Theodore Dreiser’s novel “An American tragedy”

MINISTRY OF HIGHER AND SECONDARY SPECIAL EDUCATION

OF THE REPUBLIC OF UZBEKISTAN

GULISTAN STATE UNIVERSITY

“Theodore Dreiser’s novel «An American tragedy», its translation into
Uzbek and Russian”

Gulistan2006

1. Theodore Dreiser

1.1 Some notes on Theodore Dreiser’s literary activity

The writer provides a third approach to this all absorbing
social-biological problem of Clyde Griffiths is totally lacking in
either the artistic gifts (of Witla) or the strong personality of Cowper
wood. He is more like Carrie and Jennie in that his attitude toward life
is passive; but he lacks their inner poise. From start to finish of his
short career he is a victim of the social and biological forces which
operate upon him. His instinct for fulfillment is not only thwarted by
the forces without himself; his inner weakness makes even the
development of a Carrie or a Jennie impossible. Thus, by choosing for
his central character a boy who had practically no strength within
himself through which mastery could be achieved, Dreiser in this novel
throws all his emphasis on those forces of biological and social
necessity which had shaped the careers of his stronger characters in
spite of their protests. But by removing the only opposition that the
individual can supply, the force of his own will for mastery, Dreiser
here descends to the lowest possible plane of pure mechanistic
determinism. The scene of the downing of Roberta Alden is carefully
planned in order to remove the factor of will as an instrument. Clyde
plots his act with the greatest care and carries it to its climax with
apparently self-directed intention. But his hesitancy at the final
moment transforms the murder into an accident, and his swimming away
makes his act passive. The description of this story as a «tragedy» is
almost ironic, even though Dreiser probably intended no irony. For the
Fate of classical tragedy there were now substituted the necessities of
social and biological mechanisms. But result is less tragic, in the
classical sense, than are almost any other of Dreiser’s novels because
the opposition of man to his destiny, in whatever terms, is not even
provisional. To raise necessity to the level of tragedy there must be at
least the illusion of possible mastery. In Carrie and Jennie and Cowper
wood this illusion is present; in Witla and Clyde it is not. The unknown
creative force in life, The force that drove Cowper wood to the heights
of power, that tore the soul of Eugene Wilta, that sent Clyde to the
electric chair is now revealed as universal love.

An American Tragedy was written about a man’s life. If you read this
book you can learn that you should make your general behaviors better.
This story was based on his general behaviors. It was written about from
his childhood to his death. Of course, he had experiences of sympathy to
his family, bad behaviors, loving someone and the atonement. This book
was very interesting on human living. You will be able to enjoy reading
it. Because I think that you have seen people like him. If you not so,
at least you have had to hear about them like him. This book consists of
three sections. First section explained his poor childhood and what he
was as a young man: As his family was very poor they earned living by
singing in the street. Then he longed for being rich. He had shown bad
behavior. He also had loved a girl for the first time. Second section
accounted for his growth to adulthood and love to some girls: For his
first love he had the heart which was very pure. But he was getting used
to love girls. For that reason he could even love, two girls at the same
time. So, he had not only made many good memories with them in love but
also so many accidents with them. Third section was written about his
atonement: he was arrested for his girl-friend’s death by officer. I
think that anyone must has shown bad behaviors in the past. For example,
telling a lie, hurting a person and deceiving one. Considering to this
story, he was very loose, as it were, he did not have distinctions. The
reason was why he became very crazy to separate her and he atoned for
his crime of killing her. I think that if he had had distinctions he
would have not committed a murder. Shortly, if his regular behaviors
were better such a happening would have surely never occurred. When you
read this book you will look at your regular behaviors over again. So,
if you find something wrong you should try to change the parts of your
thoughts. You will make yourself better. That is why I think you should
read this book.

In minor characters, Dreiser reveals the plight of the individual in
American society; but that society itself is not static. The span of
years encompassed in his novels and short stories coincides with a
period of tremendous social change in America. «The Financier» opens
before the Civil War. In it, as in «Sister Carrie», The «Cenius», and
other novels dealing with an alder form of American society, success
comes early to those who use what abilities they have. There is no
contradiction between their careers and their inner natures, because
society itself is plastic. But Clyde and the younger generation in «The
Bulwark» are their dialectic opposites. Clyde is the most pathetic
failure in Dreiser even more so than Hurstwood, Carrie’s second lover.
In order to get ahead, he has to pretend, to tell social lies, and to
act deceitfully. In his time the path of opportunity is no longer open,
there have been alterations in the American Dream. In the early works,
this dream operates as a motivation to rise on the basis of one’s
talants, energies, and capacities; in the later, the dream becomes one
of success by marriage in order to have a life of leisure and enjoyment.
Clyde is an ambitious youth in an America more stratified than that of
Cowper wood and Witla. Thus Dreiser not only reveals the meaning of
American social ideals in his own lifetime and during the period
immediately preceding his birth; his works also mirror the changes in
those ideals, and the change in the social structure of Americans life.

