hardtimes

     Dependence is a prominent theme in E.L. Doctorow's Welcome To Hard Times. The action within this story is guided largely by a complicated matrix of dependencies among the characters. In some instances, a group depended on an individual. In other instances, an individual depended on a group. In a number of ways, individuals depended on other individuals.
     Nearly all the characters of this story had dependent relationships with other characters. Most of the relationships were reciprocal: Zar and Avery, the barkeepers at different parts of the story, depended on their girls to keep the customers happy and keep their businesses afloat; but the girls depended on the barkeepers for food, shelter, and transportation. Jimmy depended on Molly to be the tender, mother-like figure that he lacked; Molly depended on Jimmy to give her a sense of security, as he grew, against the return of the bad man. Isaac depended on the town's people to keep his business going, and the people of the town depended on Isaac to provide the supplies they needed to make their lives manageable and comfortable.
     Through the matrix of all these relationships three individuals stand out as unusual: Blue, John Bear, and the Bad Man from Bodie. John Bear and the Bad Man are at opposite ends of the matrix. Although several characters demonstrably depend on John Bear, he doesn't seem to depend on anyone. He seems to only tolerate the presence of all the others without participating in a dependent relationship with any of them. The Bad Man depends on some members of the town, and certainly the town itself, but nobody depends on him. Blue is at the center of the matrix: all the other characters in the book, except for John Bear, depend on him in one way or another and, in return, Blue depends on every single one of those people except the Bad Man.

     After the Bad Man from Bodie burned the town down the first time, John Bear's home was the only hospitable structure left standing. Blue, Molly, and Jimmy used it as shelter with the Native until Blue built their dugout. But, they never asked him if this was ok. They just depended on him because they had no choice. As soon as they found Molly, Blue says of John Bear, "I yelled at him but he didn't turn so I had to run and get him." (p. 24) And, that's not all he had that they needed. "John Bear was a true doctor, there was no hesitation in his moves." (p.24) If it wasn't for that, Molly would have had a much more difficult time healing and recovering, and later on in the story Jimmy may have caught his death from a simple cold that Blue and Molly didn't know how to treat. "'What will you do if the boy dies, will you bury him beside his Pa?'" (p. 93), Molly asked Blue. She didn't wait for Blue to try to answer "but went out just in that dress and headed across for John Bear's place." (p. 93) John Bear's actions in helping Jimmy caused Blue to conclude, "I will say this, whatever else was to happen John Bear was the best doctor I ever saw, white or red; he had a true talent for healing and it must be owned him." (p. 94)
     But, John Bear did not depend on any of them in return. He "did his cooking on the outside over a stone fire. Next to his shack he had a small plot he had worked on so that it gave up a few tubers and onions." (p. 10) Because of this, he never had to patronize the establishments of Avery, Zar, or the Swede. He never seemed active in any of the affairs of the town; he did not politic with Blue to get a road built through town, and he wasn't even invited to their Christmas celebration. And, when the town was being destroyed Blue saw him "looking on from a ledge up there ... he had not hat or shirt as he waited there on one knee while the mob wrecked his shack, by then he had no reason to wear white men's clothes." (p. 204) He was independent of all the other characters in every discernible way.

     The Bad Man from Bodie came to this town because it was there. He apparently felt the need, as one would suppose most people might, to reap the benefits that come from society. We first meet him in Avery's saloon: "The Bad Man from Bodie drank down half a bottle of the Silver Sun's best; that cleared his throat..." (p. 3) Like anybody else traveling through the American West, he got thirsty. Assumably, he also got hungry and lustful. His reason for choosing this particular town is relatively simple: "This town was in the Dakota Territory, and on three sides - east, south, west - there is nothing but miles of flats." (p. 3) There was nothing else around and he was passing through. Blue actually made an inaccurate statement about him: "Bad Men from Bodie weren't ordinary scoundrels, they came with the land..."(p.7) It would be more accurate to say that Bad Men from Bodie came from the settlement of the land, because without the settlement he could not be seen as a Bad Man at all - there would nothing to be bad to, and nobody to see it if he could. He didn't particularly need this town, but he depended on towns like this for his basic survival needs. He also likely had some other needs, for destruction or violence, perhaps caused by the wanton cruelty and unfairness of growing up in similar towns. But, in observation of the fact that he brought no positivity or production to the town, it can reasonably be said that nobody there depended on him.

