An American Tragedy

An American Tragedy is the classic novel written by Theodore Dresier. It is a typical early American take on the achievability of 'The American Dream'. The book takes places in the early 1900s midwest, and later in upstate New York. We, as the readers, watch our protagonist Clyde Griffiths continuously attempt to advance himself financially and socially and continuously he gets set back by his own decisions. I loved this book, perhaps more than any book I've read since the idiot, and I believe one of the reasons for this is the love/hate relationship I had with Clyde.

As the protagonist, Clyde is easy to root for. He is a poor boy, born into a religious household where he decides to break away from the missionary lifestyle and make some money. He begins making a fair amount of money working as a bellhop at one of the Kansas City hotels near where he lives. The selfishness of Clyde is exemplified early by how he handles this money. A good person would possibly save some of the money. A great person would help his parents out by giving them some of his earnings. But what does Clyde do? He spends his money recklessly on new suits, prostitutes and booze with his friends, and fancy dinners that are certainly not in his price range. I understand that Clyde just wants to become an esteemed member of society, but it's this blatant example of taking what he has for granted that makes me hate him.

His story takes the first of many negative turns when he and his Kansas City 'friends' steal a car and hit and kill a little girl one day. Clyde does not take responsibility for his involvement with this group, instead he runs away. He becomes a drifter for awhile, bouncing from city to city, working odd jobs trying to survive. Eventually opportunity knocks when Clyde's rich uncle comes to the Chicago hotel that he currently works at. After much pleading, Clyde convinces his uncle Samuel to give him a job at his collar factory in Lycurgus, NY.

In Lycurgus, Clyde meets Roberta Alden, whom he falls in love with. To make a long story short, he falls in love with Roberta, then falls out of love with her when he meets the wealthy Sondra Finchley, a prominent member of Lycurgus society and the answer to his dreams of social/economic advancement. However, he finds out that he has impregnated Roberta. Logically, his solution is to kill her (I'm being sarcastic here in case you can't tell - this has to be the most frustrating part of the book. All I could think the whole time is you are such a moron). When he goes to complete the task he has a change of hard and decides not to kill her, but ends up killing her accidentally (what are the odds). The last third of the book has to do with his capture, trial and death at the hands of the state.

One important underlying theme that Dresier makes is the importance of religion. The book opens up to the Griffiths family preaching in the streets of KC. Later, Clyde's sister runs away and she comes back pregnant and alone. Basically, the commentary Dressier makes is without religion, there is no moral guidance. This point is reasserted later in the book when Clyde is weeks away from death and he begins to get reconnected with religious roots through discussions with the prison pastor.

I think the most important thing the Dresier wanted to say is that the American Dream is not as obtainable as everyone would like to thing. Much in the manner of Steinbeck, Dresier creates this character who wants to do well and busts his hump to succeed and just can't quite reach it. Dresier even gives Clyde an outlet through his wealthy uncle to reach the next level financially, and Clyde still falls short. I think this is an analysis by Dresier on how we are primarily a product of our circumstances