'USA' by Dos Passos

My final read as part of this course was USA by Dos Passos – specifically the chapters ‘Tin Lizzie’, ‘The Bitter Drink’ and ‘Architect’. I found these short stories really enjoyable to read.

Dos Passos writes honest descriptions of the subjects’ lives. He chooses to focus attention on personal details that make people like Frank Lloyd Wright seem more human, and more understandable. He talks of how they are proud of achievements, and ashamed of mistakes, but at the same time how they have shown qualities that have led to their success in life. He writes how Henry ford admired Edison, and always listened to his mum’s advice. In doing this he makes the character easier to relate to, they seem more real, and this makes them seem more vulnerable. It is because of this that when characters like Ford spend the end of their lives reminiscing back to the times before their interventions had changed the world, that you start to feel for them more. Despite success and fortune, you feel something for them.

For Thorstein Veblen in ‘The Bitter Drink’, he ends up in a shack as an old man, alone, and with no interest in being remembered after his death. How can such a brilliant mind end up in this situation? It is because he is human.

All of these men were successful and have been remembered. All of these men are human. They all lived lives very similar to our own in many parts, and this can be forgotten. I suppose these chapters are fairly inspirational, in that you can start to see yourself reaching the same level of success as these men – why not? But then you see how even after all of this, it can end in disappointment and misery. I’m not sure what I’m getting at here but I think its great to think of our own lives being told in story in a similar way. Lots of things happen to us, lots of little stories to tell. We all have good and bad moments. We all have different kinds of relationships with different kinds of people. Some people make more money than others. Some people measure success by money, some don’t.  For some, money makes them happy, and for others it is something else. I suppose it is important to remember that these people are the same as everyone else, it’s so easy to think of achievements as beyond our own capabilities, but they’re not.