Determinisin In An American Tragedy

Theodore Dreiser is one of the most significant American writers in the 20th century. Together with Hemingway and Faulkner, he ranks among the three giants of modern American novelists. To Dreiser, since man is not controlled by reason, man is merely an animal driven by greed and lust in a struggle for existence in which only the fittest, the most ruthless, survive. Therefore, human tragedy comes as a result of the collision between man's biological needs and society's ruthless manipulation.An American Tragedy is widely considered Dreiser's best novel and an important work of American naturalism. Naturalism, which began in Europe and flowered in America, is a literary style that explores the premise that individuals'fates are determined by a combination of hereditary and environmental factors, giving no room to free will or true individual choice. Clyde, the protagonist, lives in an amoral world. His thoughts and behavior are influenced and controlled by his biological inheritance and environmental forces. In describing Clyde's nature, Dreiser explores the roots of his tragedy resulting from the weakness in his character inherited from his parents and his strong sexual urges. At the same time, Clyde's tragic fate is also inseparable from the social surroundings in which he lives, and his value orientation is gradually distorted during the pursuit of the unreachable and hypercritical"American Dream". Finally, he is sent to the road of self-destruction.This thesis tries to explore the elements of determinism in the novel from Zola's naturalistic point of view and decode how these biological factors and social forces work together to determine Clyde's fate. Apart from an introduction and a conclusion, the thesis has four parts as followings:Chapter One gives a detailed and overall review of the studied history of Dreiser, his writings, his masterpiece An American Tragedy, naturalism and determinism in the novel, and then points out the importance and significance of the study.Chapter Two defines the concept of some theoretical terms including naturalism and naturalistic determinism developed by Zola and discusses Dreiser's naturalistic view and his philosophic thoughts of determinism.Chapter Three and Chapter Four analyze in detail how Zola's philosophic thought—naturalistic determinism is applied to the novel. Chapter Three deals with how Clyde's fate is determined by biological factors from two aspects: the impracticality in his personality inherited from his parents and the strong sexual desires in his sister and himself.Chapter Four analyzes the social causes of the tragedy from economic, cultural, and political aspects and digs out the deep roots for Clyde's tragedy.To conclude, the tragedy is not only the tragedy of individuals'but also the tragedy of the whole nation. Although there is weakness in Clyde's personality, it is obvious that in essence, the tragedy of Clyde is a true American tragedy.