Sarah Vowell's Assassination Vacation

873 Words2 Pages

Throughout Assassination Vacation Sarah Vowell attempts to humanize each of the assassins. She gives a detailed perspective on Czolgosz's motivation to kill McKinley and lays out the role of Booth’s so-called patriotic dedication to the Confederacy played in his assassination of Lincoln (i.e. it wasn’t simply hatred or lunacy), but her approach to President Garfield’s killer is different. Vowell’s sarcasm is very present in her discussion of Guiteau, and the manner in which she presents his motives, personality, and backstory is unique from her analyses of Czolgosz or Booth. Firstly, when Vowell introduces Guiteau she refers to him as Garfield’s “cracked mirror image,” detailing how the two grew up under somewhat similar circumstances and how they had an uncanny mutual appreciation for the song “John Brown’s Body” (136). This contrasts with her introductions of Booth and Czolgosz, both radical …show more content…

Using his own words to show him as the lunatic murdered he is, Vowell presents the audience with three of Guiteau’s indisputably mental writings. The first, a plea to General Sherman, demands his assistance in escaping jail: “Please order out your troops, and take possession of the jail at once. Very respectfully, Charles Guiteau” (165). This alone is enough to convince the least attentive reader of Guiteau’s distance from reality. Next, however, are Guiteau’s play and song. In the play, God condemns a newspaperman to Hell in delirious defense of Guiteau. The song, too, takes a walk down the path of lunacy: “I’m going to the Lordy, I am so glad,/ I am going to the Lordy, I am so glad,/ I’m going to the Lordy,/ Glory hallelujah! Glory hallelujah! I am going to the Lordy…” (177). That one doesn’t necessitate any explanation. With these documents, Vowell presents a compelling case for Guiteau’s insanity, identifying him as motivationally distinct from the other two assassins once and for

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