Response paper

Manhattan Transfer by Dos Passos,

Chapter Metropolis

Manhattan Transfer is primarily a brilliant experimental novel with many of modernist

techniques. One of the favourite techniques of John Dos Passos is fragmentation. It
represents abrupt jumps from and to disconnected stories about different people happening
simultaneously at different parts of the city. Taken together, these fragments depict the
complexity of life in NYC as the symbol of the modern lifestyle. His goal is to provide the
widest possible picture of all segments of society, from the poorest immigrants to the richest
businessmen. As there is no chronology, the novel is plotless and there is no resolution. In
Metropolis there are 14 fragments, interlacing threads of stories of various characters, such as
Ed Tutcher and his family, Mr Perry and the real estate agent, Bud Korpenning, Emily and a
group of workers, Frenchmen Emile and Congo, and Emile’s friend Marco, The Olafsons,
Gus McNiel (who is introduced for the first time, but is actually one of the most prominent
characters in the novel). This is known as the leitmotif technique - a character or a theme
appears from time to time unpredictably. It is a non-linear novel with time compression
instances; e.g. at the beginning of the chapter, Ellen Tutcher is mentioned as a new-born, and
a few fragments later, she is already walking.
Another technique Dos Passos uses is intertextuality – incorporation of intertexts. For
example, Ed T. comes home from the hospital. He comes across newspapers and when he
reads a headline it triggers him to think about NYC as the second great metropolis, suggesting
the growth and expansion taking place at the time and the chances of success it offers. The
aim of the intertext is to serve for juxtaposition with the wider reality presented in the change
of scenery. The building is on fire due to an arsonist. Ed observes an Italian man whose wife
is trapped in the fire. The social-political dimension is that the building was a tenement of the
newly arrived immigrants. At the time, the idea of melting pot and equal opportunities was
very present, but the immigrants were seen as a competition on the labour market by
Americans. These immigrants were never accepted, nor welcomed, they were
underprivileged, discriminated against, insulted, lived in bad conditions, it was extremely
difficult for them to find a decent job, etc.
Dos Passos often plays with juxtaposition and placed two opposite and contrasting images
(e.g. of the elite and the poor, of growth and decay, etc.) next to each other to help the reader
draw conclusions, encourage social criticism, or to convey a (e.g. political, socialist, leftist)
message. This is something which he took from cinematic montage of Eisenstein. The novel
consists of a very rapid, quick exchange of short scenes, so he imitates the moves of the
camera, which is another modernist feature, because cinema was emerging at the beginning of
the 20th ct. as the new artistic branch. E.g. The 8th fragment ends with the guy who is so poor
that his pockets are hollow, so he tied the nickels into one of his shirt tails. Then we have a
complete contrast – from utter poverty to the description of high society dinner party in the
ninth fragment. The fragment ends with Emile standing at the back door of the restaurant
uncrumpling a five-dollar bill (another juxtaposition). This is cinematic language, without
saying anything it conveys an implicated political message.
Bud is at the barbershop. He reads different patches of newspaper headlines (intertextuality),
about a teenage boy who killed his mother. Bud is almost a representative of the rural
America. He came to NYC with certain dreams of making it big in NYC, and at the moment
he faces one of his many disillusionments. This way Dos Passos deconstructs the illusion of
prosperity and the American Dream showing the naturalistic, dark side of life in the city
which includes a lot of crime, murders, violence, arsons, etc.
Futurists glorified the fast, urban lifestyle, modernization and speed by creating dynamic
paintings. They saw the modern city as the epitome of modernity and prosperity. Dos Passos
uses the same technique for indirect criticism of everything that Futurists actually praised
(E.g. the description of the city at the beginning of the 8 th fragment). But the dynamism is
something he shares with the futurists because the novel abounds with the dynamic scenes
which are filled with action, movement, speed etc. Dos Passos shows city in motion, but at the
same time this motion doesn’t contribute to any resolution. It is repetitive and empty.
Expressionists had a more negative view of the city. They saw it as modern hell, a place of
enormous social gap, of never-ending profit seeking, capitalism, people’s alienation and
despair, or, as a monster which swallows the weak. They were interested in how our
perception of something outside is affected by our internal state, colouring the world in
colours of our mind. E.g. 1: Gus McNeil, a milkman, leaves the farm after work, and the sky
in sunset is described as rosy and yellow. Dos Passos uses yellow to describe something sick,
rotten, in decay. Also, Gus is one of the characters who has been in NYC long enough to
recognize the city as a monster and wants to run away with his wife to North Dakota.
E.g. 2: In the epigraph, the narrator indirectly draws parallels between once great cities and
civilizations (Babylon, Rome, Athens and Constantinople), which experienced a rise and a
fall, with modern NYC. It has Biblical allusion to the story about the building of the Tower of
Babylon as an expression of excessive human pride and arrogance and symbol of the fall of
mankind. This point to the NYC skyscrapers soaring up to the heaven. They became modern
substitutes for the churches suggesting that the profit making has become the religion of the
new age. This shows the expressionistic influence on Dos Passos’s pessimistic view of future
of the civilization. Modernization will bring the destruction. The epigraph is very telling about
modernist techniques as it employs time compression, juxtaposition, cinematic montage,
shows influences of expressionism and futurism and expressionist influence.
Dos Passos was influenced by Cubists. They portrayed clash, contrast and disharmony of
reality with the use of geometrical shapes to create a fragmented figure. Dos Passos uses
fragments to create the naturalist image of NYC.
What causes the downfall of the characters is capitalism and the indoctrinated vulgarized
American Dream, according to which material success is the only valid success in life.
Money influences private lives and relationships between people. In the fragment about a
group of workers, a man is flirting with a girl called Emily and he’s trying to point out to her
that he is worthy of her attention because he got a promotion which indicates that he’ll be
soon financially secure and that he will make it in NYC.
People are driven by their personal ambition, regardless of their origin. They become
conformists, they accept the social norms without questioning (Susie T. leaves her daughter in
order to go to "Mrs. Spingarn's to play euchre”). They start to imitate those who have
succeeded (the Olafsons – the wife insists that they rent an expensive apartment which they
hardly can afford, and she lies to the real estate agent where they’re coming from (Bronx)).
There is also a long fragment of Emile and Congo talking more or less optimistically about
the prospects of the future. Then comes Marco who has already been disillusioned. He has
some leftist, socialist leanings, like Dos Passos, because he talks about the rights of the
working class, etc. He is Italian, so this again is indicative of the downside of the melting pot.
Using the abovementioned techniques, Dos Passos managed to convey the social criticism he
aimed for.