In fact, Clyde shares a number of similarities with Chester, but more important is the fact that the circumstances and motivations of Chester’s crime shared a similarity with a number of others which do not make into Dreiser’s version so neat and tidily.
Gillette was the son of itinerant Salvation Army soldiers…and so is Clyde. Gillette was found guilty of murdering his pregnant girlfriend under murky circumstances in which her death could actually have been merely an accidental drowning just like Dreiser’s protagonist Clyde Griffiths is found guilty of murdering his pregnant girlfriend while in a rowboat on a lake. By contrast, An American Tragedy is very firmly grounded in the real life murder trial of Chester Gillette. That connection the world outside the Jazz Age partying at Gatsby’s mansion is tenuous at best. A few characters in The Great Gatsby are based-to various levels-on actual people whom Fitzgerald either knew or knew about. Dreiser, by contrast, more than merely suggests that the American Dream is inescapably rigged against the overwhelming majority of those seeking to make it real.Īnother element that joins these two starkly different visions of American in the first quarter of the 1900s is the introduction of reality into their fictional universes. While Gatsby’s story is certainly one that in which some rather questionable morality and an absence of any ethical standards pass through, ultimately Fitzgerald suggests that America is truly a land of opportunity for unsurpassed wealth and fulfillment of desire for anyone willing to work hard enough (and sacrifice any qualms they may have about the kind of work that must be done) in order to get. Both novels present a portrait of what it meant to be an American in the early part of the 20th century, but in reading one can be forgiven for supposing that each takes places in entirely different countries.
Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy was published the very same year as F. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community.
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