John Dos Passos
Almost every one writer can say that they are influenced by their
childhood and past. Memories flood back to them as they encounter a similar
experience or similar situation in their earlier years. No doubt a
significant factor in their writing, the past from a specific writer's life
usually adds more depth and complexity to their works. Because these
previous experiences are from the author's actual life, the scenes and
subjects related to the theme are more accurate and realistic, and may even
be more appealing to read. These past voices may appear either consciously
through the author's works, or sometimes unconsciously, guided maybe by
some early childhood memory. Well, whatever the ...
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his parents were not officially married until in
1910, he was considered "illegitimate" for about 14 years; this theme of
alienation is found in many of his writings. Most of the time spent during
his childhood was with his mother, who travelled abundantly, and this was
the time where he grew closer to his mother and started to drift away from
the man he called "dad". His travels with his mom led him to places such as
Mexico, Belgium, and England. Dos Passos's association with France began
when he was very young, and his knowledge of the language was quite
thorough. Much of his French expertise is showed off in his works,
including Manhattan Transfer.
Dos Passos first attended school in the District of Colombia. As he
grew up, he spent some of his childhood in Tidewater Virginia. He began
attending Choate School where his first published writings were articles
for the Choate School News. Upon completing Choate School at the age of
fifteen, he entered Harvard University in ...
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to American fiction. The themes of
this novel are typical of Dos Passos's work: alienation, loneliness,
frustration, and loss of individuality but Manhattan Transfer " was his
first success at creating a 'collective novel' where a unifying theme is
conveyed through multiple facets of character and situation." (Wrenn,32) He
borrowed styles from Flaubert, Zola, Balzac, James Joyce, and T.S. Eliot
and found many technical and artistic ideas in early twentieth century
French literature.
Taking segments of his life, Dos Passos intermingled it with his
imagination to make Manhattan Transfer what it is. The autobiography is
placed almost entirely within the life of a single fictional ...
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John Dos Passos. (2006, August 14). Retrieved October 28, 2025, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/John-Dos-Passos/50757
"John Dos Passos." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 14 Aug. 2006. Web. 28 Oct. 2025. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/John-Dos-Passos/50757>
"John Dos Passos." Essayworld.com. August 14, 2006. Accessed October 28, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/John-Dos-Passos/50757.
"John Dos Passos." Essayworld.com. August 14, 2006. Accessed October 28, 2025. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/John-Dos-Passos/50757.
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