An American Tragedy (Identities and Issues in Literature)
At a glance:
- Author: Theodore Dreiser
- First Published: 1925
- 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
The Work
While a newspaper reporter in the 1890’s, Theodore Dreiser noticed a particular type of crime: A young man who was successful would murder his pregnant fiancée so that he might free himself from her and marry another woman who had more money and higher social standing. For years Dreiser collected these stories from the newspapers, planning someday to write a novel based on one of these crimes, because he felt that such a crime was typically American. This crime represented what was wrong with U. S. society. An American Tragedy is based on one such...
[The entire page is 708 words long]
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