No Pie In The Sky
The Hobo As American Cultural Hero in the Works of Jack London, John Dos Passos, and Jack Kerouac
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Formats
Book Details
About the Book
No Pie In The Sky examines the treatment of the hobo in the works of Jack London, John Dos Passos and Jack Kerouac. London saw the hobo as a dispossessed worker, an inevitable by-product of capitalism, but his tone is buoyant and hopeful. He believes that Socialism's triumph will bring an end to the injustice of the capitalist system. Dos Passos' tone is pessimistic and elegiac as he chronicles the defeat of the hoboes' union-the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) and the triumph of the money machine. Flight is the dominant motif in Kerouac, as big government, big business and big unions impose a stultifying conformity. Faced with atomic annihilation, his hoboes turn inward, seeking refuge in Zen Buddhism and the built-in bomb shelter of the human psyche.
About the Author
Frederick Feied earned his Ph.D. at Columbia University, taught at the University of California at Berkeley and Michigan State University among other institutions, has been a book reviewer for The San Francisco Chronicle and drama critic for The San Francisco Bay Guardian, and now lives and sails in the Greek islands.