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Theodore Dreiser and the Essence of American Capitalism
2008-12-23 Vitaly Ponomarenko Print version
Dreiser and modernity
The literary works of Theodor Herman Albert Dreiser are included in the fund of classical world literature.
And it's not just like that.
After all, the results of his creative activity, his hard work, such as "Sister Kerry" (1900), " Jenny Gerhardt "(1911)," The Financier "(1912)," Titan "(1914)," Genius "(1916)," American Tragedy "(1925)," Stoic " (1929) - all these novels remain relevant today.
Their relevance and interest is expressed by the fact that the problems posed by the American writer about a century ago remain unresolved today.
But at the same time, they require an urgent solution now.
After all, if in novels, as a rule, we worry only about the fate of the characters, then in real life we must decide our fate, the fate of future generations, correcting the mistakes of our grandfathers and great grandfathers.
The latter statement is not quite correct in relation to Dreiser's novels.
His heroes are not fictional characters, and he himself was not a clairvoyant and did not invent a time machine to predict the upcoming problems of humanity.
The writer was only a professional journalist, a hardworking person who was not indifferent to the problems that the American people faced in the late XIX and early XX centuries.
He simply honestly, in detail, accurately, but in a literary form, described the social relations in which he himself lived, and which he wanted to change for the better.
And the fact that most, if not all, of the problems described in the novels of Theodore Dreiser remain relevant even now is confirmed by the fact that social relations in American society have hardly changed over the past century.
And although various scientists call our era such words as" information society"," post industrial society"," neoliberalism", the essence of relations does not change from the name change.
Market relations were 100 years ago, and they remain market relations now.
However, there are differences: Dreiser described the social relations of his homeland, one country - the United States.
Now, describing the relations of this one country, we describe the relations of most countries of the world that directly or indirectly depend on the United States, the entire global world.
And the realities and problems that faced American society in the era of Theodore Dreiser are now facing all of humanity.
And they are the most acute, and require an immediate solution.
This is proved by the "modern" economic, political, theoretical, cultural, and environmental crisis.
Why in quotation marks, the reader will ask?
Yes, because in market relations such crises are a regular constant phenomenon.
And Dreiser pays great attention to them in his novels.
"The Trilogy of Desire"
One of the strongest novels of the writer, which most accurately, in all the subtleties hidden from the views of ordinary citizens, reveals the essence of capitalist (market) relations, is his "Trilogy of Desire".
It consists of the books "Financier", "Titan" and "Stoic".
All the events of the novel of the trilogy unfold in the second half of the XIX early XX century around the life and work of Frank Cowperwood.
It is his personality, which is formed and developed, is included in social relations as a capitalist, acts according to the logic of capitalist relations.
Breaking traditions, outdated social principles, embodying the collective image of capitalism as a whole.
The title of the three parts of the trilogy is a collective image of the personality of Frank Cowperwood, shown in the process of development.
Of course, we will not completely retell the plot of the book.
Firstly, it is simply impossible to do this in one article, and secondly, we do not want to deprive the reader of the opportunity to enjoy reading Dreiser's novel, which is one of his most interesting literary creations.
But we are simply obliged to get interested in the novel by citing some important points similar to our current life, drawing a parallel between the past and the present.
It should also be noted that the American writer does not invent the plot of this novel out of his head.
The "Trilogy of Desires" is based on the life of the American financier Ch.
Yerkes. [http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Йеркс,_charles Tyson]
All his main biographical twists, both ups and downs, were used by the author of the novel.
In the novel" The Financier " - the first part of the trilogy, the young hero F. Cowperwood, thanks to his hard work on the one hand, but mostly due to a combination of circumstances, and, of course, the influence of the commercial environment surrounding him since childhood in Philadelphia, begins to work with securities on the stock exchange.
Starting with small but successful speculations, he gradually attracts the attention of the" bigwigs of the city", who, with the help of a promising financier, increase their fortunes.
Cowperwood himself does not remain offended, who is gradually making capital for himself.
All this activity is accompanied by bribery of officials and the municipality, illegal use of the city treasury, illegal acquisition of city concessions.
However, during the economic crisis associated with the Great Chicago Fire, his companions turn away from him.
