E. L. Doctorow, "The Leather Man"


1. The subject of "The Leather Man" is isolation. "You see these guys hide out," the narrator tells us, "there is a history." What answer is provided in "The Leather Man" to the question of why individuals isolate themselves from one another? What answer is provided by the astronaut? By the pantomime girl? By Morris Wakefield? And by Slater, Bancroft, and the other conferees?

2. What is the setting of "The Leather Man"? How does that setting emerge gradually through the course of the story? How does that setting affect the structure of the narrative, and how does it contrast against, or dovetail into, the main theme of the story?

3. Who is the narrator, or who are the narrators, of the story? How would you describe the narrative voice? How would you compare it to narrative voices with which readers are more familiar?

4. The narrator reminds us to "remember your Thoreau," to remember that there exists a "political component to isolation." What is the political component of isolation? When Slater ends the story by saying "We'll know where they got their information. We gave it to them," who are "we" and who are "they"? Is it possible to identify what kind of business these men are conducting or what kind of policy they are forming? And why, then, does "The Leather Man" matter to them? Are they also "Leather Men"? Is the reader a "Leather Man"?