quickly, they almost seem to be strangling him. The 5u*ta"osition of the building
material with the italiciIed ad,ertisement concerning natural beauty reminds us of the
effect to which these ob5ects and this en,ironment influence the characters. Jimmy can
ha,e no faith in words because they are constantly harassing him and selling him things,
and therefore words become mere things themsel,es.
Soon after, we come across another reference to a skyscra"er, this time the
skyscra"er is in Jimmy=s dream2
All these A"ril nights combing the streets alone a skyscra"er has obsessed
him, a groo,ed building 5utting u" with uncountable bright windows
falling onto him out of a scudding sky. ?. . .A 1aces of 1ollies girls,
glorified by Kiegfeld, smile and beckon to him from the windows. Ellie in
a gold dress, Ellie made of thin gold foil absolutely lifelike beckoning
from e,ery window. And he walks round blocks and blocks looking for
the door of the humming tinselwindowed skyscra"er, round blocks and
blocks and still no door. $3os +assos, B7&(
The skyscra"er has entirely engulfed Jimmy, both consciously and subconsciously. 0e is
so o,erwhelmed by his en,ironment that he becomes it and it becomes him. This door
less skyscra"er is contrasted with media images $Kiegfeld=s 1ollies( and a foil of Ellie.
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Jimmy is undeniably obsessed with this imagined skyscra"er, this thing2 !a skyscra"er
has obsessed him,# and also with other imagined and constructed things.
The !Hreat Dady on a ;hite 0orse# is another e*am"le of an obsession with
things and a desire to be something, or someone, that could ne,er e*ist. Towards the
middle of this cha"ter we encounter the lady on the white horse2 !At Dincoln Square a
girl rode slowly through the traffic on a white horse9 chestnut hair hung down in e,en
faky wa,es o,er the horseLs chalky rum" and o,er the giltedged saddlecloth where in
green letters "ointed with crimson, read 3A.3ERI.E# $3os +assos %B7(. These e*act
words are re"eated at Thirtyfourth Street at the ,ery end of the cha"ter, to which Stan
adds2 !=Rings on her fingers ?. . .A And bells on her toes, And she shall cure dandruff
where,er it grows# $3os +assos %CB(. This su""osedly great lady was nothing more than
an ad,ertisement for 3anderine, a scal" tonic for diseases such as dandruff and balding.
The in/class gloss on this to"ic "ur"orted this woman on the horse to re"resent Ellen=s
desire to be a fine lady, the u""er class Dady Hodi,a. )nfortunately, the !great lady# on
the white horse is a s"oof, an ad,ertisement com"arable to the ridiculous billboards
dri,ing around Eontreal today. Elaborate letters s"elling out 3A.3ERI.E "lace this
image at the le,el of sign9 it is a re"resentation of the real thing. If, as according to
Sundquist, !inner ,alues of the s"irit are drawn outward until they a""ear at last to merge
with the things from which one cannot be distinguished and without which one cannot
constitute, build, or fabricate a self. The self becomes an image of the real, and the real
becomes an ad,ertisement of and for the self# $%%(, then "erha"s Ellen is, like in Jimmy=s
dream, nothing more than an illusion and her mere e*istence is de"endent on the
influence of things.
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A final characteristic of realism to be discussed is a focus on day to day
occurrences2 !Ele,ated or heightened moments are de/em"hasiIed in literary realism9 day
to day e*istence is highlighted# $orus 68(. Manhattan Transfer is four hundred "ages of
day to day e*istence. E,en the ma5or e,ents/ birth, suicide, abortion, a fire/ are e,eryday
occurrences in a city as large and di,erse as Eanhattan. ud=s suicide is met with
nothing more than !=A "retty thing to ha""en on a man=s wedding day=#$3os +assos %67(
and Ed Thatcher "ractically ignores his disco,ery of the firebug $%C(. 3os +assos carries
us from scene to scene by stringing together series of e,ents. These e,ents are
"redominantly a,erage ha""enings9 the ele,ated or heightened moments are not gi,en
any "articular e*tra attention.
In collaboration with this is em"hasis on day to day e*istence is the lack of a
traditional hero2
American realisms de,alued the traditional notion of heroic character. y
e*"anding the social basis of characteriIation and locating the narrati,e
within s"ecific social settings that ine,itably e*erted constraints on human
action, realists eliminated the larger/than/life, ele,ated, central character.
In his "lace stood the realist "rotagonist, who was more likely to embody
his or her moment rather than stand abo,e it and more likely to
incor"orate the forces that sha"ed daily life than to resist them. $orus, 6%(
.o character in Manhattan Transfer stands abo,e the forces that sha"e daily life. They
are each affected equally by these factors. There is no central character, if we were
required to "ick one it would "robably be Jimmy but he is by no means heroic in the
traditional sense. Jimmy is heroic in that he esca"es the city, but e,en this is ambiguous9
4lein %%
Jimmy is freed only by losing his 5ob and 3os +assos ne,er resol,es the outcome of his
esca"e.
