This paper will analyze the excerpt from John Dos Passos’ The Big Money.

At the first
impression, we observe that the narrator’s discourse is fragmentized meaning that John Dos
Passos is a highly modern author. Even if it’s very difficult to say whether it’s a novel or a poem
by analyzing the discontinuous form of the excerpt, not having inverted commas and having the
title in Italics clearly indicates that it’s a novel. The year of the appearance of the novel is 1926
which may suggest we are dealing with the modern American society.

The excerpt is an overview of the American society. The narrator summarizes a societal
behavior in a very clean-cut, simple style. The general subject of the text seems to be confusing,
unclear for the reader as the narrator’s discourse is discontinuous. It seems that words were
randomly put on paper while the narrator doesn’t follow the punctuation rules. The narrator’s
discourse is experimental; words seem to be cut out of newspaper or advertisement. We can
observe the lexical field of civil servants: line 10 until line 13, of mediocrity: line 13 until line 15
and the lexical field of the labor market: line 24 until line 27. The sentence from line 2 contrasts
with the rest of the text as the sunshine is not a part of an artificial environment such as the other
elements: the clerks, the operators etc. The sun who drifted from ‘’our’’ alley is a metaphor for
estrangement from past times. Time “drifts” away from us as the sunshine. The sunshine may be
a symbol of resurrection, of waking up after a long time of sleep. The past time “slept” and now
the new time wakes up. Lines 3 to 6 reveal the aim of modern society and the rapid pace of the
new era and the idea that advancement is not on merit: “wellrecommended young girls and
young woman”. Advancement is a key word for capitalism. The excerpt is a collage of
headlines, songs, advertisement that satirizes modern society. The sunshine of values changes its
direction as Sally, an insignificant name of someone who takes part of the mass, ‘’went away’’
meaning that mankind leaves behind old values. The direction where this undefined character
went is not clearly indicated, meaning that new values are an unsure horizon. The next line that
follows until line 17 highlights a wide range of undefined characters that lead an ordinary
existence. There’s nothing particular in their lives as their existence is portrayed as a collective
one. Collectivity absorbs individual features. Here, the character is no more someone that has a
name and individuality but a tarnished mass of people. From line 18 until line 22 the narrator
summarizes what this mass of people does with lyrics from a song. The lyrics are banal and
written in a hilarious and satirical tone even if the situation that is been presented is not a happy
one. Seeing the baby dead doesn’t affect the non-identified character. The situation is treated like
a banality, the collective character is not impressed. In the same manner as the portrayal of the
undefined main character, he writing is something ordinary, there is no particular “glow” and the
most important thing is that there is no invention. The text seems to be mechanically written in
the same way the collective character leads its everyday life. Line 23 may suggest the tendency
of mass production. The word “hundreds” has a particular resonance because it’s not a defined
number. From line 24 until line 27 we can observe the idea of mass work that is seen as
something advantageous, profitable. The concept of work became extended in the modern era
and making life gravitate around work has become something worth achieving as it allows
cheapness. The illusion of cheapness and good opportunities is the definition of the new era.
 To sum up, the excerpt from The Big Money shapes in a desultory style the image of
American society once. It’s an undefined opportunistic environment with characters that live
randomly and lack depth as the values have changed.

Part 1: the image of the sunshine drifting: the narrator starts with an artistic image but
after he mechanizes his world

Part 2: life accelerates and mediocre people have the chance to represent something for
the society, they lack individuality and lead a mechanized existence

Part 3: illusionary values, the preference for a cheap life, a life that promises more but
lacks significance