Gender and Opportunity: The Average Joe vs The Indomitable Jane

Contrary to previous posts, I’m going to take a step away from the Newsreel and Camera Eye sections and focus more on what Don Passos is trying to convey through his fiction, specifically as it appears through the lens of gender. In the second Janey section, from pages 119 to 131, the reader is given an intensely different set of characters to sink their mental teeth into from what we’ve been used to. After we’ve had the appropriate time to absorb the Marxist idealism and socialist ways of thinking from Mac’s perspective, Dos Passos intends to show his audience the exact opposite end of the spectrum by giving us, not only a female perspective, but also a more reasoned, mature perspective in the character of Janey. This is particularly intriguing since (it appears) Mac possesses very little of this common sense, he gets himself into trouble over and over again, yet he still finds himself with more opportunities for business than Janey, and is even given twice as many chapters to simply exist within the same book (which may be a coincidence, but it feels like an important one). Still, Janey seems to be treated with genuine honesty and respect by Dos Passos, something I wouldn’t have expected from many male writers of the time.

From the beginning of the narrative, we see that Mac spends most of his attention on scrounging up a job, or getting paid, or finding any level of assurance that he will somehow be compensated for any amount of work he does. That whatever devotion he has towards protecting and serving his new wife and children will always come second to support his ulterior motive – feeding his obsequious desire for wealth. Everything else is proven secondary. Janey, however, cares far less about earning a quick buck and devotes the majority of her attention toward cultivating her interpersonal relationships. The first of her chapters focuses entirely on her relationship with Joe, or Alec, Alice, her parents, her neighbors, and then only uses its final paragraph to say that “In July Alice and Janey got jobs in the office of Mrs. Robinson, public stenographer in the Riggs Building” (116). We don’t learn much about their career path, only that the last sentence of the section is comprised of a lengthy list of their tedious, difficult jobs typing up various documents that the men are too busy to do for themselves. Then in the following Janey chapter, we immediately break back into Janey’s perspective as she argues with her mother, who, on the topic of her daughter’s work, says, “In my day it wasn’t considered ladylike, it was thought to be demeaning,” and as a result Janey “…began to read the paper every day and take an interest in politics. She began to feel that there was a great throbbing arclighted world somewhere outside and that only living in Georgetown where everything was so poky and oldfashioned…kept her from breaking into it” (119-120). Here we see how one’s gender can make or break an individual’s opportunities in their version of the world provided for them. When Mac took an interest in the new budding concept of “socialism,” or Joe wanted to go to serve his country in the military and escape his heinous father, Janey was berated by her family for simply taking an interest in making a life for herself. Where Mac was considered ambitious as an ignorant boy trying to get a job he wasn’t qualified for, Janey unflinchingly got a difficult job typing up papers for a company and took it as an opportunity to broaden her horizons and build her intelligence. For me, it seems like Dos Passos is using Janey’s section to point out another aspect of inequality in the supposed Land of the Free by showing two individuals in largely similar circumstances be faced with completely opposing results.

And the men in her life aren’t disenfranchised for wanting to make something of themselves either. Joe abandons his family as soon as he gets the chance to go off to war as a soldier, and because he never had such a good relationship with his parents in the first place, Janey’s the only one who feels much of a loss from his absence. By 20ish pages he’s already back again because he couldn’t take the rigid structure of the military, and Janey makes more than one comment about how “if Joe was only a little better educated he’d be able to really appreciate all the interesting ports he visited,” highlighting again not only how much more she would’ve gotten out of the situation than himself, but also how kind and forgiving Janey is towards her brother for leaving her behind. Still, this all seems fine to her, as when she watches him leave, she remarks, “It wasn’t quite the shambling walk of a sailor, but he looked like a working man all right,” which apparently makes all of (Average) Joe’s mistakes perfectly justified in her mind (130-131).

Finally, Janey continues to take an increasing attraction to Jerry, despite the pressing warnings from Alice to keep away, as Alice sees that his presence in her life only serves to crush this free spirit Janey’s cultivated over their time together. She tries to stay away, but his magnetic charm proves too much for her, and after literally kneeing him in the groin to keep him away from her, Janey still loses that “bachelor” vibe she and Alice valued so much. By the end of her chapter, the great significance Janey placed on girl power and not letting men take advantage of them is replaced by a cunning confidence that’s gained in their presence. When Alice warns her about men’s ultimate intentions, Janey would laugh and say “Oh, they’re not so smart,” and the section suddenly ends with the information that Janey now knows how to brighten up her hair and to carefully apply lipstick on her lips before going out.

My question to the class: What do you think Dos Passos intends to say by leaving her section with these details? Is it trying to say that Janey’s becoming more of a slave to the male driven society, or more that she’s been burnt before by not getting her way and that now she’s better learned how to manipulate it to her advantage?