Transition Phase of the American Society in An American Tragedy: A Naturalistic Approach

In his masterpiece An American Tragedy, Theodore Dreiser depicts pains of the American society during transition to modern age. Youths from the lowest social strata sought ways of transforming their lives in job markets spawned by industrialization. However, their ambitions and efforts often ended in a tragedy. Dreiser depicts this through his protagonist, Clyde. Whereas realism portrays incidents of a society in a realistic manner naturalists go further to come up with causes and explanations behind the incident. Relying on psychology, chemism and mechanism, Dreiser portrays how human life is devoid of free will. Though it seems gloomy, Naturalism does offer optimism. Naturalists believe that human beings can overcome beastly nature. They can learn to live by reason. Thus, human beings have the potential to achieve a similar ideal world as envisioned by spiritualism. Naturalistic works imply that its stake holders are responsible for existing social ills/evils. In case of the tragic hero Clyde, it was the social structure that denied him access to education and better opportunities to craft a good life.