As a result, Cowperwood loses his entire fortune, and he is put in prison.
But he does not despair, and after being released, he continues to act in the direction that he considers right, and gradually reaches his goal.
This is the accumulation of wealth by any means.
Because of his imprisonment in Philadelphia, the road to high society is closed for him.
That's why he's moving to Chicago.
It is here that the formation of his power takes place, he becomes a "titan".
This is the name of the second part of the trilogy, which describes his activities in the "City of the Winds".
In this part, Dreiser was able to show all the" charm " of capitalist relations, the power of money over people.
In the last novel of the "Stoic" trilogy, the hero transfers his activities and influence to London.
Reading the novel, analyzing the activities of Frank Cowperwood, we can not help but draw a parallel with the activities of modern oligarchs.
It seems that Dreiser took for his hero a collective image of our capitalists, or as it is now fashionable - entrepreneurs.
Our "bigwigs of the city", as the writer calls them (and we can call them "bigwigs of the country", "bigwigs of the commonwealth of countries", or, worst of all, "bigwigs of the world") they also set themselves the accumulation of capital as an end in itself.
All their activities, from lowering wages and raising food prices, new reforms and changes in the course of national policy, to repairing roads and building new modern buildings, charity, opening new schools and new homes for orphans, financing scientific activities - all this is connected exclusively with stuffing their pockets with profit.
But Dreiser took this image from C. Yerkes, whose life dates are 1837-1905.
And the most interesting thing is that the methods of increasing profits have not changed a single gram, because society has not changed a single gram.
Only the scale of activity has increased tens and hundreds of times.
The economic crisis through the eyes of Dreiser and a hundred years later
This topic, which is raised by Theodore Dreiser in his novel, is more relevant than ever in our time, when every day we feel the effects of the global economic crisis more and more strongly.
Of course, there are people who claim that there is no crisis, that everything is going on as usual, and that "the devil is not as terrible as he is painted".
But sighted people have long noted that the crisis is not a fictional phenomenon.
It actually affects people's lives.
Directly through layoffs, reduction or non payment of salaries, reduction of working hours or unpaid leave, or indirectly through an increase in the prices of basic necessities, the termination of loans, turning off the heat in residential buildings, educational and medical institutions, an increase in crime and banditry (which is associated with an increase in the number of unemployed, beggars).
Although, are these indirect factors?
There is a crisis, it has been going on for several years, although people began to feel it seriously this year.
And they will feel even more in the next one.
Those who understand this and claim it are undoubtedly right.
But then the majority of" sighted " people develop an erroneous point of view.
Some argue that the crisis is a planned phenomenon, others - that it hit the economy of a particular country because of the anti crisis measures not prepared in time.
By the way, in most cases, this is confirmed by the high sitting and far looking officials themselves.
In reality, economic crises, which are only a consequence of overproduction crises, are a natural development of market relations, capitalism.
This was deduced and shown in his book "Capital" by K. Marx, tabooed by modern society.
The fact that these crises are periodic and are a natural part of market relations is also shown by the entire history of the development of capitalism.
Neither Dreiser nor his hero disputes this.
It was the crisis, the reason for which was the Great Chicago Fire (October 10, 1871), which caused a panic on the stock exchange, that caused the bankruptcy of the hero of the novel.
A bold game on the stock exchange, fraud, bribing officials, taking large loans, using the city's treasury to their advantage, all this brought profit in a calm, "peaceful" time.
With the support of local "bigwigs", all competitors, small fish, were gradually eliminated.
But the crisis broke out, an economic war began.
The small fish all floated up with its belly.
It is feverish, and it is not suitable for use.
Eating it only brings the end of the big sharks of the capitalists closer.
They need fresh blood.
You need to look for it either outside the infected area, finding new markets, or eating your own shark partners.
As did Frank Cowperwood's partners.
His partners framed him, left him without support, put him in prison, and distributed his property among themselves.
Some would have committed suicide in such a situation, others would have resigned themselves to their impoverished fate.
But Frank is not like that.
He, brave, determined, young, only "wrapped up" this life lesson, forever remembering it.
And now, after getting out of prison, he again begins the path of a financier, again uses the methods of fighting competitors familiar to him, that is, he acts according to the rules of the free market - competition.
