Everything you need to understand or teach
An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser.
Products may contain comprehensive summaries, analysis, notes, articles, essays,
lesson plans and more. See below for details on what is included.
Biography EssayHenry David Thoreau, Living Thoughts of Thoreau, selected, with an introduction, by Dreiser (New York: Longmans, Green, 1938). Theodore Dreiser is one of the most significant and most...
Read more
American novelist Herman Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) projected a vitality and an honesty that established several of his novels as classics of world literature.Like other naturalistic novelists of th...
Read more
Theodore Dreiser now seems securely established as the principal American novelist in the tradition of naturalistic fiction, which includes his European counterparts Emile Zola and Honoré de B...
Read more
Theodore Dreiser is one of the most significant and most problematical of American writers. His place in American literary history is secure. The acknowledged "trailblazer" for a generation of early t...
Read more
Although Theodore Dreiser--generally considered the foremost writer in the tradition of American literary naturalism--is principally important as a novelist, he made a significant contribution to the ...
Read more
Theodore Dreiser's position in American literature is undeniably secure, primarily based on his novels Sister Carrie (1900) and An American Tragedy (1925). However, in addition to Dreiser the novelist...
Read more
In the following essay, St. Jean explores how a deconstructionist approach to Dreiser's An American Tragedy illuminates his focus on the relativism of truth in the novel.
Of all major aspects o...
Read more
In the following essay, Mencken praises the second volume of An American Tragedy, but calls the first "vast, sloppy, chaotic. "
Whatever else this vasty double-header [An American Traged...
Read more
In the following essay, Mitchell examines An American Tragedy as a deterministic novel in which repetition forces the characters to submit to events beyond their control.
The death of Roberta Alden fo...
Read more
In the following essay, Trigg examines Dreiser's portrayal of the American criminal justice system as inherently unfair in An American Tragedy.
At the end of Book Two of An American Tragedy, th...
Read more
In the following essay, Plank traces the nonfiction sources of An American Tragedy.
In the early 1930s a series of events led Theodore Dreiser to write several articles explaining the historical backg...
Read more
In the following essay, Hayne examines the ways in which An American Tragedy is a "peculiarly American" tragedy.
Theodore Dreiser is the first major American novelist of 'ethnic&#...
Read more
In the following essay, Pizer discusses the ways in which Dreiser's naturalism in An American Tragedy compliments the naturalism in Edith Warton's The Age of Innocence.
Naturalism has be...
Read more
In the following essay, Algeo explores Dreiser's nonfictional sources for An American Tragedy.
Theodore Dreiser, introduced to the world of crime as a young reporter in St. Louis, became especi...
Read more
In the following essay, Guest explores the ways in which Dreiser raised questions about the nature of criminal responsibility in An American Tragedy.
Twenty-six years after the publication of Frank No...
Read more
In the following review, Powys praises the scope and vision of An American Tragedy.
The fact that Theodore Dreiser's new novel [An American Tragedy] seems likely to leave many readers repulsed ...
Read more
In the following review, Phelps dismisses An American Tragedy as a second-rate novel, concluding "I cannot believe that this work, hampered by such clumsy composition, will be read in the next ...
Read more
In the following essay, McAleer contrasts An American Tragedy with Truman Capote's crime novel In Cold Blood.
When Truman Capote's In Cold Blood was published in 1965 the London Sunday E...
Read more
In the following essay, Farrell contends that it is the loss of American values and an uncaring society that represent evil in An American Tragedy.
Dreiser seems to have thought for years about the bo...
Read more
In the following essay, Harter argues that despite being antithetical in most ways, T. S. Eliot's The Waste Land and An American Tragedy share a similar view of the human condition "as i...
Read more
In the following essay, Orlov posits that, despite Dreiser's well-known devotion to literary naturalism, An American Tragedy is actually anti-naturalistic in its treatment of the idea of the in...
Read more
In the following essay, Rosenman examines the violations of the United States Constitution committed in the trial of Clyde Griffiths and of Chester Gillette, the man on whom Dreiser based his protagon...
Read more
In the following essay, Hakutani discusses the influence of An American Tragedy on Richard Wright's crime novel Black Boy, noting similarities in the two writers' views of crime and puni...
Read more
Teaching An American Tragedy
All teaching products sold separately.
An American Tragedy Lesson Plans contain 128 pages of teaching material, including:
Herman Theodore Dreiser
Theodore (Herman Albert) Dreiser
Critical Essay by Shawn St. Jean
