Manhattan Transfer Chapter Summary

By the 1920s, New York had become a world centre of manufacturing and culture. It was home to several million residents and welcomed domestic migrants by road and rail and international immigrants by boat, who “fed the city’s thriving economy.” (“America on the Move”) This influx of new people, an intermingling of cultures and languages, was only reinforced by the great migration of African Americans, beginning around 1915, moving from the southern states to major northern cities, fuelled by “a combination of the desire to escape oppressive economic conditions in the south and the promise of greater prosperity in the north” (The Great Migration”). Its coastal, northern position allowed New York to flourish, becoming a powerhouse of commerce and, as described in Manhattan Transfer, the second city in the world. (25)

The increasing presence of mass transportation was one element of industrialisation that significantly affected American society at the turn of the 20th century, and one on which this essay will place some considerable focus. Travel to places outside of one’s hometown became easier, especially for the wealthy, while migration to the emerging metropolitan cities to live and work became a more accessible and desirable prospect for people both domestic and
Dos Passos’ use of the sensory makes the city brighter, more vivid. The acoustics of the book reverberate; it is loud and constant and always reminding us of its noise. The addition of the visual and olfactory elements provides a very real image of place and empathy in a way that, even within the limited sensory possibilities of a black and white, silent short film, Sheeler and Strand do not portray in Manhatta. The sensory overload of living in the city is particularly clear when Jimmy experiences the entirety of the cityscape from his bed, unable to