on+the+poetry+of+it+all

I need to call attention to Gold's exposition. He starts with money, telling us how little everyone had. Except instead of only money, he tells of them having groceries a pinch at a time. The smallest things in a kitchen like butter and sugar were bought in penny fractions. Then he says that even pennies were scarce (Gold 1658). The depression that he describes shows us the depletion of money first, then the death caused by it. He is kind of surprising in his vivid description of the depletion of money. One does not think about the side effects of a depression, like everybody trying to get money however they can. There is increased prostitution, and the prostitutes are compared to a pack of wolves (Gold 1658), which is an interesting take on them. In a way, he shows us what we don't want to see, much like some filmmakers today. This story represents the educational and entertainment goals still attempted in the entertainment industry. Seeing as death and a financially striking nation are being described here, it is fitting that the season is winter. Winter is to death what the forest is to evil. And death is abundant in this time on the East Side. Gold points out the undiscerning way of nature through explicit descriptions of death, from cats to horses to a neighborhood alcoholic in an alley. The strife of this time knew no limits. "The Soul of a Landlord" was written just after the depression, when the effects were still strongly felt. There are references to this, and also to war. For example, the snowman that was made by the boys has "his eyes and nose torn out; his grin smashed, like a war victims." (1659.) Gold writes that the culprit is the winter wind; I believe that the winter wind is a symbol of such things as poverty, war, and death. At times, a note of irony and bitterness towards the conditions of the time enters Gold's narrative voice. While describing the kindness of a local grocer, he includes the word suicide in the same sentence. This was a time where nothing but sustenance and hard cash was honored. Gold writes that "kindness is a form of suicide in a world based on the law of competition." This mindset continues as he tells of the grocer going broke because she would hand out food to needy children for their families on credit, knowing that they had no way to pay. "One day we watched the rewards of kindness. The sheriff's men arrived to seize Mrs. Rosenbaum's grocery." (1660.)