An American Tragedy

“But having fallen in love with him, she had become inoculated with the virus of Evangelism and proselytizing which dominated him, and had followed him gladly and enthusiastically in all of his ventures and through all of his vagaries. Being rather flattered by the knowledge that she could speak and sing, her ability to sway and persuade and control people with the ‘word of God,’ as she saw it, she had become more or less pleased with herself on this account and so persuaded to continue.”

Theodore Dreiser’s diction, especially the word “virus,” foreshadows The Negative Impact of Religion in America on the lives of Clyde, Roberta, and Elvira. Elvira sees religion as a means to power for a working-class woman who ordinarily would have no power because of her class and gender. Dreiser represents her faith as a form of vanity—one of the sins against which Christianity preaches.

“For true to the standard of the American youth, or the general American attitude toward life, he felt himself above the type of labor which was purely manual.”

Clyde’s notion of The American Dream is one that doesn’t include physical work—a problem since there are few other avenues to improving his financial status. Dreiser connects Clyde’s aversion to physical labor to a more general aspect of culture in the United States. His focus on the impact of larger forces on Clyde’s seemingly individual beliefs is typical of realist texts.

“Here were young fellows and girls in this room, not so much older than himself, laughing and talking and drinking even—not ice-cream sodas and the like, but such drinks no doubt as his mother and father were always speaking against as leading to destruction, and apparently nothing was thought of it.”

Clyde comes of age when he enters the world of work. Being around other young people with more disposable income influences Clyde’s decision to reject his parents’ Christianity. This realization is a pivotal moment in Clyde’s character arc.