Billy Bathgate
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| Author | E.L. Doctorow |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Postmodern Historical Fiction |
| Publisher | Penguin Group |
| Released | 1989 |
| Media type | Print (Hardback & Paperback) |
| Pages | 323 |
Billy Bathgate is a 1989 novel by author E.L. Doctorow that won the 1990 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction and was the runner up for the 1990 Pulitzer Prize [1]. The story is told in the first person by Billy "Bathgate" Behan, a fifteen-year-old boy who first becomes the gofer and then surrogate son of mobster Dutch Schultz. The book explores the question of self determination versus fate, the futility of sex without love, moral relativism, and the romanticization of the Mafia in American pop culture.
A 1991 film based on the novel starred Loren Dean as Billy, Dustin Hoffman as Schultz, Steven Hill as Otto Berman, Nicole Kidman as Drew and Bruce Willis as Bo.
Contents |
[edit] Author and His Times
Edgar Laurence Doctorow was born in 1931 in the Bronx, New York. His mother was a well known pianist and his family owned and operated a music shop. During the Great Depression, the music shop failed and was forced to go out of business. Doctorow’s father, David, began to sell household appliances in order to provide for his family. Doctorow has said that his childhood was "a lower middle-class environment of generally enlightened socialist sensibility." Doctorow attended the Bronx High School of Science where he did very well in arts. After graduating from high school, he attended Kenyon College. After graduating in 1952, he continued his education at Columbia University where he worked in a graduate program until he was drafted into the army and stationed in Germany. He later held positions with publishing companies where he would use his free time to write his own novels.
Many of Doctorow’s novels contain real events with real people, but portrayed through the eyes of a fictional character. This is the case with Billy Bathgate, a fictional character deeply involved in the last months of the life of real-life mobster Dutch Schultz. Billy’s life has many similarities to the life of E.L. Doctorow. Billy and Doctorow both were born and raised in the Bronx and were both living in approximately the same time period.
[edit] Plot Summary
Note: While the first fourth of the book is told in a heavily non-linear fashion for narrative purposes, the below summary has events arranged in internal chronological order.
This novel tells the story of a teenage boy who struggles to make it in the gang of the mobster Dutch Schultz. The story is told from the point of view of the protagonist, Billy "Bathgate" Behan. Billy lives in the Bronx, New York, and has very little formal education. Billy’s father left him and his mother when Billy was very young. Although his mother is able to hold a job at the local laundromat, she is mentally ill and possibly depressed.
Billy is part of a gang of teenagers that idles on the streets of the Bronx. One day, while he and his gang are hanging out near a building known for its use by the mobster Dutch Schultz and his gang, Billy attracts the attention of Schultz. Schultz compliments Billy for his juggling skills and gives him ten dollars. Later, Billy finds a way into Schultz’s main office and becomes a gofer for the gang. Soon, Schultz's number two, Otto Berman, takes Billy under his wing and Billy then quickly moves up and begins completing more important tasks. One night Billy ends up on a tugboat where he is left by himself to guard their prisoner Bo Weinberg. Bo makes Billy promise to take care of his girlfriend, Ms. Drew, and then is thrown overboard and drowns.
Billy attends to the task of tagging along with Lola, who he now finds out is really Miss Drew Preston, while she goes to her apartment and gets some things. Billy finds out that she is married to a rich man named Harvey who uses her as a cover for his homosexuality. The next day, Billy finds himself on the way to Onondaga, the town where Shultz will be on trial for tax evasion, along with Berman, Irving, Lulu, and Drew; the rest of Shultz’s gang. Shultz gives the members of the gang the task of spending his money throughout the town on anything they can think of to buy. While in Onondaga, Miss Drew takes a liking to Billy and begins to buy him clothes. Billy begins to have feelings for Drew even though she is with Shultz and any action on these feelings has the potential to get him killed. Schultz spends his time trying to make people in the town like him in order to sway the jury pool in his favor. He buys repossessed farms and returns them to their former owners and spends huge sums of money in shops that would otherwise do very poorly. When the gang begins to get bored of their mindless task of spending money, they turn a barn into a shooting range where they teach Billy to shoot.
The gang then moves to a house outside of town and a short while later Billy is given a thousand dollars and the task of accompanying Miss Drew on a trip to Saratoga. He is supposed to keep an eye on her for Schultz. During the drive to Saratoga, Drew stops the car and she and Billy have sex multiple times. While in Saratoga, Miss Drew meets people that she knows and Billy seems to be out of place. While at the Horse races, Miss Drew begins to get dozens of flowers and then her husband shows up and takes her away. Billy goes back to the Bronx where he again feels out of place because he has been gone for so long. Billy is not connected with the gang at all for some time but reads the newspapers to find out whatever he can about Dutch Schultz’s trial. After some time he buys a morning paper with a front page article about how Schultz was innocent of all charges. Schultz returned to the Bronx and threw a party at a “high class” whorehouse for three days.
