JOURNAL NO.7

The character focused on in this excerpt from Dos Passos’ novel, Three Soldiers, is one of the most realistic characters I have read about in a long time. Andrews, an American soldier during World War I, is doing his best to cope with the war and be optimistic about it’s end. 

Dos Passos’ language is impeccably detailed and descriptive. From the way he describes the eyes of a boy in a restaurant to the way the mist moves throughout the night, I constantly have a picture in my mind of what’s going on. A beautifully and carefully crafted painting that could be mistaken for a photograph. 

Andrews, to me, seems to be an extremely relatable guy. I mean, I couldn’t necessarily relate to anyone who took part in the first World War, but if I could, it would be to Andrews. 

His emotions are complicated yet simple — who wouldn't feel the way he does? But, let’s wait a second, what are his emotions any way? 

In my personal opinion, Andrews seems like your typical lost soldier. I don’t mean physically lost but mentally. It’s clear that he dreads the war and everything about it. The way that Dos Passos goes about showing the hate Andrews has for the war is one of my favorite parts of this excerpt. 

It’s when Andrews first gets off the train that took him from Paris back to his faction of the army. Dos Passos compares the feeling of having reluctant feet to continue on his way to the base to Andrews’ reluctant feet when he was going back to boarding school as a kid. 

This comparison was the first thing that made me feel as though I could relate to Andrews. Although I’ve never gone to boarding school or had to fight in an army, I have experienced the feeling of reluctance towards the simple act of placing one foot after the other to go somewhere. I think the one place that I experience this feeling the most is when I’m making my way to the airport. It sounds a little silly, but whenever I have to leave somewhere, actually get on a plane and go to a far away place, I feel resistant. When I’m leaving home to go somewhere else, I have a feeling of not wanting to be away from home. When I’m leaving a place that I had been visiting, I have a feeling of not wanting to go back home. 

Although my reluctance and Andrews’ reluctance are completely different, I know I can relate to the feeling of having a hard time taking a few steps just to get somewhere. 

By drawing this line of comparison, to walking to one’s school building and walking to one’s army division site, a huge sense of reality comes over the reader. These are two very human and relatable feelings to have. I think it’s safe to say that everyone at one point or another has had a difficult time physically walking somewhere they don’t necessarily want to be. 

By making his character relatable, Dos Passos is successful in depicting reality rather than a summary. 

It’s realistic for one to feel reluctance. It’s realistic for one to compare a current feeling to one they had in the past. 

As Dos Passos continues, he explains that Andrews was going back and forth in his mind, trying to find some optimism or hope in the seemingly depressing time he was facing. By describing everything Andrews was telling himself and thinking, the reader gets a sense that Andrews his a real person. That he has real feelings and real thoughts. Questioning his sanity is something that I think almost everyone has done at least once in their lives. 

The other aspect of Dos Passos’ writing that makes his work seem like reality is his descriptions of physical settings. He writes, 

The fog swirled about him, hiding wistful friendly faces, hands ready to meet his hands, eyes ready to take fire with his glance, lips cold with the mist, to be crushed under his lips. "From the girl at the singing under her street- lamp..." 

And he walked on alone through the drifting fog. (7)

I read over this quote a number of times, and each time I had the same exact picture in my mind. I see the figure of a man walking through the fog, as it molds with his movements. I can almost feel his yearn for someone to be next to him or with him. I can almost feel the cold against my lips as they become dry and chapped. 

To me, this is magical. It’s magical that one can get such a true and realistic thought or photo in their imagination through the use of just a few words. This ability to make fictional words become real is magical. 

This description makes the work seem like reality.