1.2 The place of «An American tragedy» in Theodore Dreiser works

Dreiser’s methods of characterization are consistent with these
attitudes and social revelations. Just as he does not conceive the
individual as individual, so his characterizations are not mere
representations at atomized men and women straggling in the American
society of their time. They appear in their social roles, and their
natures as well as their actions are involved in the functions which
they perform in society. Carrie’s first lover, Drout, is one of the most
successful and attractive of Dreiser’s minor characters. He is jolly,
genial, superficial, yet he is strikingly different from the salesmen
of, for example, Sinclair Lewis. Drogue does not subordinate himself to
the «fetish of commodities»; a successful salesman, he is concerned with
a life of pleasure, he feels secure in his world. He appears in a social
role which is an integral feature of his «individuality», similarly.
Hurst wood has the charm, the savoir-faire, the sophistication of the
professional major-domo in a high-class saloon, concerned with meeting
important personages, when he loses this position, he lasses also the
personality that goes with it. His character is social rather than
individual, and his defeat is that of a man who has lost his function
and place in society. The tragedy in Dreiser’s novels is social tragedy.
His characters do not merely represent themselves; they speak for their
classes and their occupations. «An American Tragedy» would remain a
tragic work even if Clyde and Roberta had not died; but it is tragic in
a new sense. In Dreiser, the old terms of art are reset by the social
thinking of his day. He wrote what he knew what he was. His many
colloquialisms were part of the coinage of his time, and his sentimental
and romantic passages were written in the language of the educational
system and the popular of his formative years. In his style, as in his
material, he was a child of his time, of his class. Self-educated, a
type or model of the artist of plebeian origin in America, his language,
like his subject matter, is not marked by internal inconsistencies. As a
style, in the formal sense, it never developed at all, and he frequently
permitted his novels to be revised by others before publication.

There are many passages in these novels that rise to high levels of
passionate writing. In Dreiser the subject matter is always more
important that the expression. Because he reveals the very nerves of
American society he has exerted a more profound, a more lasting
influence than any other novelist on twentieth century realistic fiction
in America. Several generations of writers are already his debtors. His
influence is discoverable in a seriousness of approach to the material
of American life, in a greater freedom of theme, in the parallelism of
ideas and phenomena. Dreiser desorbed the broad patterns of modern
American experience; his successors have been more intensive in their
treatment. Because he was faithful to his art and made no compromises
with the censors and the pudes, his work gives a sense of totality and
finality.

1.3 The Aims and task of the papers

American literature is very rich and unlimited. We know it well. Its
role in world literature is huge. One of its great representatives is
Theodore Dreiser (1871–1945). He is known in Uzbekistan mainly as the
author of «Sister Carrie» and «An American Tragedy». Both these nice
novels are translated into Uzbek language. The fifth novels was
translated from Russian into Uzbek in 1971 by Erkin Nosirov. The first
part of «An American Tragedy» was also translated into Uzbek by Erkin
Nosirov but it was done in 1976. But these books are not studied in
Uzbek literature. While to study these books and their Russian and Uzbek
translations have valuable significance not only for Uzbek but for
American literature as well. The interrelations between the culture as
well as the literature of the Republic of Uzbekistan and America is
developing day by day. There are still a lot of things to do in these
branches. One of these problems is to study the peculiarities of
Theodore Dreiser’s literary activity on the one hand and his works on
the other. Fictional translation plays a great role in the development
of Uzbek literature as well. Fictional translation has a great
importance in the churchmen of our national literature, our social
views. We must learn Theodore Dreiser’s depiction methods and it will
feel our world views.

In our final graduation paper aims at studying Theodore Dreiser’s
creative mastery skill. For this purpose we analyzed Russian Translation
of «An American Tragedy» as the Uzbek translator chose for his brave the
Russian translation. We must study the translation comparing
English-Russian-Uzbek versions.

