Lemuel Pitkin

Lemuel is a parody of the main characters of Horatio Alger’s rags to riches novels. He is written two dimensionally, without a bad bone or ambiguous thought in his body. His willingness to put his life on the line for others, desire to trust and honest work ethic are hyperbolic and all encompassing in his personality. Unlike the novels in which this hero would usually gain the keys to the kingdom, Lemuel’s saintliness is his undoing.

Lemuel loses a variety of appendages throughout the novel. First he loses his teeth, which makes it difficult for him to speak in many crucial situations. Then he loses his eye, which not only disables him but causes him to appear unsightly and low class when it is not to his advantage. He then loses his thumb in the Chicago kidnapping incident, his leg to the Rip-Tail Roarer’s...