"The 42nd Parallel"

Paper Summary:

The paper analyzes how, in John Dos Passos' novel, "The 42nd Parallel", work has a dual significance in the lives of the characters of Mac and Janey. The paper explores how work can be profoundly empowering to the individual and allow the individual to live the life he 'likes,' in terms of providing money to establish independence from the family and buying consumer goods. The paper further explores how, from a societal perspective, the ways that workers are viewed in American capitalist society and the ways that employers regard their workers, often as disposable commodities, is fundamentally misguided.

From the Paper:

" Hard work provides an income, and thus personally independence, from the need to remain dependent upon one's family. Feeling independent can itself be spiritually uplifting, and the impersonal nature of paid work and its ability to give one's self autonomy outside the family can be valuable, especially for women. For example, some of the hardest work in the novel is the work performed by women. "The strike [of the mill workers] was not popular on Orchard Street. It meant that Mom had to work harder and harder, doing bigger and bigger boilersful of wash."(16) Not even the advocates of the laborers, mostly male, appreciate the amount of unpaid and unrecognized work performed by women. Because work around the home is not paid work, both laboring men and women alike tend to devalue housework like washing and sewing, even though they require it to survive."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Passos, John Dos. The 42nd Parallel. Library of America Series. New York, 1996.

More papers on "The 42nd Parallel":

• Analytical Essay # 46401 : "Progressivism and "U.S.A.:The 42nd Parallel"
• Essay # 49784 : "Fidelity from the Homeric Perspective"
• Book Review # 109074 : "Oscar Wilde's "The Picture of Dorian Gray"

APA Citation:

MLA Citation: