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Grade Level:       Type of Work           Subject/Topic is on:
 [ ]6-8                 [ ]Class Notes    [John Dos Passos' book   ]
 [x]9-10                [ ]Cliff Notes    [Manhattan Transfer      ]
 [ ]11-12               [x]Essay/Report   [                        ]
 [ ]College             [ ]Misc           [                        ]

 Dizzed: o4/95  # of Words:1290  School: ?              State: ?
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HISTORICAL BACKGROUND: This book began in the 1890's. Benjamin Harrison of
the Republicans was in power. The novel began by showing the problems of
immigration both from the view point of the immigrant and of the already
settled American. We are aware right from the first page that the life of
an immigrant was extremely difficult. Jobs were extremely scarce and even
when they were available the pay was low. However the immigrants had to
worry about more than just jobs; they had to worry about the safely of the
lives of their families. Because there was a huge number of unemployed in
the cities groups such as the Klu Klux Klan (K.K.K) flourished. The
unemployed blamed the immigrants for their problems, they thought that it
was they who were taking away their jobs. To relieve such anger people in
groups like the K.K.K went out and attacked innocent immigrants often
killing them. If one were black things were even worse. There were many
laws that separated them from white men and made their lives very
difficult. They were constantly beaten by white men and found getting jobs
very hard. As well people became firebugs and often burned down buildings
in which the immigrants lived. The majority of Americans resented the
immigrants because they represented lost jobs. the only people who did like
the influx of immigrants were the rich because they represented a large
pool of labour that cost next to nothing.

     America was very much separated from the rest of the world. The Monroe
Doctrine of 1823 was still a big part of life in the United States Of
America and politicians made sure that they did n not get involved in
European affairs. They remained unchanged until the first World War when
America joined in on the side of the Allies. This novel showed that most
Americans were glad that they had joined. It created jobs for the poor and
increased the wealth of many of the already very rich as well. I learned
greatly how the politics of the time worked. Passos showed how the sinking
of a ship carrying Americans triggered the The United States to join.
Before this book I had though it ridiculous that a country would go to war
over a few deaths, but the author showed how the American goverment used
propoganda to make the Americans want to join in the war and fight.
Manhattan Transfer tells the tale of how a poor tailor became very rich
when the were broke out. He managed to secure a contract with the
government for body bags and overnight he was rich. With the war looking
promising for America people started to buy again. It was in this period
also that Americans began to rebuild their economy. As well they started
going out to clubs quite often. The novel spends a great deal of time on
how people began to spend their money in pubs again and how their hearts
began to be overjoyed as time went on and the German's began to lose. This
era is referred to by many historians as the Jazz Era.

     Many of the poorer characters in Manhattan Transfer made references to
people such as J.P. Morgan and other Robber Barons telling great tales of
their fortunes and how they too would one day do the same. This is
interesting because it shows that they are not just some unknown historical
characters in our history book but instead real people that everyone knew.
This book continues on until the year 1925, thus through 5 different
presidents such as Grover Cleveland (Republican), William McKinley
(Republican), Teddy Roosevelt (Republican), Woodrow Wilson (Democrat) and
Waren Hardwig (Republican). Note how four of the five presidents are
Republicans. Manhattan Transfer brings this up very well by showing that
the common people supported this party because it stood for the traditional
ways. This was very popular with second and third generation immigrants
because they did not want change but for the newly landed immigrants this
was not what they wanted. They had come to America to find streets covered
in gold but when they got there they found nothing but poverty.

Manhattan Transfer showed clearly how the United States benefitted from the
war with the Germans. Their economy was greatly stimulated and they became
the world's largest creditor.

SYNOPSIS: This book does not have a plot as such. It is more the story of
life in New York City from 4 different points of view. There are four main
groups of characters in this book, 2 landed immigrants, a poor American
family, a group wanting to become famous on Broadway, and a group of very
rich people. Each group represents a different point of view. I am glad
that the author John Dos Passos choose to show the different life styles of
the Americans. The book begins with the newly landed immigrants. We see how
they struggled to find jobs, suffered from persecution and lived in
horrible conditions. One little episode shows how one of the newly landed
immigrants got a one day job of moving coal for a rich lady. She had
promised to pay him one dollar for his work but at the end of the day when
he was finished she gave him 25 cents and told him to leave before she
called the police. I believe this to be a reflection of how most of the
rich ,including the Robber Barons, made their money and held onto it.
Throughout the novel we saw how the world has changing. We were given many
aspects to policy making in America. What struck me most about this book
was how even the simple immigrant could see how the United States Of
America was becoming the police officer of the world and that without
America's intervention in the first world war Germany would have won.

Background On John Dos Passos: John Dos Passos (1896-1970) was the author
of many dozens of books, including the U.S.A Trilogy. He is often referred
to as "... the only major American novelist... who had the desire and power
to surround the lives of his characters with what Lionel Trilling once
called 'the buzz of history.'" He was a second generation immigrant to the
United States Of America and came from a poor family.

Personal Comment: I personally found this book to be a real drag to read
but however it did have much information of historical value. The author
lived in this time era and therefore was able to show very well the
situation in America. He clearly showed the average lives of American's
without editing out the sadder sides. I learned tremendously about the
contrast between the rich, poor and immigrants in this story. I found that
I could relate to the situation of the depression well, because of the
recession in Canada right now. Although I would not recommend this book for
'enjoyable reading' I would strongly encourage others to read it for
historical content. I enjoyed the fact that the novel went over a period of
30 years, because we saw how the politics of the time were changed and
molded by different events. Perhaps what shocked the most was the fact that
the average American was glad that the United States joined the war,
however reflecting back onto their economic situation I can understand
because they needed the jobs and the money. However Passos did not only
focus on the politics of the time. He laid a great deal of stress on the
social aspects of 'The Roaring 20's' as well. This is the part of his story
that I enjoyed the most. He taught his readers about social wrongs and
rights such as firebugs.