The Analysis Of The Symbolic Art In Manhattan Transfer

John Dos Passos is a maverick genius in the history of literature because of his creation in the new techniques,such as camera lens,the newsreel,character biographies,combined different fate and social history together. At the same time, Influenced by The American imagism and avantgarde after World War I and impressionist paintings,his novel has a obvious symbolic color. Based on previous studies,this paper mainly discusses the symbolic art in Manhattan Transfer.The symbolic art of Manhattan Transfer embodies images, symbolic characters and symbolic theme.Ferry, water, fire and color often appear in the novel with various symbolic meanings.The water and fire are the symbols of destructive power and desire.While the color have different meaning due to different occasions.The using of these images deepened the theme that the reality corroded people’s bodies and heart.The symbolic characters mainly divided into two parts.Alan,Baldwin, Gaodewyze belong to the first kind,they approve the capitalist tools rational rule. They focus on the utility, be blinded by gain.They are typical examples of "alienation".In the second place, the characters such as Jim,Cathy, Stan oppose this rule.They disgust the capitalist survival law,clearly see the poison of society to people’s heart.They expressed their revolt to this rule in different ways.The theme of novel discussed the intertextuality in symbol theme between Manhattan Transfer and the Bible,and point out that the novel is how to through these "ruined city" such as Sodom, Nineveh and Babylon to express the topics. Finally,it combined symbolism with realism to further point out that the writer actually expressed his observation by a symbolic world.The innovation of narrative technique made the combination between symbolic art and theme more perfect.Passos have many deplorable roles and themes.We can observe his anxiety from the accurate portrayal to life and appearance of New York city.He not only concerned about the destiny of man,but also people’s status.The heroes that he portrayed is not a man but the society.