My Berman, Schultz’s right hand man and accountant, gives Billy ten thousand dollars that he is supposed to deliver to a Mr. Hines as a bribe. Hines won’t take the money because he can’t control the situation because of a prosecutor named Dewey. Billy began to be assigned tasks such as delivering thousands of dollars to different people that he didn’t know. After a few weeks, Billy meets with the entire gang in New Jersey. Billy tells Schultz about something that Drew told him and Schultz beats him up and then puts him on the payroll. Billy is given the task of shadowing Dewey and figuring out when the best time to kill him would be. When Billy is reporting back a few days later the whole gang is killed by a rival gang. Only Billy survives. Mr. Berman’s dying words were the combination to Schultz’s safe where Billy finds hundreds of thousands of dollars. Billy goes to the hospital where Schultz clings to life for a few days and writes down what Schultz says even though it sounds like delirious nonsense. Billy is collected by one of the other gang’s men and Billy is interviewed and then lies low for a while. Over the years Billy becomes employed in the military and eventually figures out where the rest of Schultz’s money is hidden. At the very end of the story, Billy tells us that in the year following the Dutchman’s death, a baby was brought to him. It turned out that he had a child with Miss Drew Preston.
[edit] Character analysis
Billy "Bathgate" Behan
Billy obtains his assumed name from a street that he grew up near, Bathgate Avenue. He refers to this street as
"the street of plenty, the street of the fruits of the earth."
Billy is very resourceful and willing to do whatever it takes to make it in the life of crime. He is a fast thinker and makes quick decisions. When Billy first finds the Dutchman’s main office, he realizes that everyone entering has a brown paper bag, so he gets one and thus is able to make his way in the building. When Shultz first saw Billy, he was drawn to him because he had taught himself to juggle. These are the qualities that help him survive in the streets of the Bronx and also the traits that help him become pare of Dutch Shultz’s gang. Nearly everything good that happens to Billy happens because of these things about him. He is constantly being forced to handle responsibilities that would destroy most teenagers. Billy was often required to handle inane amounts of money that most teenagers would try to keep for themselves but Billy remained loyal and never stole a dime.
"He counted off ten [one thousand dollar bills] and gave them to me." (p.269)
Billy tries to give this money as a bribe for Shultz, and when the bribe is refused he returns the money. These are the traits that help Billy gain respect from Shultz’s gang.
Dutch Schultz
Dutch Schultz is based on a real life mobster from the time period just as the rest of his gang is. Schultz often has insane mood swings in which he can kill for almost no reason or be a charming gentleman. Schultz represents corruption and violence. His temper makes him unpredictable and dangerous.
“Live with it!” Mr. Schultz shouted. “Live with it?” I thought if he was going to kill he would do it now. He let go a string of curses that was in his voice almost a kind of litany, he strode back and forth ranting and raving, and this was really my first experience of his temper and I was transfixed… The vehemence seemed to me ultimate. (p.54)
Schultz is always trying to keep his business going as smoothly as possible while at the same time trying to avoid being arrested. Schultz was a powerful mobster before Billy joined the gang, but Billy is with him during his downfall. Schultz ruled by fear and was good at it.
“I’ll show those fuckhead sons of bitches. All of them. I’m still the Dutchman.” (p.84)
Although he has times when he uses unnecessary violence, Dutch Schultz controlled his unfortunate situation and through his corruption was able to avoid being convicted of the crimes.
Otto Berman
“I immediately granted him all the powers of his reputation because of the way he wrote a number in the air and it passed through all the noise and shouting to become visible on a blackboard. … It surprised me that someone so physically unfortunate would want to dress so sharply.” (p.56)
Berman is Schultz’s right hand man and handles the financial aspect of the business. Berman acts as Billy’s mentor and usually gives him the task that he needs to do. Berman’s whole philosophy about life is that everything is simpler when it is put into numbers. Billy sees Berman as the brains behind the gang and admires him for his knowledge.
“At a certain point everyone looks at the books. The numbers don’t lie. They read the numbers, they see what only makes sense. Its like the numbers are language, like all the letters in the language are turned into numbers, and so it’s something that everyone understands in the same way.” (p144) “Mr. Berman’s shoulders barely rose above the front seat… but to me this was the deportment of canniness and wisdom.” (p.141)
Drew Preston
“She lived a life so beyond mine in practiced knowledge that I was a child beside her. I don’t mean just her free access as a great beauty to the most advanced realms of power and depravity, she had chosen this life for herself.” (p.152)
Billy admires Drew throughout the novel and it almost seems as if he is in love with her. She does not like to remain with one thing for a long period of time. She moves from her husband to Bo to Schultz to Billy and then back to her husband within the time period of this novel. Drew uses her great beauty to her advantage. She gets what she wants out of people and then leaves for someone and then leaves for something better. She uses men as opportunities for personal gain. She also causes a rift within the gang which makes most members of the gang uncomfortable with her around.
