# II explained — A Hazard of New Fortunes

> Chapter companion for A Hazard of New Fortunes by William Dean Howells.

## What happens

The Marches settle into New York life, finding pleasure in the city's foreignness and exploring its diverse neighborhoods, restaurants, and streets. They reflect on their new environment, the contrast with Boston, and the social landscape of the city, from the immigrant experience at Castle Garden to the homogeneous wealth of uptown.

## Themes in this chapter

### Urban vs. Rural Life

The Marches contrast the anonymity and diversity of New York with their former life in Boston, finding both liberation and moral ambiguity in the city's vastness.

### Immigration and Cultural Diversity

The chapter highlights the Marches' enjoyment of Italian groceries, Spanish restaurants, and the immigrant scene at Castle Garden, reflecting New York's multicultural character.

### Social Class and Mobility

March observes the stark contrast between the wealthy, homogeneous uptown promenaders and the poorer, diverse downtown areas, questioning the ideals of a material civilization.

## Character check-ins

### Basil March

Explores New York with his wife, reflecting on the city's diversity, social classes, and his own sense of anonymity.

### Mrs. March

Accompanies her husband on walks and dining adventures, sharing his curiosity and occasional moral qualms about their new life.

## Key lines

> The Marches had no longer the gross appetite for novelty which urges youth to a surfeit of strange scenes, experiences, and ideas; and makes travel, with all its annoyances and fatigues, an inexhaustible delight.

The Marches had lost the youthful hunger for constant new experiences that makes travel endlessly exciting despite its hardships.

_Reflects their mature, more settled perspective on exploring New York._

> This immunity from acquaintance, this touch-and-go quality in their New York sojourn, this almost loss of individuality at times, after the intense identification of their Boston life, was a relief, though Mrs. March had her misgivings, and questioned whether it were not perhaps too relaxing to the moral fibre.

Their anonymity in New York, a relief from Boston's close-knit social scrutiny, worried Mrs. March that it might weaken their moral character.

_Highlights the tension between freedom and moral responsibility in urban life._

> It warmed their hearts, so easily moved to any cheap sympathy, to see the friendly care the nation took of these humble guests; they found it even pathetic to hear the proper authority calling out the names of such as had kin or acquaintance waiting there to meet them.

The Marches were touched by the government's welcoming treatment of immigrants at Castle Garden, finding it almost moving when officials called out names of those being met by family.

_Shows their sentimental view of immigration and the nation's role._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/a_hazard_of_new_fortunes_se/chapters/part-fourth-ii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/a_hazard_of_new_fortunes_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/a_hazard_of_new_fortunes_se/chapters