The West Rules with an Iron Fist

In this novel, E.L. Docotorow tells how the town of Hard Times in the Dakota Territory earned its name. Though the overall desperation seems to be exaggerated, by reading this novel one begins to see the fantasy behind the Hollywood version of the American West. Welcome to Hard Times provides readers with a picture of what kind of hardscrabble existence the western settlers actually endured, as opposed to the sanitized images Hollywood has provided …showed first 75 words of 1253 total…

…showed last 75 words of 1253 total…us, but when it’s too late we see what a fraud is” (183). Doctorow’s characters spend their lives fighting the land, but in the end, the land reigns as victor, thus dispelling the myth of the American West. In this novel, Doctorow explains that the people of the American West did not mold the land; the land molded them. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ **Bibliography** bibliography: E. L. Doctorow. Welcome to Hard Times. Penguin Putnam Inc. New York:1988.