Теодор Драйзер «Американская Трагедия» Часть первая (книга первая и
книга вторая) Часть вторая. Оба они печатались по изданию
«Художественная литература» Москва, 1978 год, в издательстве
«Узбекистан» 1984 года.

Once Sherwood Anderson wrote that Theodore Dreiser’s feet were paving a
path, those feet were heavy, cruel feet. They are walking among the
steppe of lies and self ling heavy steps paving the path. We must
mention that Sherwood Anderson was Theodore Dreier’s follower Theodore
Dreiser widened the horizons of American realistic literature, while
bourgeois America was always setting bars and hard slaps before him.

Theodore Dreiser left broad and picturesque trays. His literature, his
works are quite different from those of other writers. He is brave, he
never shattered shivered. He worked hard, he tailed, he hoped, he
believed. We try to see such Courageous.

Dreiser not in the original, not in Russian, but also in Uzbek too.

On writing our final graduation papers we have the following aims and
tasks:

1. To speak about American literature in Connection with Theodore
Dreiser’s literary activity.

2. To enlighten specific features of Theodore Dreiser in connection with
the creation of «An American Tragedy».

3. To talk about «An American Tragedy» not only in Theodore Dreiser or
in American but both in the world and Uzbek literatures.

4. To study the characters of Clyde Griffith and its reproduction in
Uzbek. To see Clyde’s attitudes to Hortense, Roberta and Sondra.

Each of the character takes separately and in connection with the main
hero. To study ways and principles of reproductively of every image.

5. To pay attention to the fact how the characters examined are
reflected in the Uzbek language.

6. To express our point of view about the texts translated.

Americans literature is wide and endless. It’s great role in the
development of world literature is also an ocean self evident. One of
the greatest representatives of this literature is Theodore Dreiser. His
literary activity is not studied specially. Theodore Dreiser as an
author of a number of novels holds his strong position in the history of
the American literature of the XX century.

Dreiser critical as a great writer social conditions of the society of
his time, as namely these social conditions are the bearers of hardships
which Clyde was to overcome in order to become a man of his own ideal.
The reasons of Clyde’s fall are shown in the book clearly. One of the
reasons of his fall should be thought the social surrounding in which he
had grown up. But we must hot barged one more truth; «The creator of
each man’s or woman’s fate, first of all, he or she only. Clyde became
the sacrifice, not a winner in an American society because he had not
been brought up in proper way. “American Tragedy” a Fallen Dream , 2002.
a look at The concept of The American Dream through a review of “An
American Tragedy” by THEODORE DREISER The tragedy should be sought in
Clyde first of all, because he could not stop himself in time. He let
the life to load him towards his tragedy. He moved forwards happiness
without difficulties. He didn’t pay attention, did not take into
consideration the proverb «There is no sweet without sweat». He wanted
to get the sweat from heaven.

Sometimes we feel sorry for Clyde, but unfortunately we understand that
are not right.

The thing that most interested Clyde at first was how, it at all, he was
to keep the major portion of all this money he was making for himself.
For ever since he had been working and earning money, it had been
assumed that he would contribute a fair position of all that he received
at least three fourths of the smaller salaries he had received up to
this time-toward the upkeep of the home.

Больше всего занимала Клайда мысль, как сохранить для себя львиную долю
денег, которые он зарабатывал. С тех пор как он впервые начал работать,
установился такой порядок, что большую часть своего заработка, по
крайней мере, три четверти Клайду приходилось вкладывать в общее
хозяйство.

Клайдни хаммасидан хам топган пулиленинг анга мунчасини кандай килиб
узимда олиб колсамикин, деган уй купрок бошни котиради. У иш
бошлаганидан бери дастёрлар орасида вужудга келган келишувга кура,
пулнинг купрок кисмини, кам деганда туртдан учини умумий харажатга бериш
керак эди.

Clyde did not set before himself great aims. His dreams were huge but
his acts were on the contrary too small. If he worked properly; if he
behaved well himself towards people who surrounded him he would may be,
achieved success, but instead of it he wanted to kill two girls with one
stone and it is impossible to do it. Clyde’s case should be taken into
consideration by Clyde like youth.

«What we mean is that instead of working for good things his starvation
burned towards any form of pleasure».

We know that everything ought to be in necessary portion. But Clyde
wanted more pleasure. We want the author to centime our thoughts «from
the first he listened with all too eager ears to any account of anything
that spelled of adventure or pleasure. Not that he approved of these
types of adventures».

