Martin Chuzzlewit (1843-1844) is one of Dickens’s satirical representations of the bourgeois society of his days. The scene is laid in England and in America. In describing scenes of American life, Dickens was influenced by impressions obtained during his trip to the United States in 1842. His treatment of American reality is tinged by his highly critical attitude to that country.
Martin Chuzzlewit, a young Englishman, makes a journey to America. The chapter below deals with Martin’s arrival in New York. On his way he got acquainted with an American who had set his head on carrying him to the house of his relatives, Mr. and Mrs. Norris. There he met General Fladdock, a New Yorker who had just come back from his trip to Europe.