Entry Ten: U.S.A - John Dos Passos

The U.S.A trilogy is an analysis of American culture and capitalism in the first couple of decades of the 19th Century and written in the 30s. The trilogy is written as a merging of fact and fiction and the three stories we were asked to read were of a biographical type.
I really enjoyed this type of writing and the overall structure of the three stories we were asked to read: they all came from a poor farmer background, did great things and made a name for themselves and then returned back and died within modest surroundings similar to where they first started out.

Passos makes a commentary on the efforts of ordinary folk from modest backgrounds to survive within the cutthroat world of business and the deteriorating effect it has upon them throughout their experiences of war, economic inequality and economic boom. He envisages America as split between the exploited and the exploiters.

The first text, 'Tin Lizzie' is written about Henry Ford. He was born on a farm in Michigan, his father was an Irish/English immigrant and his mother was the child of Belgian immigrants. Ford had always been obsessed with machinery, he got a job as an apprentice machinist in Detroit and eventually worked his way up to a Chief engineer of Edison Illuminating Company and then helped to form Henry Ford Company and was the Chief Engineer. Ford developed the assembly line and the conveyor belt in order to speed up production lines in the factory and produced the first affordable automobile in America. His plant in Detroit, Michigan became the largest factory in the world and by 1929, more than 26 million cars were registered in the USA. Due to lowering the satisfaction of his workers through producing the assembly line, he increased wages as compensation, which increased morale and also in turn production times. This is discussed in one of my previous blogs 'The Case for Working With Your Hands' where all craftsmanship is taken out of the job roles, satisfaction is taken away and the lack of craft knowledge needed in these roles lead to workers being part of 'the machine' and easily replaceable. He retreats to his father's farm in his final years and dies at the age of 83.

The second text, ‘The Bitter Drink’ is based upon the life of Thorstein Veblen who grew up on his family's farm as one of twelve children in Wisconsin to Norwegian-American immigrant parents. His family's farm, amongst other similar settlements were referred to as 'little Norways' due to their deep-rooted traditions and culture. The Norway people believed that only farming or preaching was the calling of an honest man.
Thorstein hated the backbreaking chores around the farm (so did Henry Ford- 'Tin Lizzie') and much preferred reading. 

He left home and got a good education but came back and turned down a couple of job offers and instead read and discussed philosophy with his father, he was not a 'yes' man and was very resentful of 'the system'. He was an economist, socialist and critic of capitalism. In Veblen's best known book, 'The Theory of the Leisure Class' he writes about his idea 'conspicuous consumption' which is the spending of money on and acquiring of luxury goods to publicly display economic power in order to attain or maintain a given social status. I find this particularly interesting to note as it is certainly the case today, made very obvious through the use of instagram and Facebook alike- the use of objects or experiences to prove social status and worth and to gain approval. This I think has a very negative impact on our society and is just one of the negative impacts of capitalism.

He died alone in very modest surroundings and left a note to ask that no tombstone be made to commemorate him, only that he would like to be cremated and thrown into a sea or river.

The last text, ‘The Architect’ is written about Frank Lloyd Wright. He was born in a farming town in Wisconsin. This is a short text where he tries to push past architectural convention and develop ways of using new materials and new technology to push architecture forwards to where it hasn't been before. 

They all work hard to move into a different part of society in which they first started but they get more than they wanted and their desires and dreams don't live up to their initial expectations even though they all have great accomplishments between them. Passos shows us how capitalism, society and convention can have a deteriorating snowball affect on once great ideas and great people. The passages are essentially about making it big and then losing it all. I would very much like to carry on reading parts of this doorstop sized book when I have some more time to do so in the Summer.