The Big Money | Characters
Like the rest of the U.S.A. trilogy, The Big Money reminds one of Balzac or Tolstoi in its breadth of diverse yet interesting characters. Many minor figures, like Anderson's mechanic Bill Cermak, Morehouse's client E. R. Bingham, French's associate Gus Moscowski, or Dowling's husband Sam Margolies come to life with brilliant Dickensian brush strokes. This analysis, however, will be limited to a discussion of the four major characters as variations on the central social concerns and themes.
Lieutenant Anderson epitomizes what is best, and worst, in Dos Passos's America. A decorated fighter pilot, Charley goes into business designing components for the new aviation industry. His designs are so good that he is recruited by rival companies, and his success tempts him to sell out his friends and to enter into associations with ruthless people. His courtship and betrayal by a wealthy New York girl compound his culturally-acquired distaste for the grime of labor, and he sells out Joe Askew in a drunken rage at his girlfriend when she marries within her social class.
The destructive components of Charley's story are thus established: energy and creativity compromised by folly in interpersonal relationships, drunken sprees, distaste for the labor of production, and a hunger for wealth and leisure. With no firm moral basis to work from, he becomes a progressively distasteful character. His drinking increases and his unfortunate marriage deteriorates as he becomes a philanderer and a drunken braggart. As his business associates try to force him out of the company, he works with sleazy Florida politicians and gains a reputation as a Wall Street wizard, but by now he is merely a shell of the man he once was. His boasting and drinking involve him in a foolish auto accident, but he gains a hint of tragic stature as he recalls on his deathbed that his happiness was in inventing, not in making money. But it is too late for Anderson. His deathbed is