«…being invited by them to a joy night supper a «blow-out»

His knowledge about adventure was too little before and he tried to
seize every hint about the pleasure with great thirst. And the next
«blow-out» was to take place at Frissel’s. Clyde looked forward to it
with interest, with anxiety.

The aim of the author is given by Russian and Uzbek translators well.
They read Dreiser truly. The main hero’s intentions are reproduced both
in Russian and Uzbek translations adequately. Dreiser’s realism probably
finds its roots in his drifting childhood and in the poverty of his
family background his father was a ruined and brooding man. These
experiences had their effects on his brothers and sisters: one of his
brothers was imprisoned for forgery (подлог, подделывание, фальшивые
деньги), one of his sisters had an illegitimate child and was east out
by the family. As a reaction, Dreiser lauded for money, success, and
power and developed a fatalistic vision of life; men are not responsible
for their actions of feelings, but are determined by the saltine in
which they grow up and by biological factors which leave then powerless
to resist temptations and impulses. In his own words, they are «more
chemists», «helpless in the clutch of relentless: неумолимый,
неослабевающий, безжалостный, непреклонный, fate». His reading of
Nietzsche, Darwin, Spencer, Thomas Hurley and Machiavelli reinforced
this determinism and tinged it with cynicism. As he wrote, «success is
what counts in the world, and it is little mother how success is won.»

Dreiser’s aim was to show life as it was, its poverty and sordidness,
its vice and misery. He was fascinated by cities, the way they could
make and unmake a man, the wealth of experiences they could provide
hutted, her naturalism was much influenced by the work of Balzac. He
also attacked the hypocrisy he saw everywhere and debunked the American
myth, believing that work and good morals do not necessarily lead to
success. Towards the end of his life Dreiser turned to political
commitment and joined the Communist party. Dreiser’s first novel,
«Sister Carrie», is the story of the successful ascent of an actress,
paralleled by the downfall of her lover, Hurstwood, who had tricked her
into an illegal marriage. The book shocked its American readers who
could not find any morality in it and who did not accept that Carrie
should go unpunished. «The Trilogy of Desire» related the soaring career
of an unscrupulous and ruthless magnate. An American Tragedy was
inspired by a true murder case. Driven by his ambition and eager to
marry into opulent society, Clyde Griffiths plans the death of his
pregnant girlfriend and is executed at the end of the novel, even though
she probably dies accidentally. Here again, the author does not take
sides, does not try to justify or to condemn the ultimate fate of
Griffiths.

Though Dreiser’s prose is often ponderous, repetitive and full of
cliches, he nonetheless succeeds in painting a simple and powerful, if
sometimes brutal, portrait of his time.

Theodore Dreiser wrote on the city: The failure of an individual is as
characteristic of the city, and of life as a whole. Nature is so grim.
The city, which represents it so effectively, is also so grim. It does
not care at all. It is not conscious. The passing of so small an
organism at that of a man or woman is nothing to it. Beside a star or a
great force at any kind the beginning or end of a little body is so
ridiculous and trivial, that it is almost like that of an insect or a
warm. And yet to the individual who is thus ground between the upper and
the nether millstone of circumstance, the indifference of the city, and
of the world and of life, comes as a terrible revelation. He learns that
one way really die of starvation in a great city full of wealth, full of
power, in a way, full of sympathy (misdirected, perhaps). The houses
with which the streets are lined may be full of the comfort which
attaches to happiness: the stores and offices crowded with those who are
industriously bettering their fortune. On every hand are piled up the
evidences of wealth great structures, well stocked stores, energetic
factories, and the masses of material for sale, which can only be had
for a price, and yet you may die.

(«The Man on the Sidewall,» in Bohemian, XVII, October 1909)

Theodore Dreiser once wrote on his art: The sum and substance of
literary as well as social morality may be oppressed in three words tell
the truth. It matters not how the tongues of the critics may wag if the
voices of a partially developed and highly conventionalized society may
complain, the business of the author, as well as of other workers upon
this earth, is to say what he knows to be true, and, having said as
much, to abide the result with patience.

Truth is what is; and the seeing of what is, the realization of truth.
To express what we see housel and without subterfuge (увертка,
отговорка): this is morality as well as art.

What the so-called judges of the truth or morality are really inveighing
against most of the time is not the discussion of were sexual lewdness,
(кокетливый, распутный, непристойный) for no work with that as a basis
could possibly succeed, but the disturbing and destroying of their own
little theories concerning life, which in some cases may be nothing more
than a quite acceptance of things as they are without any regard to the
well being of the future. Work for them is made up of a variety of
interesting but immutable forms and any attempt either to picture any of
the wretched results of modern social conditions or to assail the
critical defenders of the same is naturally booked upon with contempt or
aversion.

