In the novel, Powers creates three different settings and, ultimately, three different stories within the book as a whole. Two of these 'stories' are effected greatly by a man named August Sander. In the first of these inner-stories, the narrator is in the first person. He is referred to simply as P-. As P- one day comes across a photograph in Detroit labeled Three Farmers on Their Way to a Dance. Immediately he is drawn to the photo due to the fact that he resembles one of the gentlemen in it. By creating such a scenario, Powers has linked P- to the next 'story' within his novel.

In the second 'story' of his novel, the author tells of three young gentlemen on their way to a May Fair in the German countryside. The three gentlemen are Adolphe, Peter, and Hubert. During their outing that day the three men happened to cross the path of a German photogr

apher. It is not declared, but this man is supposed to represent August Sander. This photographer takes a photo of the three young men that day, just as they had appeared on the road as he approached them. He even reprimanded Peter for trying to fix the appearance of his companions in order to make them more attractive and photogenic. Prior to taking the photograph the photographer had talked the men up about how they would go down in history. The photographer says they young men that "The faces...will fill a small but significant gap in the project," (Powers 338). He told them about how they would be representing the face of a nation. The nation these men would represent was Germany; the project the man was describing was Face of Our Time.

Face of Our Time was the first part of August Sander's great photographic project called Man of the Twentieth Century. This project was supposed to capture the essence of people during the time of WWI and after. Sander compiled numerous photographs of his fellow German citizens in their natural environments doing everyday activities. These photos were of the rich and the poor, sick and healthy, immigrants and soldiers; it was supposed to show the real face of Germany (Powers 41). By pl

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Approximate Word count = 837
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)