The American Trilogy

Dos Passos: U.S.A – The American Trilogy

I am sitting on an overcrowded train writing this blog; there is, I think, something quite appropriate about this with regards to the topic – for me Dos Passos is a bit like watching Hitchcock’s ‘Rear Window’. It is a work filled with snap-shots;of biographies of celebrities of the day; of news-clip entries and of personal diary style entries chronicling Dos Passos’ growing up. It is a book that provides a snap shot of a generation - of the United States of the 1930’s.

The last part of the trilogy, ‘The Big Money’ contains three biographies that were of particular interest – ‘Tin Lizzie’, about Henry Ford; ‘The Bitter Drink’ about Veblen; and ‘The Architect’ about Frank Lloyd Wright. These three men are treated very differently by Dos Passos. Henry Ford is the most despised. The man who embodied the modern American dream is held accountable for the wanton destruction of the American way of life; an exploiter who destroyed his age and perversely then tried to pretend he had not. Ford it would appear was allowed to spearhead progress unchecked – he is a man portrayed as a naive man who was cunning and ruthless and significantly one who potentially did not fully understand the repercussions of what he craved and created.
Chronologically the next biography considered within this book is concerned with Veblen, a 2nd generation Norwegian American – he is a non conformist and an interesting foil to the character of Henry Ford. Veblen does not seek to become, nor is remotely interested in, the American Dream, or the typical American way of life. Veblen is recalled as a charismatic individual whose disregard for and questioning of the established order ensured that he was not comfortable with life, or life with Veblen. Veblen is the personification of a new spirit that started to emerge in 1930s America that challenged the status quo.

The final biography read was about Frank Lloyd Wright, the Architect. Interestingly in The Big Money, Dos Passos elected to write about a capitalist, a theorist and an architect – who presumably is meant to represent the Arts of 1930s America. All of these biographies are concerned with modernists yet Lloyd Wright, possibly because as an architect his work is less intrusive than car manufacturing, is not criticised as Henry Ford is. Possibly Dos Passos is making the suggestion that in any age style, or what is fashionable, will change; furthermore thinkers are rarely appreciated during their own time – but their opinions should not be dismissed out of hand. However, the capitalist will always remain the most dangerous form of modernist. It is the capitalist who should be most watched and treated with suspicion and perversely he is the one who is allowed to proceed unchecked.