An Analysis of Clyde in An American Tragedy.doc

毕 业 设 计 论文 题 目： An Analysis of Clyde in An American Tragedy Acknowledgements There are a few people I wish to thank for the help and support they gave me while working on this study. Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisor Chen Ping, for her precious help and for her encouragement throughout the period I was writing this thesis.My next thanks go to all of the tutors of the course who offered me their help whenever I need it.Last but not least, a great “thank you” to my friends for their inspiration and emotional support without which I would not be able to complete my studies and write this paper.摘 要西奥多德莱塞, 毫无疑问是美国文学历史上最重要的作家之一。美国悲剧也被公认是他的代表作。尽管这是一部内容简单的长篇巨作,它却给德莱塞带来了颇丰的收入和很高的声誉。德莱塞在这部小说中选取了一个美国人所熟知的主题：一个年轻人对美国梦的追随。小说的主人公克莱德从一个幼稚单纯的少年堕落为虚荣、自私、无耻、狠心的杀人犯。克莱德的悲剧在那个时代的美国年轻人身上具有代表性。德莱塞选择这个主题不仅想告诫读者美国梦是一个幻想而且也暗示了德莱塞在个人追求过程中的失败。本文旨在探讨德莱塞性格变化及悲剧的原因。关 键 词：美国悲剧；克莱德；性格变化；原因ABSTRACTTheodore Dreiser is unquestionably one of the most important American writers in American literary history. An American Tragedy is generally regarded as Theodore Dresers masterpiece. Though it is a long novel with a simple plot, it attracted many readers and critics and brought Dreiser fame and commercial success with its publication.Theodore Dreiser chose a familiar American theme in this novel: A young inexperienced beginners pursuit of American Dream. Clyde degrades gradualy from a naive innocent boy to a sly, flattery, immoral, shameless, cruel and inhumane murderer. Clydes tragedy is a representative of American youth at that time. Dreiser chose this theme not simply to caution the readers that the American Dream was only an illusion but to suggest his failure in self-seeking. This essay attempts to analyze the reasons of Clydes tragedy.Key words: An American Tragedy; Clyde; character changes; reasonsContentsAcknowledgementsiAbstract in ChineseiiAbstract in Englishiii1. Introduction12. Character changes of Clyde22.1 Naivety and weakness of young Clyde22.2 Selfishness, hedonism of grown-up Clyde32.2.1 Selfishness of grown-up Clyde32.2.2 Hedonism of grown-up Clyde43.The reasons of Clydes character changes53.1 Personal reasons of Clydes character changes63.2 Family reasons of Clydes character changes73.3 Social reasons of Clydes character changes83.3.1 The cultural reasons of Clydes character changes83.3.2 The economic reasons of Clydes character changes93.3.3 The potical reasons of Clydes character changes104.Conclusion10Bibliography12 12 1. Introduction Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) was born at Terre Haute, Indianan, of a large, poor, religious, immigrant family. Dreiser spent his childhood in bitter poverty; lacking education, skill, and status. During 1886 and 1887, Dreiser went to an Indiana high school and then went to seek jobs instead of learning. Thanks to one of his high school teachers who sent him to Indiana University, but he left the university a few months later because the courses in the school he acquired did not relate to the life of ordinary people and he found out that there was nothing useful for him to make life. After that, Dreiser got the education he benefited all his lifetime from his directly personal experience. Finally, he made a living as a journalist in St. Louis, Pittsburgh, New York city. And there, Dreiser wrote many kinds of literary works, only writing novels showed his literary talent, as a novelist, he made a great contribution to American literary history. An American Tragedy was written in 1925, and soon it became a best seller and was regarded as a masterpiece of Theodore Dreiser by public. The book is about all the life of the hero, Clyde, the son of poor family, who wants to escape from the despair of poverty and be a member of upper class, finally he turns into a murder because of killing his own girl friend. At his 15, he leaves home and tries to find a good job to improve the current living condition. However he learns to live a hedonic life in the town and does not want to improve life by working. So he would like to find an easy way of getting rich, at the same time he knew Sondra Finchleys, a daughter of a rich family. Due to his thoughts, Clyde intends to marry Sondra, but his girl friend, Roberta from a poor family, is pregnant. Finally, Clydes desire of being rich defeats his conscience, he kills Roberta, as a result, he is found out to have connections with her death. So that he is arrested and finally sentenced to death. The whole book is based on a real affair, and in this paper I make an analysis of Clyde, it is divided into two parts, one is about the character changes about Clyde; the other one is about the reasons why Clydes character changes happen.2. Character changes of Clyde The book An American Tragedy tells us about the character changes of the hero, Clyde, he is a naivety and weakness boy in his childhood, and he gradually turns into selfishness, egoism, hedonism man, finally, he becomes a murder. In the story, Clyde wants to be a member of upper class by fair means of foul. At last he became a murder and the punishment is well deserved. Some aspects followed will show us what the character changes are and how the changes turn up. And in the process of Clydes growth, character changes play an important role, we can found out the thread of book.2.1 Naivety and weakness of young Clyde The hero, Clyde, of the novel could not be a bad child when he is young, because his family is of strong religious atmosphere, and his father is a pastor who is busy preaching all the year round and his mother is preaching and doing housework. When Clyde is young, his parents teach him to thank God with appreciate for his sympathy and kindness to his family in spite of the extremely poor life which they lead. And live in such a