The Corruption of the American Dream
The trilogy presents a panorama of the America of the early 20th century. Not just within the narrative trek, but within the Camera Eye, Newsreel and, especially, the biographical sketches are found ideals of what American might have been and the brutal reality of what American really is. The American Dream has been poisoned by greedy industrialists teaching all the wrong lessons as they attain the status of mythic legend while hypocritically espousing views and pursuing means of success standing in direct opposition to not just democratic ideals, but constructed image of themselves.
The Tragedy of Materialism
If there can be said to be a single figure outside the fictional narrative who is the guiding spirit of the trilogy’s overarching theme is almost certain Thorstein Veblen. The author presents Veblen as a tragic figure; America’s singular titan of social economic theories who was writing about an American in the grip of a consumer culture when it was just beginning to assert itself as the dominant producer economy in the world. Dos Passos proves him a shrewd social critic in his own right by identifying Veblen’s theories that are today referred to as “conspicuous consumption” as the guiding philosophical principles of American economics when they were still being ignored, underestimated and even ridiculed by many. The fictional storyline pursued within the trilogy is one that corrosively critiques capitalism and it is neither by accident nor lack of purpose and design that the final novel comprising U.S.A. is titled The Big Money. Capitalism and materialism become synonymous; to describe one is to describe the other.
The Art of the Novel
The three individual novels which make up the U.S.A. trilogy are connected, of course, by characters and storyline. But what genuinely unifies them as a singular work rather than merely a serial novel are the experiments in storytelling. “The Camera Eye,” “Newsreels” and the biographical sketches of actual historical figures are not just gimmicks, but seamlessly integrated into the fictional storyline with a distinct purpose and rhythm. What separates them from each other aside from the content are stylistic flourishes; “The Camera Eye” represents the most extreme of literary experimental as they indulge in stream-of-consciousness techniques including missing punctuation, words running together and jarring dislocations of thought. “Newsreels” become an exhibition of pastiche as news headlines, product advertisements, snatches of song lyrics and other assorted short sketches of reality are presented without relationship to each or contextual association in a manner mimicking the cinematic shorts that used to precede features films in movie theaters before the arrival of TV news broadcasts. These and the biographical sketches lend layers of meaning and relevancy to the actual fictional storyline, but rarely in a directly obvious way. U.S.A. becomes one of the first American novels to be significantly influenced by its rival for the attention of Americans seeking entertainment and escape: the movies. This aspect may well be its single most influential element.
