John Dos Passos, The Grand Design

David C. Dougherty (Loyola University Maryland)

Ed. by Stephen E. Meats, Pittsburg State University
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1949

Places

United States (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Novel

Resources

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Recommended Reading

The Grand Design

is a fitting conclusion to John Dos Passos’s trilogy of disillusionment,

District of Columbia,

at once more innovative and more despairing than the other two components. During the next decade Dos Passos would concentrate on historical and autobiographical writing; his two novels from that time (

Chosen Country

, 1951 and

Most Likely to Succee

d, 1954) would be a substantial decline artistically.

The Grand Design

is less balanced in tone than the

U.S.A.

trilogy because Dos Passos has fallen victim to a tendency that is nearly inevitable for political satirists. He has begun to see politics as uniformly good and evil; his characters cease to be multi-dimensional, or real people who happen to practice politics. Now they tend to be one-dimensional political figures; moreover,…

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2902 words

Citation: Dougherty, David C.. "The Grand Design". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 27 November 2015 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=708, accessed 25 April 2024.]

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