.o discussion of realism is com"lete without at least a brief analysis of
naturalism. orus distinguishes naturalism from realism2 !:on,entional critical theory
demarcates a literature that is concerned with the a,erage, common, and ty"ical from one
in,ol,ed with brute force, animality, and the subhuman. The former literature is
designated realism, the latter naturalism# $@(. .aturalism is also concerned with !,ast
forces, heredity and en,ironment, a world of brute chance, with what we share of
animality, with ultimate reduction, the subhuman# $:ady >(. In kee"ing with realism,
Manhattan Transfer is concerned with the a,erage, but it does not ignore the forces
crucial to naturalism. -ften, these two terms are mistakenly used interchangeably. To
say that Manhattan Transfer contains naturalist elements, !the des"eration, confusion,
and misery of so many of the characters in Manhattan Transfer are ty"ical of the mood of
the ma5or characters in naturalist fiction# $Holdsmith 6'(, is by no means to say that it is
not fundamentally a work of realism.
Manhattan Transfer also com"rises elements of hy"errealism. 0y"erreality is a
conce"t written on e*tensi,ely by Jean audrillard in the late twentieth century. In this
brief discussion I will refer to 3oug 4ellner=s analysis of audrillard. According to this
article, !we li,e in a <hy"erreality= of simulations in which images, s"ectacles and the
"lay of signs re"lace the logic of "roduction and class conflict as key constituents of
contem"orary ca"italist societies#$4ellner 76(. 1urther, !using EcDuhan=s cybernetic
conce"t of implosion, audrillard claims that in the contem"orary world the boundary
between re"resentation and reality im"lodes, and that as a result, the ,ery e*"erience and
4lein %6
ground of <the real= disa""ears# $4ellner 7B(. In other words, things become too real. In
Manhattan Transfer, images and re"resentations become reality, and, as with Jimmy=s
figment of a skyscra"er, this new hy"erreality often engulfs life and drains it of all
meaning. The belief here is that nothing real actually e*ists, only meaningless constructs
and re"resentations. Manhattan Transfer is inundated with such simulacra as the
skyscra"er, signs, ad,ertisements, and media figures. Dee discusses this idea in relation
to the moment at which Ellen decides to marry Heorge2 !It is a su"erb e*am"le of the
annihilation of consciousness and the loss of identity, as she becomes an ob5ect,
submerged in the materiality of her en,ironment# $%'B(. At this "oint, Ellen becomes a
simulacra and loses all identity/ she becomes hy"erreal.
There is no doubt in my mind, or in the minds of most critics, that Manhattan
Transfer breaks an enormous amount of new ground. 0owe,er, it is my belief that it is
still essentially a work of realism. ;hether Manhattan Transfer contains elements of
other traditions, namely naturalism and hy"errealism, is hardly e,en questionable/ of
course it does. I ha,e merely suggested here that Manhattan Transfer does indeed meet a
sufficient amount of the necessary criteria and can thus be considered a no,el of realism.

4lein %B
;orks :ited
Abrams, E.0. A Glossary of Literary Terms eventh !dition" -rlando2 0olt,
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Aldridge, John ;. The American #ovel and the Way We Live #ow. .ew Gork2 -*ford
)+, %@'B.
ierce, Ambrose. The Devils Dictionary. .ew Gork2 -*ford )+, %@@@.
orus, 3a,id 0. Writing Realism$ %owells& 'ames and #orris in the Mass Mar(et.
:ha"el 0ill2 .orth :arolina )+, %@'@.
:ady, Edwin 0. The Light of )ommon Day2 Realism in American *iction. loomington2
Indiana )+, %@>%
3os +assos, John. Manhattan Transfer. .ew Gork2 0oughton Eifflin :om"any, 6888.
Holdsmith, Arnold D. !The .aturalistic Im"ressionism of Manhattan Transfer+ from
The Modern American ,rban #ovel2 #ature as -.nterior tructure"+ 3etroit2
;ayne State )+, %@@%. %>/B@.
4ellner, 3ouglas. !Eedia, Simulations and the End of the Social,# from 'ean
/audrillard$ *rom Mar0ism to 1ostmodernism and /eyond. Stanford2 Stanford
)+, %@'@.
Dee, rian. American *iction 234562789" .ew Gork2 Dongman Inc., %@'>.
Sundquist, Eric J. American Realism$ #ew !ssays. altimore2 Johns 0o"kins )+, %@'6.
4lein %C