The Pawnbroker and Third and Indiana

1595 Words4 Pages

How does the setting and the environment have a direct impact on the

emotional mood and emphasize the central theme of the novels The Pawnbroker

and Third and Indiana.

In the novels The Pawnbroker and Third and Indiana the setting and the

environment has a direct impact on the emotional mood and emphasize

the central theme of the novels. Both novels are set in ghetto urban

areas. Steve Lopez's novel Third and Indiana is set in South

Philadelphia's area called Kensington or better known as the

"Badlands". The Badlands was an industrial area which was prosperous

in the past because of factory jobs, but as the factories closed down

and many lost their jobs and Kensington transformed into a place of

drugs, violence, and debauchery. Similarly in Edward Lewis Wallant's

The Pawnbroker the novel is set in the unsafe urban area in New York

City's Harlem. After the period of the Harlem Renaissance, Harlem

suffered from poverty and people relied on the drug trade and crime to

get by in their lives.

In Third and Indiana the setting foreshadows violence and darkness of

the novel. An example of how Lopez foreshadows the darkness of the

novel when Lopez describes, "It (Kensington Avenue) sat in eternal

darkness and gloom under the El, a symbol of the city industrial

death."(9) The quote explains how the reader will expect death and

darkness on Kensington Avenue. Lopez throughout the beginning of the

novel offers the reader subtle hints of what to expect in the novel

death and violence. He reiterates the effects of the negative

environment towards the end of the book. "Because it's not a person

(Diablo), it's the fucking neighborhood. You can't kill the fucking

neighborhood."(279) The quote explains the constant ne...

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... pattern. A pastoral is an escape to fresh natural world or a

connection with nature. In Third and Indiana Father Laetner wants to

see the ocean, for a moment of time experience peace and tranquility

by the ocean. Similarly in The Pawnbroker Sol escapes from Harlem for

a day with Marilyn on the cruise. For a moment Sol feels at ease and

does not feel the pain of his life. For a brief moment Sol was with

one with nature.

Both novels offer a positive end to the novel in which the main

characters change in a positive way as a result of death. Both Sol and

Eddie are wasting away their lives during the book, but at the end

they both find redemption and salvation through death. Their eyes have

opened to the world to a new beginning. For example in Sol's last

dream in the novel, his dream tells him to proceed on with his life

and do not be fixated on the past.

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