An American Tragedy

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1925

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-10

Part 1, Chapters 11-19

Part 2, Chapters 1-22

Part 2, Chapters 23-47

Part 3, Chapters 1-16

Part 3, Chapter 17-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Symbols & Motifs

Cars

Cars are symbols of freedom and class in the novel. The first important car is the luxury one that Clyde and his fellow bellhops take on a joyride outside of Kansas City. When the working-class men and women are on the way out of town, the car gives them mobility that they do not have in Kansas City. The couples in the car caress each other and switch off partners, making the car a symbol for sexual freedom in particular. When the driver crashes the car speeding back to Kansas City so that the bellhops can make their shift at the hotel, the destruction of the car symbolizes the destruction of Clyde’s class aspirations.

Cars appear again after Clyde moves to Lycurgus. Sondra Finchley’s car is the site of her first meeting with Clyde, and the car emblematizes the wealth of the Finchley family. Clyde eventually goes on day trips and joy rides with other young people, giving him a taste of the liberation that comes with material wealth. Clyde’s lack of car as he takes Roberta to the place where he plans to kill her leads to his arrest later, an outcome that shows the role that class plays in Clyde’s encounters with the US legal system.

The Fur Coat

Hortense Briggs’s fur coat is a symbol of working-class aspirations and sex as a commodity. Hortense wants the coat because it will allow her to pass as middle-class or affluent. When she wants the coat, she convinces Clyde that, if he helps her with a down payment, she will be more willing to have sex with him. For Clyde, the coat represents the culmination of his dream of having a sexual relationship with Hortense. Hortense never gets the coat, and Clyde never gets the sex, showing the impossibility of either having their dreams match up with reality.

Houses, Hotels, and Clubs

The houses, hotels, and clubs in the novel are symbols of class and power. The houses on Wykeagy Avenue in Lycurgus reflect the wealth of people like Samuel. The severe and understated architecture of the Griffithses’ houses shows that they are old money, while the more ornate styles of the houses and summer houses of the Cranstons and Finchleys show that they are new money. The poor housing of Clyde and Roberta’s parents show that they are poor and powerless to oppose the desire of the moneyed class.

Similarly, the flashy décor of the Green-Davidson makes the hotel look like the playground of wealthy people. In reality, the hotel is a site where middle-class and the striving affluent class engage in debauchery. Clyde doesn’t understand that the hotel is gaudy and that people with actual power feel no need to flaunt it. When Clyde ends up working at the Union League Club, he sees that actual power brokers get themselves the privacy that only money can buy. The exclusivity of the club and the understated manner of patrons and staff feed Clyde’s aspirations to have true wealth and power.

Mirrors

Theodore Dreiser uses mirrors as a motif to develop the theme of Appearance Versus Reality. Dreiser introduces the motif in Part 1 when Clyde observes himself in the mirror and concludes that he is conventionally attractive, but his poverty holds him back. Clyde believes that good looks and financial success should go hand in hand.

The mirror appears again at the drugstore where Clyde works, only this time, Clyde watches the young women primp before she goes to the movie next store. When Clyde has sex with the sex worker, he also watches her disrobe in front of a mirror. Looking at women in mirrors allows him to see them as sexual objects who will gratify his desires. In truth, these women have interior lives that have little to do with Clyde. Clyde doesn’t learn this lesson until he encounters Hortense. When Clyde takes Hortense on a date, she spends much of her time looking at herself in the many mirrors on the walls of the restaurant where they have dinner. Looking at Hortense looking at herself in the mirror helps Clyde to realize that Hortense may look pretty, but in reality she is too self-involved to allow anyone else enter her field of vision.

When Clyde kills Roberta, he tries to maintain the pretense that he is the man that he appears to be to other people. This pretense ends during his processing at the Bridgeburg jail, where he is forced to get his head shaved and don the jail uniform. Clyde is in a predicament that may lead to his death, but he is still concerned about how he will look to others. His concern about his appearance at this moment shows that Clyde still can’t face the reality of who he is. It takes the death sentence for him to reckon with his actions.