He, who has learned from his bitter experience, knows all the "underwater reefs", is preparing for a new crisis.
Cowperwood does not know when it will happen, but he has no doubt that it will happen.
And here comes the crisis, its causes are different, there is no fire, it is just a natural phenomenon of capitalism.
One solid lender firm went bust.
There is panic everywhere, people are trying to save at least some savings.
And only Cowperwood is cold blooded, he does not care about the fate of others - he is a capitalist shark, he swims and eats other fish that is convulsing.
It is beneficial for him that this epidemic, a new crisis, continues as long as possible in order to absorb more and more competitors.
He does not care about dozens of closed enterprises, about thousands of hungry people.
He just becomes a rich man, these are the laws of competition.
And they did the same to him when he was young.
He acts openly and fearlessly, he is confident in his rightness, and for his openness, high society looks at him with indignation.
In the future, he will repeatedly ask himself the moral question: why " does he always have to face such a frenzied opposition, why has he already seen himself on the verge of death more than once?
Is it because he is considered immoral?
But the others are no better.
Most people are immoral in spite of religious dogma and inflated morality imposed on them from above.
Perhaps the fact is that he does not know how to rule surreptitiously, without suppressing others with his personality, and he is too annoying to everyone's eyes" [2, p.444].
Perhaps so.
Modern "entrepreneurs" have been doing this for a long time, and Cowperwood will learn to do it.
But here, having made a fortune, he came into conflict with the same capitalist sharks who acted as universal morality, condemning Frank, they forced him to look for another place to swim.
He's moving to Chicago.
Where it is also open, without stopping at anything and before anyone, it continues to increase its capital.
Here he meets the new capitalist crisis with his head held high.
To some extent, it accelerates it.
The reason for the crisis was the collapse of a huge enterprise with millions of capital investments "American Match".
The company had to develop by mortgaging its shares against a loan from banks.
The late repayment of loans served as a reason for the creditors to throw shares of banks on the market, which in turn caused their prices to fall.
Other creditor banks demanded that the owners of the enterprise immediately return the loans.
The owners of the "American Match" were forced to remortgage shares below the value of other "bigwigs of the city", from credit companies that also belonged to the same "bigwigs".
One of these "bigwigs" was Cowperwood, who, through figureheads, gave a loan to "American Match" and took the shares of the enterprise as collateral, immediately threw them on the market, easily earning a million dollars.
The "bigwigs of Chicago" who performed the same operations, but secretly, secretly, swearing to other partners in their good intentions to save the "American Match" were outraged by Cowperwood's actions.
They were about to get even with him, but Frank, with the help of blackmail, explained to them that it was much better for their own good to give a broken "Match"to be punished.
Which is what happened afterwards.
And no one was interested in the fact that the collapse of enterprises left thousands of people out of work, it's just a simple competition.
After this enterprise, several more went bankrupt, several credit companies collapsed.
This is the essence of capitalism.
After all, "the man himself is by no means so stingy or stingy, he nevertheless perceived his financial failures the most painfully of all earthly troubles.
Too often he had to see how strong and restless people were thrown into the landfill because of some accident or miscalculation, like unnecessary trash" [2, p. 418].
Therefore, in order not to find yourself in such a delicate situation, you need to crush your neighbor, bankrupt him, deprive him of the means of existence.
The market does not allow us to act differently.
After all, " in this circle (the circle of the American elite - VP), poverty was considered a dangerous topic.
One reminder of her was terrifying; there was something unforgivable in poverty - as in the gravest crime or vice" [2, p. 504].
We are seeing the same situation now.
As for the current crisis, it is becoming more and more difficult to resolve it.
Only because not all methods of solving work anymore.
On the one hand, it is becoming more and more difficult to find new markets for reproduced goods, in the modern global world it is even certainly impossible to do this.
And it is also becoming increasingly difficult to find a shark of a businessman who could be sacrificed, because the capitalist world is becoming one big monopoly, a transnational corporation.
Of course, capitalist society has come up with new ways to overcome overproduction crises, namely, a depression or a world war, which dispose of excess goods, "extra" productive force (that is, a person) and allow starting the capitalist cycle anew.
But does this suit us, ordinary citizens?
