1. Key Themes from the novel The Alienist by Caleb Carr By Marshall Urias

2. The Lexow Commission Carr’s depiction of 1896 New York is largely characterized by rampant police corruption. Carr reminds the reader that corruption persists despite the recent New York State Senate committee’s investigation of official corruption known as the Lexow Commission. The Lexow Commission was the widest-ranging investigation into official corruption in the 19th century. It investigated a multitude of issues including blackmail, disorderly houses, gambling, violation of the excise law, pawnbrokers, and thievery. The testimonials accumulated ran over 10,000 pages long. Headed by Clarence Lexow, the committee ended up calling for “an indictment against the Police Department of New York City as a whole,” and many old law enforcement policies underwent massive reform. Carr aims to show that degeneracy and corruption were not passing aspects but permanent features of life in New York. Due to the Lexow Commission, Mayor William L. Strong was elected as reform administrator. Peers and supporters of police reform included Clarence Lexow, Theodore Roosevelt, and Charles Parkhurst.

3. Inferiority of Immigrants Immigrants comprised a large portion of New York’s population in 1896. In The Alienist, during one interaction at an apartment complex, the narrator recalls he tried to identify all the language being spoken, but lost count at about eight. This cultural milieu is emphasized when the investigators choose a place to eat and are bombarded by countless fine exotic cuisines: Italian, Irish, Greek, Polish etc. In 1896, immigrants were still viewed as a subculture—inferior to those “pure blooded Americans.” Racist attitudes dominated mainstream sentiment toward immigrants. Moreover, law enforcement themselves harbored racist attitudes resulting in ignoring the atrocities the immigrant population faced. This fact is emphasized in Carr’s novel: the police station and reputable newspapers refuse to acknowledge, let alone investigate, the murders because the victims are immigrant children. The publics ignorance about immigrants largely shows that Americans during the time were still uncomfortable with diversity and desired the immediate assimilation of immigrant culture. This view is contrary to contemporary America where diversity is championed and celebrated. Labor was largely segregated by race in 19th century America. During the first wave of immigration, Irish workers worked in the lower levels of unemployment and only moved up after the second wave of European immigration.

4. Children in 1896 New York American society in 1896 did not recognize that children might not be fully responsible for their own actions and decision. Indeed, childhood was never viewed by most Americans as a separate and special stage of development, fundamentally different from adulthood and subject to its own rules and laws. According to the laws of 1896, if children wanted to abandon their lives to vice, then that was their business. Such sentiments explain the frequent occurrence and popularity of child brothels in 1896 New York. Furthermore, children as young as four were employed in production factories with dangerous, and often fatal, working conditions. In fact, during this time public schooling was not mandatory so children were frequently running a much getting in all sorts of trouble. Carr highlights the fact that child prostitution was not uncommon. Child prostitution in New York was most common among the immigrants due to social pressures. The brothels were frequented by even the most upstanding citizens and were run by the gangs of New York. A sculpture by Abastenia St. Leger Eberle depicts a 19th century child prostitute.

5. Psychology Psychologists, at the time known as alienists, were viewed with extreme skepticism both from the mainstream and scientific community. There ideas were perceived nearly the equivalent of witchcraft in many cases. Moreover, the notion that people could commit atrocities and not meet the ‘scientific’ definition of “insane” was unbelievable. People liked to classify the mentally disturbed as insane, lock them away in a facility, and forget about them. In the novel, the protagonist Dr. Lazslo, an alienist, attempts to understand the inner workings of the serial killer and uses his theories to draw a pathological sketch of the killer. Such practices were highly controversial and abhorred by traditional law enforcement. Consequently, Dr. Laszlo’s investigation is kept secret. Enraged by law enforcement refusal to accept the idea that there is deranged man on the loose Dr. Laszlo exclaims, “[The Killer] is part of their social order, their precious social order—without such creatures they’ve no scapegoats for their own wretched brutality.” Carr is attempting to show that societies ignorance of the mentally deranged is a mechanism by which they can ignore the moral decrepitude that plagues the streets. Introduced in 1871, chloral hydrate was a originally used to treat the mentally disturbed, but quickly spread to the general public, who were free to buy not only chloral, but morphine, opium, cannabis, or another other such substance at any drugstore. Death by overdose (often purposeful) was not uncommon.