It is true that the rallying cry of the critics against so called
immoral virtue of the reader must be preserved: but this has become a
house of refuge to which every form of social injustice hurries for
protection.

The influence of intellectual ignorance and physical and moral greed
upon personal virtue produces the chief tragedies of the age, and yet
the objection to the discussion of the sex question is so great as to
almost prevent the handling of the theme literary. Immoral! Immoral!
Under this cloak hide the vices of wealth as well as the vast unspoken
blackness of poverty and ignorance: and between them must walk the
little novelist, choosing neither truth nor beauty, but some
half-conceived phrase of life that bears no honest relationship to
either the whole of nature or to man.

The impossibility of any such theory of literature having weight with
the true artist must be apparent to every clear reasoning mind. Life is
not made up of any one phase or condition of being nor can man’s
interest possibly be so confined.

The extent of all reality is the realm of the author’s pen, and a true
picture of life, honestly and reverentially set down, is both moral and
artistic whether if offends the conventions or not.

Dreiser, DRY seer, Theodore (1871–1946), ranks as the foremost American
writer in the naturalism movement (a pessimistic form of realism)
Dreiser’s characters are victims of apparently meaningless incidents
that result in pressures they can neither control nor understand. He
based such novels as «Sister Carrie» and «An American Tragedy» on events
from real life. He condemned not his villains, but repressive,
hypocritical society that produced them. Dreiser’s style lacks grace,
but his best stories are powerful and sobering.

Theodore Dreiser grew up in a large, poor family in Terre Haute,
Indiana.

Several of his brothers and sisters would later rescue Dreiser at low
points in his career – two of his protagonists were based on sisters,
and his brother, Paul, sent Dreiser to a resort when he was broke. A
high school teacher paid to send him to Indiana University for one year,
but Dreiser did not fit in, and he left college to become a reporter.
News papering took him to Chicago, St. Louis, Pittsburgh, and New York
City, where he gathered his first observations of the American cities
that would play large roles in his upcoming novels.

Dreiser’s novels are prime examples of literary naturalism, with
characters driven by selfish motives and influenced by the privileges
and limitations of social class. He was often criticized for telling
amoral tales that could outrage readers or convince them that bad
decisions would be rewarded. Among his most significant influences are
Herbert Spencer and Honore de Balzac. Dreiser was a finalist for the
Nobel Prize in 1930; when Sinclair Lewis won, he acknowledged Dreiser in
his speech.

His first novel, «Sister Carrie,» based on the misadventures of his own
sister, sold very poorly at first, and Dreiser lashed out against the
publisher, Doubleday Page. Dreiser despaired of ever succeeding as a
writer and resigned himself to life as a laborer in the Brooklyn slums.
During these dark days Dreiser wrote a journal; although he intended it
for personal use only, it was discovered and published in 1983. When his
brother, a composer, found out about Dreiser’s bad luck, he plucked him
out of his tenement and, much to Mrs. Dreiser’s relief, sent him to a
resort for the wealthy. Dreiser regained his courage and wrote «Jennie
Gerhardt,» based on the life of another sister. «Jennie» was a hit, and
led readers to rediscover «Sister Carrie.» Just as his writing career
was taking off, Dreiser separated from his first wife, Sara Osborne
«Jug» White. His books after this point convey his philosophy more
clearly, because Dreiser had always depended on the suggestions and
criticism of Jug (who was also a reporter) and other friends. He married
once more, in 1944, the year before he died.

