Nineteenth Century Dime Novels by Nick B. Lapolla
This essay presents a picture of the western stories from the dime novel era. These stories of Wild Bill Hickok, Hans Solo and Buffalo Bill present a clear depiction of a bygone era of cowboys and Indians. The author provides entertainment for the reader and at the same time evaluates the origins of each character. The real life versions of the each character chosen by the original authors of each book give the historical reference of how the books were created. The story of Wild Bill Hickok written by Prentiss Ingrahm for example provides the history of the real person of which he based the character of Wild Bill. In turns out that the real character of Wild Bill was not too different from the fictional character written in Ingrahm’s books. This is a great example of historical data for the reader to completely understand the subject. The writer describes the characters individually with a young boy’s imagination. It is clearly seen that these characters were awesome people and were a great read to many children. They definitely complete the collection of classic American books to read. Another great quality about this essay is that it is well organized and it stays focused on the main topic. The writer positions the details so that they support the topic being discussed. The research given on the subject is complementary to the issues being discussed. The writer of this essay makes a conclusive argument that dime novels of the nineteenth century gave way to legendary characters that contribute to the mystique of the Wild West. It is clear that the fictiona characters in the books were based on real heroes of the American Wild West. And that one thing is clear when we look back into the lives of these heroes, that they will never be forgotten.
Although the writer clearly defines the issues with supporting details and organization, there is a lack of depth in the writing. The writer explains the stories behind the legendary characters but does not describe why these specific characters were chosen by the original writers to play the roles of the main characters in the books. The real life characters are thoroughly discussed in comparison to their fictional characters but do not say what makes these Civil War heroes so different from others. Another minor error is the grammatical errors within the essay. There were a number of misspellings and wrong word usage in some of the paragraphs. There are words that were used that did not fit into some of the sentences. The word ‘charter’ should be replaced with character in some of the sentences. Also the numerical entities describing a period should be spelled out in words instead of in number form. The period nineteenth century should be written out. Also the paragraph regarding General Custer’s death does not fit with the topic being discussed in the paragraph. There were several words misspelled that need to be corrected.
Overall, the essay was a great read. It had quality historical references that teach the reader about dime novel books and their historical contribution to being class American books for all ages. These age old dime novels are today remembered and revered as an important part of history.
Comments