Abstract

In this research we try to discover the insight of “Theodore Dreiser” in a holistic perspective. The key heart of the study is on “Theodore Dreiser” and his writing, “An American Tragedy”. The research also examines various characteristics of “Theodore Dreiser” and tries to measure the impact of his writing. Lastly the research illustrates a variety of factors which are related to “Theodore Dreiser” and his writings and tries to describe the overall effect of it.

Table of Contents

Introduction1

Discussion and Analysis1

An American Tragedy3

Conclusion5

Theodore Dreiser and an American Tragedy

Introduction

Generally acknowledged as the most significant American practitioner of naturalism in the last century, Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser wrote eight novels as well as short stories, plays, and poetry. His name is synonymous with two classic American tales, An American Tragedy (1925) and Sister Carrie (1900). Dreiser's reputation has remained remarkably consistent over the last several decades, suggesting that his insights into the American psyche remain accurate as well as eloquent. His dark view of American possibility and potential ran counter to the optimism of other writers; influenced by Herbert Spencer's philosophy that human free will counted for little, and later by Freud and his belief in the dominance of sexual urges, Dreiser's characters' roles are determined by their initial poverty and obscurity. Nonetheless, both scholars and readers have been struck by his sympathetic treatment of those characters as they confront a hostile universe. His large, sprawling vision was well suited to the novel and was acknowledged when he emerged as a finalist for the 1930 Nobel Prize in literature, and received the Award of Merit from the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1945.

Discussion and Analysis

Theodore Dreiser was born on August 27, 1871, in Terre Haute, Indiana, to John Paul Dreiser and Sarah Schaenaeb Dreiser. His early years were marked by extreme poverty. He grew up in a poor family that was forced to move often and, as Dreiser later told his friend and literary adviser H. L. Mencken, could not always afford shoes for all 10 children. Dreiser's siblings had a reputation for being tough, wild, and flirtatious. His father, although briefly successful as a wool manufacturer, was destitute after his factory burned down and he could not repay the debt for fleece and machinery bought on credit. Dreiser's fiction draws on this background: It breaks with conventional literary gentility, and it chronicles with accuracy and compassion the economic struggles and intimate lives of men and women. After one year at Indiana University (1889-90), he embarked on a career in journalism as a newspaper reporter in the Midwest that led to New York City editorships of such prominent magazines as Delineator (1907-10) and American Spectator (coeditor, 1932-34). His marriage to Sara Osborn White on December 18, 1898, ended in divorce in 1910; he married his long-term mistress, actress Helen Parges Richardson, in 1944 (Waldmeir, 23).

Dreiser is primarily known as a novelist, but his best short stories show a sophisticated understanding of the short story form, perhaps because Dreiser worked in journalism throughout ...