Comparing and Contrasting E.L. Doctorows Billy Bathgate and William Kennedys Legs :: Comparison Compare Contrast Essays

Comparing and Contrasting E.L. Doctorows billy Bathgate and William Kennedys Legs The many connaturalities between E.L. Doctorows Billy Bathgate and William Kennedys Legs suggest that Doctorow used Legs as a starting place for the macrocosm of his own novel. Certain scenes are so similar that it seems that they did not pop independently. Marcus Gorman and Billy Bathgate had al roughly indistinguishable experiences while pouch target form and later when Jack Diamond and Dutch Schultz died. Doctorow did not, however, merely copy Kennedys study he instead used it as a building debar to begin from. Billy Bathgate had many elements that Legs did not which expanded the storeys significance.The pistol firing scene in Billy Bathgate palpably mimics the machine gasoline suffice in Legs. Not only are the literal actions very similar to each other, but their impact on the characters is almost identical as well. The excitement and place gained by firing weapons lures some(prenominal ) characters further on their descent into the criminal underworld. After shooting, Marcus thinks, Do something new and you are new. How wordy it is not to fire machine gasolenes (Kennedy 41). And Billy said, I will never forget how it felt to hold a loaded gun for the showtime time and lift it and fire it, the scare of its animate kick up the b unrivaled of your arm, you are empowered there is no question more or less it, it is an investiture, like knighthood (Doctorow 145). In the case of Marcus Gorman, the exhilaration of firing the machine gun was the benefit that would outweigh the risks of associating with Jack Diamond. Billy had already been attracted to the camp life. However, the power he gained from firing his automatic amplified his attraction. He finally understood why the other gang members had such closeness with their guns. Doctorow saw Marcus introduction to the gang life through guns as an organic element in the story that worked properly. Therefore, he chose t o borrow for Billy rather than trying to come up with something different that may not have worked as well.After their gun firing experiences, Marcus and Billy experienced many strikingly similar events. The most dramatic of these were the death scenes of Jack Diamond and Dutch Schultz. In both cases, mentor and protg were together at the time of departure, and each protg received a privileged transmission of information that no one else did.