In the following essay, Guest explores the ways in which Dreiser raised questions about the nature of criminal responsibility in An American Tragedy.

In the following essay, Algeo explores Dreiser's nonfictional sources for An American Tragedy.

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.

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 individual.

In the following essay, Plank traces the nonfiction sources of An American Tragedy.

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 punishment.

In the following essay, Hayne examines the ways in which An American Tragedy is a "peculiarly American" tragedy.

In the following essay, McAleer contrasts An American Tragedy with Truman Capote's crime novel In Cold Blood.

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.

In the following essay, Trigg examines Dreiser's portrayal of the American criminal justice system as inherently unfair in An American Tragedy.

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.

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 it is manifested in the modem world."

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.

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 protagonist.

In the following review, Powys praises the scope and vision of An American Tragedy.

In the following essay, Mencken praises the second volume of An American Tragedy, but calls the first "vast, sloppy, chaotic. "

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 century."