Joseph Mitchell’s writing style is not outdated or old fashioned. His writing style doesn’t seem to have aged because his writing style is very descriptive and informative. He allows his readers to get a detailed sense of images and how the world operated back then. Still today the different environments mentioned in Mitchell’s book exist in many communities. Stories like Gould’s are still shared through Mitchell’s novel but aren’t heard from everyone experiencing the same situation.
It is true that Gould is lost throughout the novel trying to find him-self and his book he writes is of his own adventure, a diary that he can relate to and symbolizes meaning to him. Mitchell clearly admires Joseph Gould because of his bravery and attitude of not caring of what others thought of him. He wasn’t stopped or didn’t stop his Joe Gould’s fund because of his fear of what people would think of him. Although he has come from a wealthy family, he chooses to live by the streets and let his own faith lead him.
Some may think of this as foolish and reckless behavior but this didn’t stop Gould from what he’d tell people about his Oral history book that didn’t exist to begin with. He was careless about actions and didn’t want responsibility. I feel that Mitchell admired that so he wanted to make his feature story on Joe Gould as interesting as it was because of this appreciation of coming across such an interesting character.
