An American Tragedy, by Theodore Dreiser, is a fiction novel that is based on infamous criminal case, like all other his books. The book is about a boy named Clyde, who is raised from poor religious family. Clyde is always bothered by his parents forcing him to join the missionary work; an ambitious boy, Clyde wants to achieve something bigger. Clyde’s troublesome life starts as he starts to work as a bellboy in a local hotel. There, he meets new friends who introduce alcohol and prostitution to him. Stealing, drinking, smoking, and sleeping with prostitutes became his new lifestyle. But his life changes forever when he kills a young child with his stolen car. Guilty and nervous Clyde flees to Chicago, then to Lycurgus, New York, where he starts working as a foreman in his wealthy uncle’s factory. His uncle, feeling sorry for Clyde, tries his best to assign Clyde a high position within the factory.
Clyde decided not to interact with women after the disaster in Kansas City; yet he is somehow attracted to a poor farm girl, Roberta Alden. They have secret affairs, which was forbidden by the factory rules and they finally have sex. After awhile, Clyde realizes that he would never marry her as she is a poor farm girl. He starts a new affair with Sondra Finchley, the daughter of a wealthy family in Lycurgus. Then Roberta finds herself pregnant and tells Clyde about her pregnancy. But Clyde forces her to have an abortion, while Robert wants Clyde to marry her. Meanwhile, Clyde and Sondra’s relationship becomes very promising and Clyde realizes that he could marry her. When Roberta threatens Clyde about their relationship, Clyde plans to murder Roberta. Clyde takes Robert on a canoe ride where he strikes her with his camera, making her fall off the boat. Unable to swim, Roberta drowns to death. However trails of clear evidences follow Clyde, eventually getting arrested and sentenced to death. The book ends with Clyde’s execution.
I first chose this book as the title of the book seemed very interesting. An America Tragedy sounded like a very serious story; and I was surprised when it actually was a serious criminal story. The first part of the book was kind of boring yet as the plot shifted; I really enjoyed reading the intensity of the novel. As the plot shifts, story becomes much more intense and exciting. For such thrill, I would really want to recommend the book to my peers. I would like to read other novels by Theodore Dreiser as he writes with notorious criminal cases; yet I am dubious if the other books are going to be as fun as this one. Due to certain ethically immoral acts Clyde does, this book has been banned in the United States; so this book should be carefully dealt when others would want to read. I don’t recommend it for school function.
Theodore Dreiser uses imagery very effectively in the novel. This would not be questionable as I was able to imagine the sceneries while reading it. Such effective use of imagery would be only experience once a person reads the novel; it isn’t easy to describe such impact with words. Dreiser’s careful word choices allow the book to be much more intense, exciting, and thrilling.
In 1871, Theodore Dreiser was born in Terre Haute, Indiana. Dreiser started his writing career as a newspaperman; he was even appointed as the editor-in-chief. His first novel, Sister Carrie, wasn’t really successful as the publisher did not take efforts to promote its sale. Dreiser’s reputation started to rise after his second novel, The Financier, when his books started to attract critiques and other contemporary writers. Dresier wrote many other novels and An American Tragedy wasn’t his first novel that has been banned. The Genius was his first novel to be banned, which later managed to be sold through petitions. In 1945 Dreiser died at his house in California.
