Theodore Dreiser, An American Tragedy

Jude Davies (University of Winchester)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.3: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Early Twentieth-century , 1900-1945.
Vol. editors: Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

First circulation or publication 1925

Places

United States, Indiana (Country of Origin)

Genres and Modes

Naturalist
Novel
Tragedy

Resources

Clyde Griffiths is first seen as a twelve-year old, cringing in embarrassment as his poverty-stricken parents preach in the streets of Kansas City. The date is purposely unspecified, since Dreiser thought of himself as describing a flaw in American society that had persisted from the Gilded Age to the mid-1920s, visible in a series of actual homicides. (An American Tragedy is based primarily on one that took place in 1906.) Selfish, but dreamy and pathetic, Clyde Griffiths is hooked on the American dream. An American Tragedy tells his story and, in so doing, becomes an exhaustive catalogue of the invidious effects of the ideology of success.

As they grow older, Clyde and his older sister Esta experience sensual …

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1873 words

Citation: Davies, Jude. "An American Tragedy". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 October 2001 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=6703, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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