An American Tragedy (Cyclopedia of Literary Characters)
At a glance:
- Author: Theodore Dreiser
- First Published: 1925
- Type of Work: Novel
- Type of Plot: Naturalism
- Time of Work: Early twentieth century
- Setting: Kansas City, Chicago, and Lycurgus, New York
- Genres: Long fiction, Social realism, Naturalistic literature
- Subjects: Values, United States or Americans, Love or romance, Murder or homicide, Twentieth century, Chicago, Moral conditions, Ethics, Attorneys, Factory management
- Locales: Chicago, IL, Kansas City, MO, Lycurgus, New York
Characters Discussed
Clyde Griffiths, the tragic hero. The son of itinerant evangelists, he was reared in poverty amid an atmosphere of narrow-minded religiosity. He has thus always longed for the things that money can buy. At sixteen, he gets a job as a bellboy in a Kansas City hotel and uses his unexpectedly large earnings for his own pleasure rather than to help his family. When his sister is left penniless and pregnant, he contributes only a small sum; he is buying a coat for Hortense Briggs, a shopgirl whom he is trying to seduce. Because of a wreck in a stolen car, he has...
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See Also:
Theodore Dreiser (Cyclopedia of World Authors)Theodore Dreiser (Censorship)Theodore Dreiser (Dictionary of World Biography)Theodore Dreiser (Short Fiction)Theodore Dreiser (Long Fiction)Theodore Dreiser (Identities and Issues)
See Also:
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