The
question of the meaning of America has been asked many times throughout history
and many different perspectives have led to that question having different
answers, depending on either the author who wrote the answer or the time at
which the answer was given. In Lynd Ward’s
Vertigo, the answer is given with the
backdrop of the Great Depression. The
world has a dark tint to it now for those who live in it and values have been
turned upside down. Many who had strong
beliefs and hope before the Depression now are cynical and no longer believe in
a bright future. In Vertigo’s 1929 section, there is evidence of this cynicism and
gloomy viewpoint in the images that Ward selected. These images serve as quick flashpoints in
American history, but teaching the history is not their main point. They are trying to show how America began as
such a promise and then degraded in to the twilight that is the U.S. in
1929. What was supposed to be a bright
future for the citizens who came here became a twisted shade of a dream in
which workers were exploited by industry.
The first image in the sequence is of a ship,
possibly meant to be the Mayflower, heading into the distance towards a skyline
that is illuminated by a bright star. This
ship could be meant to symbolize the making of our country and future. There are two key points in this image to be
interpreted along with the ship itself, and the first of which is the
lighting. The single large star in sky
represents the bright future that America could have in a new world, and the ship
follows it towards certain prosperity.
Also on the stern of the ship the single lantern has its own aura of
light which shines as the hope of the passengers for what is to come when they
land at their new home. The second point
to consider is the fact that the ship is sailing away from view into the
background, and after seeing the other pictures in the section it becomes
apparent that this directionality is a foreshadowing. The bright promise that the ship held is
sailing away just as America will eventually turn away from its path and move
towards the darkness that it is in 1929.
The capability for the country to be what it was meant to be was there
at the beginning but it was swept into the new age and corrupted so that it no
longer inspired such confidence in the citizenry as it did before.
The foreshadowing is downplayed in the next few
images in which the typical American spirit is shown by expected
representations. A pilgrim doing honest
work, farming his land with a musket in his hand, ready to defend what was his
against an encroaching Indian. Buildings
rise to mark our progress and show how far we are coming. The images of the Revolution and wagons going
west bring up the themes of American bravery and adventurism. But with the picture of the railroad
expanding we see why the foreshadowing was there. A cursory glance shows expansion being driven
by American brawn and with the strength of the man swinging the hammer nothing
can stand in the way. But what the image
really shows is industry and profit riding on the backs railroad workers who
are not valued as citizens but just as labor to fuel the machine owned by the
rich men who pull the strings. During
the 19th century when the trans-continental railroads were being
built, it was incredibly dangerous and men were often pushed beyond their limit
by the bosses who were only interested in making money. This frame points to that motive that is soon
to be normal in our country. The next
picture shows how that has become a reality.
A laborer is bent under the strain of his work while tall metal
structures rise above him and smokestacks release black smoke into an already
blackened sky. The workers are realizing
that the promise of America has been taken from them by the corporate owners
and Wall Street men. The final image in
this short history pocket book is that of a businessman doing exactly what the
book is commenting on. He stands tall,
inviting everyone to see the glistening gem of a city that has risen out of
nothing while the sun shines down.
Unfortunately the sun is shining through a small hole in the cloud of
pollution created by the smokestacks in the background, and the man stands
there simply because honest workers were exploited just so he could take credit
for it all.
Several images in the Elderly Gentleman section
correlate to the reality that this “pocket book” attempts to mask over. In the January section, one of the
businessmen holds up a graph showing their profits are down. Many people are going to lose their jobs and
the country is going to suffer, but all they care about is the fact that they
won’t make as much money as they did before.
This is part of the darkness that has grabbed America in 1929, where the
employers no longer care about the employed, just that they can provide those
employers with profit. Later in the June
and July sections there are riots by the workers, demanding recognition for
what they do. They are rebelling against
the façade that the pocket book represents, rebelling against the idea that a
future is being molded by the hard working American, because the history is not
saying that the hard working American is being crushed down under the heel of
big business and industry. In the image
where the crowd has the poster, “Don’t Scab: Fight for a Decent Living,” the
people are trying to get what they deserve and armed guardsmen put them down at
the point of a bayonet. In this image
the contrast in size between the crowd’s poster and the eagle at the top of the
gate represents how overpowering the corporation is. The eagle is reminiscent of the Iron Eagle in
Germany, and during the 1930’s the German government was ruthless in coercing
the population into agreement with their views.
Similarly, the corporation in this Vertigo
image doesn’t care about how the workers feel, they are powerless to do
anything about it.
This pocket book in Vertigo, while it is very brief, tells us something about an
important viewpoint of 1929 and the years that followed. That bright future that was so ingrained into
the American dream had been darkened and changed into something that no longer
gave hope to the common people, especially when they needed it the most during
the Great Depression. The wealthy
businessman at the top of the pyramid smiling down and proclaiming that the
country was a beacon to the world was just a bad joke to those below.
I completely agree with your description and relation of the American history being used to show the promise that there once was in America. The ship analysis is well written, but could also expand some on the choppy waters the ship is sailing in and how that could relate to what the ship had to sail away from to find the bright future. Also, the paragraph talking more in depth about the next pages of the history were a good interpretation of what the author was trying to convey, and the deeper meaning of the pictures do show the struggle of the working man being exploited by the businessman. I also looked at the context in which the story was being told and thought maybe the graduation speaker was trying to motivate the graduating class to become part of something bigger than themselves. He himself is acting like a businessman in that situation, but the class is naive to how the world is during this time, so he can build them up before reality hits them after graduation. This man and his intentions could be expanded on some to add another angle to the brief history interpretation.
ReplyDeleteThe paragraph about the Elderly Gentleman could be cut out or expanded on to relate it back to the brief history in more detail. His own transformation from a man with big dreams who may have started in the country somewhere, to a man overwhelmed by the big city and his business. In the scenes where the board members are looking to him for answers about the declining profit, he is shown as a weaker figure in the picture compared to everyone else. He may be questioning some of the decisions he was forced or chose to make, now that he is sick and facing his own mortality. I think this would be a good paragraph to expand some on and relate the Elderly Gentleman’s transformation with the transformation of America.
Your first paragraph is a little generic - rather than starting with particular images or problems, you start out big. This is usually something you want to avoid, because it leads you toward arguments like this: "What was supposed to be a bright future for the citizens who came here became a twisted shade of a dream in which workers were exploited by industry." This is a big topic, which is a bit of a problem, but it is also dangerously close to being obvious. Can you imagine, for instance, that anyone who read the book would really disagree with this statement? You want to argue something which is both more focused and more challenging.
ReplyDeleteYou move into two long paragraphs in which you summarize too much, but still have something very clear to say: Ward is basically providing a labor-oriented, critical history of the U.S. That's good, although it took you a little too long and it's a little unclear what you're doing with that observation.
The third paragraph has similar problems - you expend too much effort summarizing and not enough figuring out what focused conclusions you are trying to pursue. Your grasp of Ward's thoughts on corporate America and how it relates to the world, and how he shows that through images, is quite good. I like the observation bout the Iron Eagle - but you don't take the line of argument which would emerge from that - that Ward is attacking American for being or becoming a fascist country. The implication you *might* draw is that the roots of American fascism are visible in the history given by the principal - that what seems like optimism is something quite different.
I'm not saying you need to take that line of argument - my point is that you have much of the material of an interesting argument here, but that you aren't quite making it, because you do too much summarization and not quite enough analysis, which would actually pull those pieces together.