Are we ready to give up our lives, the lives of people close to us, for the sake of prolonging the torment?
The state is the guarantor of market relations
But one way or another, people still hope for the best.
They vaguely, but still see the solution to their problems in the elected candidates.
Ukrainians are in yushchenkas, Yanukovichas, timoshenkas, Litvins and simonenkas.
For Russians, everything is much easier P utin and Medvedev are the same candidate.
For US voters, in order not to complicate their life with thinking, and in order to see "democracy" in action, two candidates are always nominated: from Republicans and from Democrats.
In modern society, there is an illusion that the choice of one or another president will improve the lives of ordinary people.
All countries are looking at the elections in the last country (the United States) with hope.
After all, many countries of the world depend on its economy.
Is it worth hoping for Obama, after the departure from the white house of the worst of the US presidents so far Bush Jr.?
This is the question posed by modern society.
And Dreiser answers it in the negative, showing the essence of the state system.
This is especially pronounced in the novel "Titan", where Frank Cowperwood, being at the height of his power, uses various methods of influencing the city authorities.
He almost always achieves the tasks set.
Of course, if these tasks do not contradict the interests of other "bigwigs of Chicago".
With ordinary citizens, the issue is solved by manipulation.
"Cowperwood knows perfectly well that when taking up a task that requires the votes of voters and their goodwill to grant this or that privilege, it is necessary first of all to enlist the support of newspapers" [2, p.184].
And then you can nominate your own candidates, buy seats in the Senate or high ranking politicians themselves.
Money solves everything.
While " ordinary citizens who are not privy to these clever machinations, to which officials so often resort for self serving purposes," will be "extremely pleased with such fervent attention to their interests.
Being only pawns in this game, they do not suspect what the true background of all these concerns about their well being is" [Ibid., p. 177].
Even at that time, officials did not particularly care about the welfare of their voters - citizens of the city, they only served one or another "city bigwigs".
What can we say about today's representatives of the authorities?
Cowperwood even contacts a man named Mc Canty, who, on the one hand, has a " bad " reputation, but, on the other hand, a great influence in the municipality of the city.
Here is how Dreiser describes this situation: "Finally everything was ready, and the Cowperwood project was dragged through the municipality.
McKenty, not being quite sure of the outcome of the case, ordered a rocking chair to be installed right in the conference room.
He sat in this chair all the time while the project was being discussed - no more than an outsider in appearance, the true inspirer and director of this production in essence." [Ibid., p. 218]
Of course, it is not always possible to see such a director in the government now, but this does not mean that there is no such director.
It's just that American society has improved the methods of influencing the elected representatives of the people.
And, I'm afraid, the same fate awaits Barack Obama.
Even the "sacred" laws, the US Constitution, are not an obstacle here.
After all, " the legislation has its own loopholes, using which some articles of the law can be hidden under the cloth, where they will become overgrown with dust and gradually fade from memory.
Many of the lofty ideas laid down in the constitution by its creators were subsequently distorted beyond recognition or simply lost their force due to various additional resolutions, municipal treaties, appeals to the federal government, appeals to state legislatures, and so on, and so on" [Ibid., p. 485].
That is, " state self government is not an almshouse."
The powerful of this world, the capitalists, have the right to vote here, and they also use the state exclusively for their greedy personal goals, which, as a rule, do not coincide with the goals of the whole society.
Of course, these are not the only problems posed by Dreiser in the "Trilogy of Desire", there is also an interesting topic of the development and at the same time the degradation of the feelings of the main character, the struggle of capitalist relations with feudal morality, money with human morality, the struggle between the capitalists themselves, and much more.
But our goal is only to interest the reader in the novel, to draw him to the questions posed more than a hundred years ago, and not solved until today, which, however, have become very acute.
So read the world's classical literature, including the outstanding American writer Theodore Dreiser.
And we can only thank the reader for his attention.
List of literature:
1. Dreiser T.
The financier: a novel.
- L.: Lenizdat, 1987.
- 558 p.
2. Dreiser T. Titan: a novel.
- L.: Lenizdat, 1988.
- 573 p.
3. Dreiser T. Stoick; Oplot: novels.
- L.: Lenizdat, 1989.
- 671 p.
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