     Beginning very early in the story, everyone looked to Blue to solve all problems. When the evil of the Bad Man from Bodie was just beginning to be seen, Avery comes to see Blue. His expectations of Blue were very clear: "Blue, that gentleman's in my place, you got to get him out of there." (p. 6)
     At this early juncture, before all of the misery that lie ahead could be sensed, Blue rejected this burden: "I took my gun out of my drawer and shoved it over the desk toward fat Avery but he didn't take it." (p.6) That was the precedent that would not be broken. Blue was going to be held responsible for all problems and tragedies whether he liked it or not.
     After the Bad Man from Bodie wreaked his havoc, only Jimmy Fee, Molly, and John Bear remained both living and present with Blue. Jimmy, who was only a small boy, had lost his father; Molly had been badly maimed. Neither one was capable of taking care of themselves. Just before Molly struck her first blow of rage, vengeance, and anger at Blue she softly spoke to him, "Take care of me Blue?" (p. 34) Then, with a promise of threat and anger she made it clear to Blue that she held him responsible for all the carnage that had occurred. Perhaps it was shame of the feeling of failure in Blue that caused him to do it, but at that moment he seemed to dedicate himself to being alright in Molly's eyes. She needed him for everything from food and shelter to clothes and comfort. She also need him to be a scapegoat for her injuries. So, she depended on him for all of this. Jimmy, unlikely able to do anything else, depended on him too.
     All the other people in the town depended on him. He owned access to the well; he was the unofficial mayor; he took care of the mail; he was the roots of the town; he was the town's advocate. All of the other residents, as a group, depended on him for all of these things. And right from the beginning, Blue was thinking, "These traveling people - the more I thought about them the better I liked them." (p. 41) He depended on all of them as a group, to help his town grow. He was always trying to get passers-through to settle and contribute to the town. If it were not for all of them he would not have what he seemed to want most: a place to live and call home. That's why he refused to leave after the Bad Man burned the town down the first time. He told one of the people who was leaving, "Ezra, all my life I have been moving along...I have moved from one side of the West to the other, like pebble rolling in a pan, and if you think this place here is not much country I can tell you none of it is." (p. 29) So, he depended on the town itself for prospects of happiness.

     The degree to which a character was effected by the difficulties in and destruction of Hard Times is determined by the number and strength of their dependent relationships in the town. John Bear depended on no one. Although others depended on him, he did not willfully enter into any dependent relationships. Therefore, he was able to watch from the rocks above town without emotion as the mob wrecked his shack. The Bad Man from Bodie entered into only one dependent relationship - with the town itself. Therefore, he was not at all effected by the difficulties of living there. But, he depended on the town for the nature of his existence. When the town was damaged, but not so badly so that it could not be rebuilt, he went into a sort of self-imposed exile. Later he returned. When the town and all of its able inhabitants were killed and destroyed, the Bad Man's life went with it. Molly had the most powerful and most numerous dependent relationships. She prostituted herself for Avery because she had no place else to stay. She lived there because she had no place else to live. She needed men for her physical defense. She needed John Bear to nurse her to health. She needed Jimmy to make her feel secure and insulated from Blue. And, she suffered the most. Many people lost their lives, as she did. But, she was killed while being attacked by what she feared most - the Bad Man. This came only after many seasons of painful recovery from the first attack and then squandering in self-deprecating bitterness and hatred. Blue is unusual in his relationships, and therefore in his fate. He was dependent on all and depended on by all. But was depended on more by others than he was dependent on them. He was able to do for himself, so he suffered relatively little physical or emotional distress through the course of the development of the town. But, since he was more was still heavily dependent on the town itself, so, like the Bad Man, his live naturally perished with it.

     This variable of dependency was the life-currency unknowingly traded among all who had relations with Hard Times. It is clear in the first line of the book and present still on the final page. This theme runs powerfully throughout the novel and is an essential part of the story.

Back to Reviews page

Ryan's Writings main page