Furthermore, it's not clear that he goes into the novelty store knowing that his flipbooks will be mass produced. He is definitely hoping to get some money for them, but that's all we know: "The man was amiable. Sure, he said, let's see it. Tateh took the girl's satchel, put it on the counter and, opening it, withdrew the book of the skater. Standing next to the proprietor he held the book at arm's length and expertly flipped the pages (Doctorow 132). Tateh has no way of knowing that the store manager would like them so much and offer the deal he did. So in terms of intention, I don't think we can say that Tateh intentionally goes out seeking to profit from capitalism. However, when the opportunity presents itself, he does decide to go for it, like most people probably would in his situation. After all, here is someone who's willing to pay him a significant amount of money on the spot. I think it's easy to hastily judge Tateh's actions and say that's he's definitely a capitalist because he does eventually profit from it, but he doesn't even seem to be thinking about capitalism. For all we know, he is probably just doing what he has to do to keep himself and his daughter alive. For example, at the end of the chapter: "Come, Tateh said to his child, we'll find a boardinghouse in a good neighborhood and then we'll have ourselves a meal and a hot bath" (133). In my opinion, these aren't the words of someone who embraces capitalism but rather that of one who is simply trying to make a decent living.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
Buying Into Capitalism?
Towards the end of today's class, Mr. Mitchell asked whether we thought Tateh had "bought into capitalism" and I think that's a really interesting question. Although technically, he does agree to have his flipbooks mass produced, I don't think that it was a definitive gesture indicative of his actual feelings about the matter. For one thing, we know that Tateh has very little money left after having spent a lot of it on transportation (not to mention having only $60 to begin with), so obviously he is in desperate need of money not only for himself, but also for his daughter.
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I agree--while the question of "selling out" will perhaps inevitably arise at some point, in my view the prospect of supporting himself and his daughter through his own original and innovative artwork doesn't inherently represent a compromise at all. It's merely a higher level form of what he's already been doing with his silhouettes on the street. And the fact that the book was originally designed merely to delight his daughter gives it a purity of intention--there's no "master plan" at work here. (But does it also suggest a compromise, as this private/personal gift is transformed into a commodity?)
(Doctorow does provoke this line of questioning, by explicitly linking the mass-production of the previously organic flipbook to Ford.)
But I'm with you--good for Tateh!
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