“Miss Drew had split the gang, there was a hierarchy now, the four of us sat at one table each night and Lulu, Irving, and Mickey sat at another. (p.134) “She takes men down like bowling pins” (p.204)
[edit] Point of View
The point of view in this story is a critical aspect of the Novel. The story is told by Billy Bathgate, the protagonist, but it is told when he his older remembering his teenage years. This allows the narrator to stop his story and address the reader which he does multiple times throughout the book.
In fact I will declare right now that I knew while I held something of these events in my hands, I would not have them bloodied. I realize this assurance sounds self-serving and I hereby apologize to all of Mr. Dewey’s relatives, heirs, and assignees for the revulsion they may feel, but these are the confessions of a wild and desolate boyhood and I would have no reason to lie about any one of them. (p.296)
This makes the story seem more real, as if someone is telling it to you and they randomly stop to throw in other things like this apology. Another thing that this point of view adds is that the reader doesn’t know what is remembered accurately and what is not. Some of the story may be exaggerated or missing pieces because the narrator cannot remember everything exactly as it happens. Also, since it is from a characters point of view, the reader knows many of his feelings and thoughts and has to guess about what the other characters are thinking unless they discuss their thoughts with Billy.
[edit] Tone
Throughout Billy Bathgate we are given the feeling of uneasiness as if death is always lingering just around the corner. We are thrown into a world of power, money, corruption, and murder. This is a world were gangsters rule and all else is subservient to them. For Billy these are facts of life he rarely feels comfortable or safe in his environment namely because of the constant and brutal violence he is objected to on a daily basis. Billy’s boss the gangster leader Dutch Schultz leads and gains his power off one very powerful principle, fear.
“they had no fear of you, and without their fear of you, you were a dead man in no-man’s land, and there would not be enough recognizably left of you to put in a coffin.”(p.64)
Dutch realizes early on that without the power of fear behind him he would be killed. This is why the mood of Billy Bathgate is one of constant fear and intimidation where Doctorow creates a feeling of unrest. Even when there are intermixed periods of calm, these are soon interrupted by brutal violence usually murder.
[edit] Setting
Setting plays an important role in developing mood and idealisms within the novel. The main setting within Billy Bathgate is New York City and the Bronx in which young Billy grew up. Also we spend a good portion of the story out in the country where Dutch Schultz masterminds the plan to win his case by manipulating the people of Onondaga County.
Bronx
The Bronx represents everything that Billy wants to get rid of in his life it is a place of refuge and for Billy shame. He wants to get out of that place the Bronx setting gives light to the stark differences Billy has with the other kids of the neighborhood it is obvious from the start he was meant and destined for greater things then that of the average street urchin. Despite the harshness and poverty of the place it also is a blessing as it gives Billy a chance encounter with Dutch Schultz who is a testament to all the rundown that there are certain paths one can take to better themselves.
“It was the sense of all this purveyed lawless might and military self-sufficiency that was so thrilling to boys. We hung around there like a flock of filthy messenger pigeons”(p.24)
Billy’s childhood neighborhood presents a constant picture of crime and gangsters it undoubtedly sets his fate in motion as he joins the ranks and rises to the top.
Onondaga
This is place plays an important role in the novel because it gives the characters a chance for a slight relief from their usual demands. Onondaga county is the centerpiece for Dutch Schultz’s plan to become a loved member of the community and thus win the jury despite the overwhelming evidence against him.
“Ladies and gentlemen, in all my years on the bench I have never witnessed such disdain of truth and evidence that you have manifested this day. That you could on hearing the meticulous case presented by the United States Government find the defendant not guilty on all charges so staggers my faith in the judicial process that I can only wonder about the future of this Republic. You are dismissed with no thanks from the court for your service. You are a disgrace.”(p.257)
Onondaga allows for Dutch’s ingenious plan to play out flawlessly.
[edit] Title
This novel’s title Billy Bathgate ties very closely with the setting in that Bathgate Ave. Is street in Billy’s neighborhood and this reflects the gangster background in which he has grown up.
“I told her I came from a criminal background.” “Does that mean your father is a gangster?” “My father disappeared a long time ago. It means my neighborhood.” “Where is that?” “Between Third Avenue and Bathgate Avenue in the Bronx.”(p.179)
Billy comes from the streets to make a better life for himself by becoming a gangster and living a life of crime, the title shows where Billy comes form and where he is going.
[edit] See also
Billy Bathgate| Dutch Schultz|Prohibition|Otto Berman
