Essay - American Notes in 1842, Charles Dickens Traveled to America and...

American Notes

In 1842, Charles Dickens traveled to America and wrote about his experience in American Notes for General Circulation, a work celebrated as an example of travel writing and also a work with an influence on much of Europe concerning various ide***** ***** life in America and about certain ***** institutions of the time. In many ways, his assessment of life in America was harsh, highly critical of certain aspects of *****n life (notably the criminal justice system ***** the time), and he was also highly critical of the system of ***** he found in ***** country.

In truth, the transportation he f*****ds in America is not materially worse than the ship he travels on in coming to ***** or ***** railway system ***** leaves behind in England, and many of the differences he f*****ds in the American railroads are quite understandable ***** a system that covers so ***** more territory than would a railroad in England. He also often cites differences in language, but he tends more to marvel at these and to expla***** their derivati***** in an underst*****ing way.

When he talks about t***** canal boats, he singles out t***** accommodations on the boat and his trepidations ***** them, deciding in ***** that he is only sleeping on a shelf ***** ***** he prefers to sleep on t***** floor. The ***** space is the same area as the dining room, and the shelves can be removed and the tables put back in place by day. The American habit of making do might differ from what the British expect, ***** the traveler simply has to adjust. Indeed, the most overt complaints ab***** the ***** boat comes from the o*****r passenger who was not satisfied with anything ***** the trip.

Off the boat, Dickens notes other means ***** ravel, beginning with the inclined carriages pulled up the mountain. He compares ***** town of Pittsburgh to a town in Engl***** and ********** not make much ***** either of ***** in his description. When he takes t***** Wes*****ern steamboat to C*****cinnati, he again finds fault ***** the method ***** *****, seeing *****se as "unlike anything we are in the habit of ***** on water" (182). He also finds fault with the food spread out at the three meals per day, noting that while it seems like a lot ***** food, it really is not. Much of ***** he expects ***** b*****ed ***** t***** on larger boats and longer-standing trains in England and elsewhere in Europe, failing to see how the ***** ***** is developing in a wilderness *****a and making do with what can be installed under more difficult conditions. The territory covered is much greater as well.

Dickens ***** unfairly describes the people ***** all alike, with "no diversity of character" (185), though it is ********** if ***** *****s in some areas of the country ***** be any more diverse than ***** group Dickens describes. He makes them sound extremely parochial ***** untraveled, though clearly they are tak*****g the same