John Dos Passos, The Big Money

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Published in 1936,

The Big Money

is the third and final section of John Dos Passos’ sweeping trilogy. In 1938, all three books, including a revised version of

42nd Parallel

, were published as the single volume entitled

U.S.A.

In

The Big Money

, America rides the booms and busts of the 1920s towards the close of a tumultuous decade, the looming abyss of the Great Depression, and the novel’s final vision of a divided nation. The four formally distinct sections present in the earlier books continue to define the structure of this monumental work of modernist fiction: the Camera Eye which follows a subjective and somewhat autobiographical trajectory, the Newsreels composed of scraps from contemporary periodicals, the brief biographies of famous men and women, and the “traditional”…

2361 words

Citation: Afflerbach, Ian. "The Big Money". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 06 September 2011 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1464, accessed 23 November 2024.]

1464 The Big Money 3 Historical context notes are intended to give basic and preliminary information on a topic. In some cases they will be expanded into longer entries as the Literary Encyclopedia evolves.

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