Mosaic (Winnipeg), January 1st, 1993
Herman Melville's fictional autobiography, 'Redburn', was an attempt to explore the way that the interaction between capitalism and democracy shapes middle-class male identity. The novel undermines the optimism always associated with the American way of life, where individualism is the norm. The novel shows that individualism rooted in economic survival can result only in psychic impoverishment.
Among the many conflicts which characterize American culture, few are more deeply rooted than that between the claims of free enterprise and those of social justice. Few contending claims are more dif...
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