Camera Eye
“The Camera Eye” sections within
the USA trilogy reflect the author's own life and experiences.
The foreword to The 42nd
Parallel, written by E.L Doctorow, describes these sections as being the “most
enigmatic interludes.” Unlike the Newsreels and brief biographies, “The
Camera Eye” includes the author within the narrative--they are his own
experiences.
They begin with Dos Passos's experiences as a child with his mother [see The Camera Eye(1)] and progress to include his time at Harvard and his tours of duty with the ambulance corps during World War I. In these sections, Dos Passos takes the most mundane events, such as walking along the grass with his mother, and relates them through simple, sometimes incomplete sentences.. The reader can place Dos Passos thoughts inside his or her own head and experience exactly what the narrator does.
“The Camera Eye” also reveals the evolution of Dos Passos's political and social views through divulging his personal experiences and the thoughts. Within “The Camera Eye” the reader is given insights into Dos Passos’s views on capitalism, the American people, and World War I. These views thus fit together with the biographies, Newsreels, and characters within the USA trilogy.when you walk along the street you have to step carefully always on the cobbles so as not to step on the bright anxious grassblades easier if you hold Mother's hand and hang on it that way you can kick up your toes but walking fast you have to tread on too many grassblades the poor hurt green tongues shrink under your feet maybe that's why those people are so angry and follow us shaking their fists they're throwing stones grownup people throwing stones She's walking fast and we're running her pointed toes sticking out sharp among the poor trodden grassblades under the shaking folds of the brown cloth dress Englander a pebble tinkles along the cobbles
Quick darling quick in the postcard shop it's quiet the angry people are outside and can't come in non nein nicht englander amerikanish americain ocj Amerika Vive l'Amerique She laughs My dear they had me right frightened
war on the veldt Kruger Bloemfontain Ladysmith and Queen Victoria an old lady in a pointed lace cap sent chocolate to the soldiers at Christmas
under the counter it's dark and the lady the nice dutch lady who loves
Americans and has relations in Trenton shows you postcards that shine in the
dark pretty hotels and palaces O que c'est beau schön prittie prittie
and the moonlight ripple ripple under a bridge and the little
reverbères are alight in the dark under the counter and the little windows of
hotels around the harbour O que c'est beau la lune
and the big moon