“…Bud is sitting on the railing of the bridge. The sun rose behind Brooklyn. Windows in Manhattan caught fire. He lunges forward, slides, dangles by one hand with the sun in his eyes” (105) . . .Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Unlike Realism and Romanticism, whose philosophical principles were defined following the respective decline of these movements, Modernism was initially situated through the embrace of certain philosophical axioms, particularly the celebration of the struggling individual to find meaning and solidity in a chaotic world. The main cause of the lack of stability in Modernity is the advent of mass industrialization and the birth of metropolises. Through an intricate play on words, Manhattan Transfer, written in 1925 by John Dos Passos, establishes itself as a modernist text par excellence by demonstrating the ability of the metropolis to pulverize the notion of autonomy. Nowhere in the novel is the metropolis-induced loss of individuality more evident than the death of Bud Korpenning. Bud Korpenning is introduced in the third paragraph of the novel, leading readers to believe that he is the protagonist; however, he is the first character to be massacred by the psychological and physical weight of the metropolis, giving his brief role in the text a level of modernist significance unsurpassed by any other protagonist. Thematically, the prototypical novel until the modern era involved a single (or perhaps a limited selection) of protagonists whose importance is recognizable throughout the text. In Manhattan Transfer, however, each protagonist is part of a larger dialogue in which characterization derives not from the desires and ideals of the individual, but simply from the overwhelming density of metropolitan life. The brevity of Bud's life, as well as his minimal characterization, shows the ways in which the metropolis is able to drag the inhabitants of Manhattan into psychological and physical instability. After wandering sadly through Manhattan, Bud stutters across the Brooklyn Bridge and decides to rest “sitting on the railing of the bridge” (105). The function of a handrail is mainly that of protection; however, it is the act of sitting on the railing, "lunging forward", and then "sliding" that leads to Bud's death. The rail, here, is a metaphor for technology which is a double-edged sword. Industrialization was responsible both for the positive demographic boom of the early 1900s and for the physical sustenance of the metropolis, a city built vertically rather than horizontally, but mass industrialization was also the main cause of widespread poverty and factors never considered Before. dangers in common life. Dos Passos ironically uses the image of a handrail to playfully demonstrate humanity's precariousness in the face of industrialization. Although the handrail prominently symbolizes the oscillations of human life in the face of social forces, it is the process of Bud's death that finally demonstrates the loss of autonomy in the modern age. Dos Passos writes that Bud "hurls himself forward", as if to clearly suggest suicide, but then states that Bud "slips". Although stylistically vague, this paradox clarifies the individual's total lack of choice during modernity. Bud “steps forward” to end his life and free his spirit, probably the only remaining fragment of his “true self”, from the chains of the metropolis, but also from suicide, the most personal and autonomous experience that anyone can prosecute, it is beyond his control. Bud's lack of personal choice and freedom in metropolitan life, especially as these ideas concern his death,authenticates the modernist notion that the individual is perpetually subject to the oppressive environment of the metropolis, or to modern life as a whole. The handrail – emblematic, here, of the dichotomous relationship with technology among modernists – not only interferes with Bud's pre-established emancipation from the metropolis, but the word “slide” also suggests the downward spiral of universal autonomy in the face of myriad metropolitan obstacles. In addition to the destruction of individuality, Bud's slippage suggests society's growing distance from nature, a recurring theme throughout modernist texts. Shortly after Bud “lunges forward, slides,” “dangles with one hand with the sun in his eyes.” Traditionally, the sunrise is a revered beacon of hope that secures the promise of a new day; however, in Manhattan Transfer, the sun, a synecdoche of the natural world, serves as an obstacle for Bud. Not only does Dos Passos' image of the sun highlight the capacity of the environment, whether industrial or natural, to crush the individual, but it also exemplifies the unscrupulous technocentrism of modernity. Modernist literature often admonishes humanity's fascination with the conquest of natural forces as a moral issue. trap. Dos Passos jokingly augments these technocentric polemics by claiming that “the sun rose behind Brooklyn,” as if the metropolis was the true source of light and the sun's legacy was that of an indentured servant of industrialization. The fact that “the sun rose behind Brooklyn” also introduces the idea that the metropolis has acquired meaning, even beyond the relationship between nature and humanity. Dos Passos, however, immediately reiterates his reproach to the metropolis, adding that "the windows of Manhattan have caught fire". His lyrical expression of the splendor of dawn in the city, combined with Bud's impending death, gives this layering of images a derisive tone. The use of the preposition “of” as opposed to the more grammatically standard “in” suggests that the windows are not mere constructs within the metropolis, but, rather, actively participate in the sensibility of Manhattan. The entire novel portrays Manhattan as an animal, so the "windows [that] caught fire" represent the all-seeing eyes of the metropolitan beast. Sunlight, the most revered of natural forces, is depicted here as a function of the metropolis, but the dominant image is that the reflection from the windows is incendiary. Whether it is the outskirts of the industrial sector, a distant suburb or distant rural vistas, everything that the metropolis touches, that is, everything that the metaphorical eyes of the metropolis can see, is on fire. One of the primary goals of the modernists was the condemnation of the metropolis as a dangerous and unnatural construction of the overexpansion of society, and the sunlight reflected from the windows reinforces the society's fall from grace. While light is typically associated with redemption, the lightblindness that Bud suffers leads to his subsequent downfall and death, serving as an indictment of his romantic notions of autonomy. Since Bud, while sliding, is facing east towards the sunrise, it is evident that while he was “sitting on the railing” he was facing west. In literature and philosophy, the “West” is an archetype of freedom and individuality. After Bud's hopes for success are crushed by the metropolis, Bud sits on a railing and stares at the sky, as if imagining the recreation of his past rural life or the belief that his life will improve in a distant place. far from the metropolis. Because he refuses to follow through on his desires for movement and autonomy, both while sitting on the bridge and throughout the first section of Manhattan Transfer, Dos Passos paints Bud as a.