Abstract

An American Tragedy is a masterpiece written by Theodore Dreiser who is from America and is famous in criticizing realism. The novel, which is called as the Dreiser’s highest achievement, was among the All-TIME 100 Greatest Novels in 2005. Numbers of domestic and foreign scholars have studied this classic composition from different perspectives since the novel was published. This thesis will particularly focus on the methods of contrast which Dreiser employs in the novel with analysis of the personal traits, social scene of the story and the artistic effects achieved.

Dreiser uses a lot of contrast technique on shaping characters in An American Tragedy.  The colorful characters in the novel form a lifelike group figure. Dreiser employs the method of contrast when shaping the characters, which makes the two groups of characters, namely, Roberta Alden who is a female worker and Sondra Finchleys who is the daughter of a wealthy family; Clyde’s father and his uncle, are independent of each other and interdependent. In the novel, Roberta is poor, but she is gentle and sincere; However, Sondra Finchleys is rich, but she is arrogant and headstrong. The father of the protagonist Clyde is very poor and he is useless but honest. However, his uncle is very rich and he is confident but hard-hearted. This thesis will analyze the contrast on the personal traits from the description of their words, actions and demeanor.

There are also many contrast techniques in the description of social scenes used in the novel. Dreiser reveals and criticizes the social background which is money first and conspicuous consumption, and he employs a lot of contrasts when describing this social context. There is a striking contrast on the Clyde’s distress of family environment and the luxurious life in the hotel. And the female workers’ poor and hard-working life and the rich girls’ comfortable and lazy life also form a vivid contrast. This thesis will analyze the contrast on the social scene from the detailed description of the surroundings.

Contrast technique can produce a wonderful artistic effect. Theodore Dreiser is a famous critical realism novelist. The readers can have a strong sense of contrast through the contrasts in the novel, so that they can better understand that Clyde gradually moves toward the destruction in this social context by the stimulation of contrast. Therefore, it can make the realism of the novel more distinct. In addition, a large number of contrasts in the novel reflect the money first social background, which has a very important role in the revealing and deepening the theme of the critical realism.

Key words: An American Tragedy, contrast technique, personal traits, social scene, realism, artistic achievements