John Dos Passos

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

For my Author Thesis I read Big Money, The 42nd Parallel and 1919. These books are actually one single book call U.S.A, but since U.S.A is 1200 pages long the editor split it into 3 books. These books are set at the turn of the 20th century so some of the language is older, but is still understandable. It follows 12 characters in a first person narration style, but also includes other type of narration types. This includes stream of concousness (what a character is thinking, is a constant flow of the characters observations and does not include punctuation), biographies of famous people from this time and snippets from newspapers and song lyrics. These books jump from character to character and from writing style to writing style each chapter so it can be confusing to follow the plot line at points. If you are able to follow it, it is interesting to see how the different characters cross paths and interact because you are able to only see the world from their eyes. The characters in the books are very realistic and focuses on the struggle to find success in America and is general applicable during any time period. The themes are very clear and focus on the American dream, social class and the struggle between political ideologies as told from characters from different backgrounds and life experiences. Even thought the themes are obvious and what the characters are trying to say very clear, it can be hard to close read quotes because the message is so apparent.

American Author Thesis

Now that you have written your essay, we ask that you reflect on the reading portion of the experience and write 100-150 words about your author.

Think of what you write as advice for someone next year and beyond, someone who (like you were doing last fall) is thinking about choosing your author - and maybe even the same three books - to read for the assignment.