Although Dos Passos' writing eventually focused on American themes, his earliest poetry and fiction were more self-conscious than country-conscious. His favorite protagonist was a young, well-educated naif—usually a Brahmin—hungering for all experience simultaneously. There was much fascination with women, with sex (although never explicit), and with travel, all described through a romantic haze of impressionist color. There was also a strong sense of rootlessness, and the most carefully drawn figures are those of the boy's commanding, successful father and his genteel, passive mother.

Dos Passos' early writing is also self-conscious in another sense, in that it illustrates the artistic principles already important to the fledgling author. These were the years of absorption in technique, and most modern writers believed that, in order for any writer to "write straight," he must have some kind of prolegomenon, some set of artistic principles. Dos Passos' beginning aesthetic grew from...