Abstract Theodore Dreiser is universally regarded as a leading American Naturalist writer and a pioneer of American Modern novel. His novel, An American Tragedy, is an implication of American real society in 1920s. This thesis aims on analyzing the causes of Clyde’s tragedy and its impacts on other characters in this novel. The causes are pided into the social reasons and the personal reasons. The social reasons are discussed in American Dream, Monopoly and Relationships. The morality and the pursuit of money as well as the belief in God are studied as the personal reasons. It comes to the results in different characters which show great damage in their life. From the results of different people’s lives, the ways to prevent such tragedy are studied in the thesis. After the study of An American Tragedy, the author promotes to build a correct view to money and do our best to prevent such similar tragedy in today’s highly developed world. It is also necessary to build a better relationship between people and to improve our morality.59170

Key words: An American tragedy; Theodore Dreiser; Clyde; tragedy

摘要西奥多·德莱赛被公认为美国自然主义的杰出作家之一，也是美国现代小说的开创者。他的作品，《美国悲剧》描写了19世纪20年代美国的现实，再现了真实的美国社会。本文主要探究克莱德悲剧的原因以及对作品中其他人物的影响。原因分为社会原因和个人原因两个方面。社会原因从美国梦，社会关系层面来探讨美国悲剧的发生。个人原因则是从道德，以及金钱的追求以及对上帝的信仰来分析。探讨不同人物的后果以及这些后果所体现出来的伤害。从不同人物的命运结果来探讨如何避免类似悲剧的发生。通过对《美国悲剧》的探究，作者提倡在今天高速发展的世界树立正确的金钱观，树立更好的人际关系，以及提高我们的道德素质。

毕业论文关键词：《美国悲剧》；西奥多·德莱赛；克莱德；悲剧；

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Literature Review 2

3. The Manifestation of Clyde’s Tragedy 3

3.1 The Consistent Degeneration 3

3.2 The Loss of Everything 4

3.3 The Tragedy of Other Characters 4

4. The Causes for Clyde’s Tragedy 5

4.1 American Dream 5

4.2 Social Relationships 6

4.3 Monopoly 7

4.4 Personal Reasons 8

5. Ways to Prevent the Tragedy 9

6. Conclusion 10

Works Cited 12

1. Introduction 

Theodore Dreiser is universally regarded as a leading American Naturalist writer in American literary area. Although some critics considered his writing style as clumsy without good organization of structure, he is generally recognized as a pioneer in Naturalism and Realism who brings new ideas and changes in American literature. 

Dreiser insists on representing life honestly and portraying the realest life from different stratum of society. He described his characters as victims of fate and social forces.

Many of his works have come into screenplays, and are popular around the world. His work Sister Carrie is a novel about a beautiful girl from the countryside being rich lonely at last who lost her original kindness, purity and moral value. The novel describes a tragedy of a countryside girl. This novel is a tragedy partly while An American Tragedy is a tragedy totally.  Dreiser based An American Tragedy on the Chester Gillette murder case which was put on trial in 1906. This novel is a demonstration of American society in 1920s. It is a story about poor Clyde who went to destruction at last. In An American Tragedy, Clyde Griffiths was raised by poor and devoutly religious parents who forced him to participate in their street missionary work. Even Clyde was poor, but his heart was full of great American Dream. He wanted to step into upper class and enjoy luxurious material life. He was served as bellboy at a hotel. And then he fled to Kansas City to ask his uncle’s Samuel Griffiths who was a rich man as his father’s brother after Clyde hit a girl and caused her death. He worked in his uncle’s factory and made a woman worker pregnant. Meanwhile he fell into love with a rich lady who can bring him money and power if they get married. Clyde planed to murder the poor woman worker Roberta and Roberta drowned to death accidently. During the inquest of Clyde, the politics made use of their power to reach their aims by hook and crook. Finally, Clyde was sentenced to death.