religious family he would have more opportunities than other children to be of naivety in his childhood. As we know, live in such family, his parents should tell him how to be a good man, and be appreciating for the life itself. Although their living condition is very tough, his parents still believe that it will be better and God will give the family urgent help. All the members of the family never lose faith in God and Clyde gets education which is all about how to be an upright man. At that time, American economy develops rapidly, and the families like Clydes have no social status and Clyde only lives with his relatives, so he is not able to have chance to contact with the complex society. As we know, live in this family, they do have few social activities, so they will not be assimilated by the society which they live in. Although Clyde grows up in that time, he has a heart of conscience; he is a child of naivety and weakness. When Clyde is young, he does not believe in God, and he does not like preaching in the street, either. But there is no other way for him to make a living, he should yield to life. Indeed the home life which this boy found himself a part and the various contacts, material and psychic, which thus far had been his, did not to convince him of the reality and force of all that his mother and father seemed so certainly to believe and say. Rather, they seemed more or less troubled in their lives, at least materially. from the quotation from An American Tragedy, we can learn that, the young Clyde has no idea to struggle to the fate, so do their parents. Even though they struggle to life, they can not improve their lives at all. In the capitalist society, people are classified into different classes, and people in lower class, like the Clyde, are busy making a living by do something which they may not willing to do from being starved. Young Clyde finds out that people in the neighborhood dont show any enthusiasm toward their preaching; only some people who pass by are watching. So in that situation, the little young Clyde only cares about himself, and also shows us the personality weakness of young Clyde, thus he should be a child with naivety and weakness.2.2 Selfishness, hedonism of grown-up Clyde When Clyde is 15, he doesnt want to be a pastor like his father, so he goes out to make a living in the town. During his life in the town, Clyde gradually contacts with the complex world and gets an insight into the colorful world different from the previous one he lives in. So he is willing to be a member of upper class, and his characters change step by step.2.2.1 Selfishness of grown-up ClydeAfter Clyde working as a waiter outside, he could make enough money for his own enjoyment. However, he witnesses the rich people leading an extravagant and absurd life in his workplace, Clyde is gradually tempted by the rich peoples life and he envies the way of living, so he conceals his salary to parents, and he doesnt give his money to his family for household. Instead, he spends the money on enjoyment. At that moment, Clyde turns to be a selfish man, he only thinks about himself from then on. When his mother asks him for help with his sister who is pregnant and abandoned, he lies to them for financial problem and refuses to help them. Gradually, he becomes a ruthless man, and he would rather spend his money on enjoyment than helping relatives. Whats more, one day when he drives out to enjoy himself in the country, a traffic accident occurs to him that his car crushes a boy to death. Escaping liability and avoiding being arrested, Clyde flees to a strange city and wandering in that city for three years. Three year later, when he encounters with his uncle in Chicago, his life improves greatly, and it turns out to be a turning point in Clydes life, and his selfishness is further intensified for his status change. Because of his willing of being a member of upper class, his girl friend, Roberta, could be a barrier in his way of marrying Sondra, the daughter from a rich family. Thus, Clyde cheats his girl to a lake for viewing, when they are in the boat on the lake; Clyde pushes her into the lake unexpectedly. And his girl friend sinks to death.Clyde, who once is a boy with naivety and weakness in nature, after stepping into the society, attracted by the colorful world, then he gradually becomes a degenerated youth with selfishness. 2.2.2 Hedonism of grown-up ClydeWhen Clyde is young, he goes with his father preaching in the street, and he bears the secular cold eyes and sarcasm, whats worse, he is suffering from the spiritual pain. So when he steps into the society, he wants to get rid of the influence of poor life and can be one of the upper class. As soon as his living condition improves, he would rather enjoy life and live a luxurious life that he has never had before. Although his mother and sister get a financial problem, he would rather spend money enjoying life than helping them. The three years escaping life gives him a strong will to live like the rich, and he believes that money can make everything easy. Clyde works as a foreman in his uncles factory, with the status in the factory improved, his willing to be hedonic grows stronger, and therefore he moves out of the dormitory in the factory and rent a house outside. After his promotion, his conversation with other people mainly focuses on women, parties, automobiles and hotels, and they want to make more money to satisfy their enjoyment, and dream of being one of the upper class as well.While living outside the factory, Clyde falls in love with Roberta and decoys her to develop a relationship with him. Even Clyde is not able to take the responsibility, what he only thinks about is living in a hedonic life. And Clyde can hook or by crook to achieve his aims. As Clyde is