Insanity In The Alienist By Caleb Carr

The Alienist written by Caleb Carr is a historical fiction read through the narration of John Schuyler Moore a reporter for the New York Times.The story starts on January 9, 1919 the day of Theodore Roosevelt's funeral, after the funeral Moore and a close friend Laszlo Kreizler go to dinner. While at dinner Moore and Kreizler start reminiscing about their time with Roosevelt. Moore and Kreizler flash back to the year of 1896 when they were tracking down a serial killer. Moore who lives with his grandmother after a nasty breakup with his fiancee, is awoken one night by knocking at the front door. Moore makes his way to the door, the person responsible for the knocking is little Stevie “stevepipe” Taggert a servant for Kreizler. With very little

and military historian who typically was the author of only nonfiction books. When Carr introduced his book The Alienist to his publisher he marketed it as nonfiction afraid they wouldn’t accept a fiction book from a primarily nonfiction writer. Since its release it has received mixed reviews from critics, citing the overwhelming terminology and focus on the history of the time, as its only downfall. Even with mixed reviews The Alienist has been a fan favorite and made a couple of best sellers lists including the New York Times. Throughout The Alienist, Carr explores many themes including insanity in the early 1900’s and women in the

In The Alienist the theme of insanity is extremely prevalent. During the story Kreizler is involved with many people who have been deemed insane by the society they live in. Kreizler with his unorthodox methods and way of thinking understands that some are disturbed and may do bad things if lead down that path. Kreizler has multiple cases where if given the chance to be a respectable citizen some patients will change for the better. For example Stevie Taggert a boy who has caused trouble to others his whole life by participating in illegal acts and Cyrus Montrose who killed a drunk police officer with a butcher knife for beating up a prostitute in the brothel that Cyrus worked in. After Kreizler took the two in they became average people whom are calm, intelligent, and loyal. Even though Kreizler was before his time with this idea, it still hasn’t been reached. People who commit crimes are still thrown into psychiatric hospitals and pumped full of pills, when they could be rehabilitated from their bad choices. This is one of the major themes that Carr tries to push into the readers mind during the the novel, but it isn’t the only theme. Women in the workplace is also hinted to throughout the