How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
At palaces in New York and Chicago people gave poverty balls. [...] One hostess invited everyone to a stockyard ball. Guests were wrapped in long aprons and their heads covered with white caps. They dined and danced while hanging carcasses of bloody beef trailed around the walls on moving pulleys. Entrails spilled on the floor. The proceeds were for charity. (6.3)
Talk about adding insult to injury! Here Doctorow really drives home the idea that the rich —and rich corporations—didn't just think poor people were a lesser form of human being, but they actually enjoyed mocking them.
Quote #5
His own wife, to feed them, offered herself and he has now driven her from his home and mourns her as we mourn the dead. (7.3)
Doesn't it seem an injustice that Mameh is thrown out of her house, never to see her daughter again, for simply trying to feed her family and pay the rent? Part of us might want Tateh to forgive her, but Doctorow is being realistic about the rigid morals of the time.
Quote #6
There were many incidents. A woman worker was shot in the street. The only ones with guns were the police and the militia, but the two strike leaders, Ettor and Giovanetti, were arrested for complicity in the shooting. (16.4)
This is an example of the injustices committed against laborers as they tried to form unions, which corporations said were against God.