USA and conclusion

Dos Passos’s USA shows us the American society through the lives of twelve characters and their position in the social structure of the USA during the modern era. 

“Tin Lizzie” is the story of Henry Ford, the businessman who creates the car industry.  He achieves the success thanks to his resolution and his self-esteem.  Despite his success and his brilliant capacities to be a leader, Ford ends his life on his father’s farm far from money and fame. In fact he found happiness in the simple life after many years of obstacles.

“The Bitter Drink” is the biography of a Norwegian Professor moved to the USA, where he found a capitalistic society damaged by the needs to make money. His inspiration was Karl Marx which had supported his “common man” point of view and has helped him to analyze and criticize the corrupt American social system.

Obviously my favourite one is “Architect”, the life of my work’s inspiration: Frank Lloyd Wright.  This time, thanks to the author, I had the opportunity to read about him from a different point of view.  Moreover, I have finally seen a piece of writing quite critical to Wright, which is not easy to find in the Architecture’s literature. “Architect” talks about the success of Wright, thanks to his clever use of new materials such as steel, glass and concrete in a personal and innovative way.  Nevertheless, he confirmed his success with the Imperial Hotel in Tokyo, which survived to a strong earthquake in 1923. The “dark side” of Frank Lloyd Wright came out with his arrogance after many years of success and fame. However, many of his projects remain on paper or unfinished.  In conclusion, Wright understood that he was not in the place where he would like to be and the buildings determine the lives of workers, like the cells in the honeycomb determine the bees’ functions.

As Faust developed by making endless sacrifices, the protagonists of these biographies achieve their dreams and success, but they are not fully happy yet. The paradox of the American social system made these men incomplete, despite their fame.  They are in different way alienated from the society, where the theory of the  ¥€$” (¥en, €uro and $ Dollar) brings them to an endless way to happiness.  Who knows if contemporary “Archi-stars”, such as Zaha Hadid, have the same feeling? Their Architecture like UFOs decided by the ¥€$ will give them only money or some happiness? In the “Fountainhead” we found another character like them: Kent Smith. He found the way of the success by copying and complying with the art critics, but in the end he understood his mistakes and finished his life in shame.

Finally, my journey in this course of “Critical thinking” shows me that there are not easy ways to be satisfied with ourselves. After all, if we will follow our ideas and if we will fight for them, we can be proud of ourselves. The contemporary society gives us the opportunity to achieve our goals, but any false step can take us down to the bottom.