Malamud at Oregon State: A Digital Humanities Project

Interactions With Pauline

The following graphs provide data on various types of interactions Levin has with Pauline in A New Life.

It's partially obscured in the graph, but the data indicates that Pauline fairly consistently makes requests of Levin (which he fairly consistently obeys). Note that Pauline obeys Levin's requests also, though these appear in less frequent (but more concentrated) moments.

Somewhat similar to Gilley, Pauline also consistently dominates the exchange of information with the information that she gives. Unlike interactions with Gilley, though, interactions with Pauline show Levin to be a more active participant; he asks more information, and there is even a spike at the novel's midpoint where he gives Pauline a massive amount of (largely unsolicited) information. (See: Levin's Statement of Faith)

Levin unequivocally obfuscates information from Pauline more than she does from him.

Focusing specifically on "giving information" allows some insights to come through. Pauline clearly dominates this type of interaction in the beginning, but it grows more equitable as time progresses (especially after Levin's information explosion halfway through).

Similar to the situation with "Giving information," Pauline tends to participate more than Levin except for a few specific moments where Levin clearly takes the lead.

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