Self-destruction In The Desire

The author of An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser is acknowledged as"the father of American Naturalism"and the pioneer of modern American novel, together with Hemingway, Faulkner being regarded as the three giants of modern American novel. Born in poor family, Clyde can't resist different kinds of temptations from outside world and cruelly kills his sweetheart Roberta Alden. The causes of Clyde Griffiths'tragedy can mainly be focused on his family and genetic factors, but the social causes can not be neglected, either. The fetishism flourishing at that time, the materialization of the relationships between people and the discrepancy in wealth between different classes are among the factors which cause him to commit the crime. He is also a victim of the American consumer society.This article has analyzed Clyde's tragedy from both the environment and his personal desires: Chapter one briefly introduces the Austrian psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud's tripartite structure of personality theory, the theory of life and death instincts, combining with the American economist and social critic Leo Stein Veblen's theory of invidious comparison to complementally depict how Clyde's self changes. Chapter two comments on how Clyde's self is constructed in his poor and abnormal family as well as in the social environment with distorted values. Chapter three firstly describes Clyde's pleasure principle, under the influence of the prevailing thought in that society----pleasure principle, Clyde's pleasure-seeking desire swells and his self begins to change; then, this chapter uses Veblen's theory of invidious comparison to complementally depict how Clyde's self deforms in the three stages of his life; at last, by the use of Freud's theory of life instincts, this chapter analyzes how Clyde's psychological imbalance gradually evolves into his pursuit of money, power and the desire for beauties, such as his instinctive Eros to Hortense, Roberta and Sondra, and during the process, Clyde's self goes distorted. Chapter four analyzes the psychological process of Clyde's killing his girlfriend Roberta. In order to achieve his American dream, to get money and high social status, Clyde's moral bottom line completely falls; the so-called American Dream turns into the American nightmare. Clyde finally goes toward self-destruction. As a conclusion, although Clyde's tragedy is the tragedy of an individual, since there is weakness in Clyde's personality, through the above analysis, it is obvious that in essence, the tragedy of Clyde is a tragedy of the whole American society and it is actually the American tragedy.