The saga of Studs Lonigan, if it does nothing else, demonstrates the closed nature of the supposedly open American system. Studs has dreams that are like everyone else's: He wants money, property, fame, respect, all the ingredients of the ever-elusive American dream. But Farrell writes of a world in which failure is far more likely than success. Literally every institution in Stud's life acts to bring him down: His family cannot combat the negative values he acquires in the streets, his religion is unable to provide any real hope or even any real energy in his life, romance is reduced by his environment to a series of animal-like ruttings, and the economy seems to be constructed so that a working man like Studs's father can rise just so far, but no further. Instead of acting to help people achieve their ambitions, or even remaining neutral, the...