The Concept of Freedom in John Dos Passos’ Three Soldiers

Abstract

John Dos Passos has been neglected by the literary and academic worlds. Too often his work has been judged, not on its literary merit, but on its political content. This work is undertaken as an effort to help to elevate Dos Passos to his proper place in the ranks of American writers. Continuity is given to almost all of his writings by the constant theme of the desirability for individual freedom. In his brief early period, Dos Passos sought freedom largely for the alienated artists of society. Then he became involved in the search for the maximum freedom for all people. The turning point came when the Sacco-Vanzetti case drew him from the isolated garrets into the streets. Management's abuses of labor and the general class war became his subject matter in U.S.A. and other books as Dos Passos fought for freedom from oppression for the workers. He enthusiastically endorsed Roosevelt and the New Deal. The liberal critics applauded his efforts.