Powers's Attention To Detail And Insightful Facts example essay topic

The book Faces Along the Bar by Madelon Powers is a documentary that illustrates life in the saloon between the years of 1870 and 1920. From the camaraderie of fellow saloon-goers to the politics of the average barroom; Powers covers, in great detail, the inner workings of saloons and clubs during this time period. She relates tales of early bar-goers and the rules of conduct of the barroom itself. While the book is extremely informative, it also becomes redundant at times.

Powers spends almost as much time explaining elementary terms and words as she does writing about what saloon life was actually like. Though I did learn a lot from Powers's work, I found it hard to read more than one chapter at a time for this very reason. The beginning of the book caught my attention, but after the first few chapters I found that the amount of explanation on certain topics had become tedious and it did little to pique my interest. In this paper, I intend to prove that although Powers gave many insightful facts and details concerning life in the late nineteenth century saloon, she often over exhausted certain topics which led to a loss of interest. When I first picked up this book I expected to read a novel.

However, I was surprised when I realized that it was more of a historical documentary than a story. Perhaps this is why I had such a negative first impression. Regardless, I was fascinated by Powers's plethora of facts and information. The author obviously had enough passion for the subject to spend the amount of time and effort that she did on such a project.

In spite of this, the writing itself lacked the sort of emotional attachment that I had anticipated. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that this work is not a novel, but a historical non-fiction. Had this been a novel which included a storyline or some sort of character development, perhaps a little more of the author's emotion could have shone through. The book itself is divided into ten chapters within three parts which portray a variety of topics regarding criteria for comradeship, the art of "clubbing" or attending these saloons, and the lore of the barroom itself.

As with any work, there are strengths and there are weaknesses. Some of the strengths in this book include Powers's attention to detail and insightful facts. In the first chapter, Powers explained that the word "club" was actually derived from the early seventeenth century verb "to club" meaning simply "to combine" or "to join" (Pg. 14). This, to me, was very interesting and was a very well-written part of the book. Powers did not prolong the subject any more than was necessary; however she did give an adequate amount of information. Powers's ability to relate information to the audience is definitely one of her strong points.

As long as the information is related in such a manner as to not bore the reader by going into too much detail, it will still remain interesting enough to keep the reader's attention. Another major strength of Powers's work is that she provokes the reader to observe facts about the old saloon which otherwise may have never been realized. Such is the case throughout chapter five in which the concept of the "treat" is discussed. Many modern-day bar-goers think of the treat as simply a cheap pick-up attempt or a display of appreciation for a good deed. However, after reading this section of the book, one gains deeper insight as to where this tradition actually began. Back in the time of the workingman's saloon, the treat was either thought of as an application for membership or a welcome into a drinking club.

If an outsider treated one of the existing members of a group, it was considered an application. On the other hand, if a member treated a non-member it was considered an invitation or a welcome into that particular club. If an outsider's treat was accepted and reciprocated it was understood that he was welcome into the club, but if it was not reciprocated it was a sure sign of rejection. Other parts of this book, unfortunately, are not so interesting. For example, the definition of the word "regular" (Pg. 19) was completely unnecessary. Anyone who does not know the meaning of this word should not be reading this book anyway.

Granted, the explanation of the Latin origin of the word was interesting but the it could have stopped there. After I realized that I was reading what could have been read in Webster's Dictionary, I lost interest. Powers then proceeded to describe how the military had adopted the word to describe "a full-time member of the standing army who conformed to the regimen of professional soldiering" (Pg. 19), which really had nothing to do with the topic of the saloon. The same point, concerning the importance of being a regular, could have been proven in half the amount of writing than it was. Madelon Powers's tendency to linger on one topic for an extensive amount of time is another one of the book's downfalls. I found myself wanting to skip pages for the sole reason of getting to the next area of discussion.

This is very apparent throughout the entirety of the book including subjects such as the women's role in the saloon and even the previously mentioned concept of the "treat". Although I enjoyed the recount of the treating tradition, as a reader I have to admit that it was far too long and became rather bothersome after a while. A simple explanation would have been more than sufficient in describing the treating ritual. Though I am weary of the amount of irrelevant facts that Ms. Powers provided, I admire her extensive research and abundant number of sources. Simply the fact that a writer could possess enough determination and devotion to a particular subject, in order to spend the amount of time and energy that Powers obviously did, is truly commendable. When I reached the list of sources at the end of the book I was literally blown away.

I can't even imagine reading the amount of books that were cited, let alone researching them for a particular subject. Powers's lengthy explanations were most likely the product of the overabundance of facts she had obtained from her extensive research. All in all, Faces Along the Bar was a very informative book. Though it was long and drawn-out at some points, it captured the true atmosphere that surely lingered in the air of the workingman's saloon. Powers's work, in which she provided a great deal of information on various aspects of saloon life, was hindered only by the surplus of explanation and irrelevant details which were spread throughout the book itself.