Imprisonment in Nelson Algren's The Man with the Golden Arm

Abstract

This essay treats the differing paradigms of imprisonment that I argue are prevalent in Nelson Algren's novel The Man with the Golden Arm. My argument explores the motifs of confinement through an analysis of the two central characters. I focus on Frankie Machine, whose incarceration functions as a sanctuary, which stimulates his "escape" from morphine addiction, and his wife Sophie Majcinek, whose figurative entrapment in the tenement room shapes her psychological and physical paralysis. I ask if the apparent development of the way prison dealt with prisoners in mid-century America, by focusing more on models of treatment than punishment, informs our understanding of Machine's gradual regeneration and empowerment. I also question whether the sphere of the tenement room also serves as a symbol of absolute enclosure. My argument is that such conflicting representations of confinement reveal the schism underlying the motif of imprisonment within The Man with the Golden Arm.