On the Surface Part I: Caesar’s Column: A Story of the Twentieth Century

"In this vast, over-crowed city, man is a drug,—a superfluity,―and I think many men and women end their lives out of an overwhelming sense of their own insignificance;—in other words, from a mere wariness of feeling that they are nothing, they become nothing” (17).

Donnelly’s futuristic New York City has declined socially, morally, and politically. The city’s social strata consist of the labor force (the proletariat) and the aristocracy (the wealthy).

Gabriel, the novel’s “primary” narrator describes New York’s aristocracy as “quiet, decorous and courteous.” The female population of androgynous military replicants is: “broad, square, and deep brows; firmly developed square jaws; penetrating, immodest looks; challenging and inviting fierce eyes penetrating the soul.” And the male population: “unattractive, incredulous, unbelieving, cunning, and observant; heartless, and non-sacrificing with powerful faces, high noses, resolute mouths, and fine brows characterizing their shrewdness and energy.”

Donnelly’s lengthy description of the labor force, the proletariat, the “underworld, the domain of the poor” is a disconcerting representation of poverty. In part, the poor are described as “stolid, hungry-looking, haggard, poorly clothed, and hopeless.” The faces of the children’s are “prematurely aged, hardened, joyless, and sullen.” This ethnically diverse and impoverished populace, form an endless “succession of mechanized and stooped silent toilers, consumed with disease, and eaten up by society.”
Donnelly shrewdly parallels social, political, and economic status to intellect, demeanor, and physical characteristics.

Edith