only thinking about the hedonic life and himself, he finally turns into a person of hedonism. Throughout the novel, Clyde finally turns out to be a person who is unscrupulous, and he will do anything that are useful for him to be one of the upper class. The most unscrupulous thing Clyde does is killing his girl friend, Roberta from a poor family, who is pregnant, because he wants to marry Sondra, the daughter of a rich family. There is a gap between the rich and the poor, if Clyde wants to be one of them, he should shorten the gap. Thus he must marry Sondra.As we could see in the novel, grown-up Clyde only does the things that he can benefit from. When he falls love with Roberta, he traps her and forces her to develop a relationship with him. At the beginning, Roberta does not agree with him, but Clyde tries everything he could to force her to agree. Finally, he makes it.When Clyde meets Miss Sondra, as if he sees the light of being one of the upper class, and to Clyde, forth putting of Sondra is more than love, and in Clydes mind, there is nothing more important than social status to him. He can abandon all the things he possesses for identify and status of upper class. After killing his pregnant girl friend, he loses his conscience, and he finally becomes a unscrupulous people who is sentenced to death at last.3. The reasons of Clydes character changes The reasons why Clyde converts from a child of naivety, weakness into a unscrupulous young man of hedonism and selfish, and finally becomes a murder, could be classified into three aspects: personal aspect, aspect of the family and aspect of the society. And I will give the analysis of the three aspects.3.1 Personal reasons of Clydes character changesClyde works as a bellhop at the Green-Davidson Hotel is both an extension and an intensification of his character conversion. To Clyde, the hotel is so glorious an institution a response which at once reflects the religiosity of its sexual attractions and their embodiment in a powerful social form. The Green-Davidson has a magic attraction to Clyde, and he watches the rich people there lead a life of debauchery. In that circumstance, Clydes reaction to its beauty and pleasure in the Green-Davidson is deep and powerful, the life in the Green-Davidson is in stark contrast to his previous life, and it brings him a strong shock. Clyde slavers the moral freedom, material splendor, and overspending money which the rich possess, and he would like to be one of them. The soft brown carpet under his feet; the soft, cream-tinted walls; the snowwhite bowl lights set in the ceilingall seemed to him parts of a perfection and social superiority which was almost unbelievable And there was music always-from somewhere, Clyde is lost in the luxurious environment, in contrast to his previous living condition, the hotel now he works in is a paradise.Naturally, Clyde is tired of his life in his childhood, after Clyde stepping into the society, he is aware of that the rich peoples world is far more wonderful than his previous life and envies the life that the rich people lead, in fact he is also deeply attracted by the enjoyment which the rich have. And thus, he would like to be one of the rich to improve his current living condition. So Clyde struggles against the fate, and he wants to change the fate of himself. As a result, Clydes character starts to change and it changes gradually.Clyde is always ashamed to bring friends to his family or even to go to the neighborhood of his family. As a matter of fact, he has always been consciously avoiding making friends. Whether in school or at play, he is either playing all by his own or staying with his sisters and brothers. Clyde also suffers a lot from his preaching experience with his parents or the other family members in the street. When his family members and he are preaching together along the street, the other kids always call to him and make fun of his father, because his father is always emphasizing his religious beliefs or convictions publicly. Facing the crowd and the vehicles back and forth along the street, he fells that he has become a clown whose value of existence is only for the amusement to other people, as if many pairs of eyes are watching at him. He fells that he is undergoing the sufferings which other people have never had the chance to experience. Thus he becomes indignant about being forced to join his familys street preaching. Clyde always thinks that he shouldnt continue the present way of life, for his thought is that his life shouldnt be like this and that the other kids from rich families never do the things like what he does. Clydes extreme vanity of human nature gradually takes root in his heart. Because of his vanity, Clyde couldnt accept the fact that he is born and lives in such a poor family of low social status. Because of his vanity, he admires and longs for the way rich people live, and he is dreaming of being one of the upper class. Finally, Clyde realizes that his extreme vanity of human nature could be satisfied only through money and be a member of upper class.In Clydes mind, he thinks there is nothing more important than identify and social status of upper class. And at that time, people think that money come the first, and they can use money to buy whatever they want and people can do nothing without money. In that way, Clyde is influenced by the incorrect thought. Clyde argues that he can get everything only if he has enough money and social status. Whats more, Clyde deems that women do not have enough social status and they can be exchanged as merchandise if you get enough money. Because Clyde gets an inaccurate morality after he stepping into the society, his character must change at last.3.2 Family reasons of Clydes character changesAs a son of a poor family, when he