Because the characters have fuller emotional lives and greater freedom to make choices outside the marketplace than in the previous novels, the characterizations in Midcentury are fuller and the characters more fully engaging than in many of Dos Passos's books. As in his other major works, several types of characters are represented here, and several differing literary techniques govern their presentation. Typically, the characters range widely over the spectrum of American industrial life, from successful businessmen such as Milliron to ne'er-do-wells such as Bowman. Additionally, Dos Passos offers biographical glimpses into the lives of important American citizens: powerful generals such as Douglas MacArthur and William Dean; politicians such as Senator MacClellan and Congressman Bob La Follette, Jr. (whose father was the subject of a sympathetic profile in The 42nd Parallel); scientists, including Robert Oppenheimer, Jr. and Sigmund Freud; entertainers such as Samuel Goldwyn and James Dean; relatively unknown...