Session Ten: The Epic John Dos Passos USA

USA by Dos Passos - at least the three chapter I had to read - is a clever way to make us aware of the 'false' picture of the American Big Dream. The writer used short biographies of three well known person's—Thorstein Veblen, Henry Ford and Frank Lloyd Wright—to introduce us to the 1930's America. The writer had a brilliant social observation? or he was just mesmerized by the social way?

People were taught to believe they could live an idyllic life in America. Just like the film starring Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman titled  'Far and Away' where they traveled from Ireland where they had abandoned their old life to move to America in hopes of claiming free land in Oklahoma all-the-while having to suffer though trials and tribulations of that is the price of this dream, nothing less than a piece of your soul.

All three chapters in the the Big Money tells a tragic tale of Faustian development, destroy, break away from the old and move on to something new doesn't matter what the cost. 

First up, Thorstein Veblen a very bright individual - a non-Marxist critique of capitalism - who broke away from his Norwegian farmer family way of life. Who is a bit different, he can't say yes and at the end he fails because of his unusual personality and social awkwardness.

Tin Lizzie - 'Mr Ford the automobileer' who changed the way people lived for ever creating and standardizing cars. He was a creator, an innovator who didn't have bad habits, who never borrowed money, who only strive for profit and he didn't care about his workers, that is so familiar character we have already met previously. 

Henry Ford is a great example of Faust, however it gets too much for him when he gets older. He was afraid that he would be shot or his grandchildren would get kidnapped. So he returned to -the old way - his father's farm where he begun his journey as a child. 

The Architect - Frank Lloyd Wright story also a success like Ford's with some difference. He was a famous designer who made something of himself in the world. However, he struggled with bankruptcy and divorce that actually sees him failings as a man. 

These threes stories carries the same message that Dos Passos wanted us to learn, to be a capitalist you need to be selfish and need to be a success so you are not on the same level as the majority of people. But what is the price, to give up yourself, to be afraid and fail as a man/woman.