Another of Dreiser’s best-known novels is «An American Tragedy» (1925),
which was adapted for the screen in 1951. «American Tragedy» is the
story of a man driven to commit murder by the desire for financial gain,
which he believes is the central part of the American dream. Clyde
Griffiths wants to kill his poor, pregnant lover so he can marry his
rich, beautiful lover. When the poor woman dies accidentally, Clyde’s
plot comes to light, and a jury finds him guilty of murder. Dreiser was
born in Terne Haute Ind. His older brother was Paul Dreiser who wrote
the song «On the Banks of the Wabash, Far Away», Dreiser’s family was
very poor, and he soon saw a profound difference between the promise and
the reality of American life. This realization was a major source of
Dreier’s discontent and an important influence on his works. Dreiser
attended Indiana University for a year. In the 1890’s he worked as a
newspaperman in Chicago and st. Louse, by 1907, he was the successful
editor of the very sort of woman’s magazine whose sentimentality and
super facility he despised. Dreiser’s first novel, «Sister Carrie», was
partly based on the experiences of one of his sisters. The novelist
Frank Norris, on editor at Doubleday, Page, and Co., enthusiastically
accepted the manuscript for publication. But Nettle Doubleday, wife of
the president of the company, was chocked by the manuscript’s amorality,
and the publisher tried to cancel the contract to publish the book.
Dreiser insisted the agreement be honored. Doubleday printed the book in
1900, but did not advertise or distribute in. The novel became generally
available in 1912, after another publisher is sued it. «Sister Carry» is
the story of Carries Muber, a poor girl alone in Chicago. She likes with
a traveling salesman and then runs off to New York with George Hurstwood
a prosperous married man. Hurstwood’s fortunes decline, and he becomes a
bum and commits suicide. Carrie find’s success, but not happiness, as an
actress. Dreiser wrote «Jennie Gerhardt» (1911y) another novel of desire
and fate. However, his reputation was assured with the publication of
«The Financier» (1912), the most purely naturalistic of his works. It is
the story of an industrial tycoon who claws his way to great power;
Dreiser intended the novel as the beginning of a «Trilogy of Desire».
But the second volume, «The Titan» (1914) was a failure, and the third
volume. «The Stoic», was not published until two years after his death.

«An American Tragedy» (1925) is possibly the most impressive of
Dreiser’s books. It concerns a weak young man who in executed for the
murder o f his pregnant girl friend, again Dreier did not condemn his
villain but the society that produced and destroyed him.

After having denounced Dreiser’s «barbaric naturalism» in 1915, he had
the courage in 1925 to accept «An American Tragedy» as «the worst
written great novel in the world» – but none the less great for its
moral integrity and it’s final mastery of the novel form. With «The
Genius» he bucked the censorship of the press and again held back his
novels except for «An American Tragedy» (1925), the story of a boy who,
like Carrie and Jennie, failed to come to workable terms with American
society.

His father was an immigrant German, is mother the daughter of German
parents who belonged to a small religious sect in a farming region of
Pennsylvania. Dreiser has described his father as a fanatically
religious man, honest, hard – working, plodding. He might have been an
American success on a small scale but was devoid of will and too
persistently concerned with trying to avoid the fires of a theological
hell. In Dreiser’s writing he emerges as a strangely appealing and
rather pathetic figure.

For his mother, Dreiser felt a lifelong devotion. His description of her
in Dawn reveals her as a deeply emotional woman who gave to her large
family maternal affection, warmth, and security, but for her, his life
might have been as ineffectual as that of some of his own characters. In
boyhood he was shy, eager, timid, brooding, bewildered, and slow to
develop. He has himself confessed how important his mother’s love and
some measure of security were to him as well as to his brothers and
sister.

His childhood and youth were not happy. His father was almost
continually poor, and this family moved constantly from house to house,
from one Indiana community to another; they spent one period on the
crowded west side of Chicago. Besides poverty, the usually faced social
ostracism. With each move, their hopes of economic and of social
betterment reawakened, only to be disappointed, and again the Dreiser’s
children were rejected by their fellows. Theodore’s suffering was
further aggravated, when he passed the age of poverty, by severe fear of
castration and impotence, which intensified his shyness and coursed
sexual panic in the presence of girls. These difficulties, with the
rigid conceptions of hell taught in the Catholic parochial school and
reinforced by his father, played their part in his relative slowness of
mental development. He was an inconsistent pupil, responding well only
when his teachers took a sympathetic interest in him a brooding, groping
boy and youth who had to learn everything for himself.

The brooding and groping style which he often used in his novels was a
reflection of these inner struggles, and they provided him with one of
the chief motives of his fiction; the conflict between what was then
loosely termed «instinct» by the psychologists, and convention. The
biological needs of his characters lead them to actions, particularly in
love affairs, which result in infringements on the social code. His
autobiographical writings tell us that he experienced this conflict
constantly and poignantly in his own early life. The bewilderments of
his teenage period of drifting from job to job he worked in a Chicago
restaurant, drove for a laundry, collected for an easy payment furniture
company, helped in a real estate, office, in the stockroom of whole sake
hardware company, and soon suggest the later fictional wanderings of
Clyde Griffiths in «An American Tragedy». His characters usually receive
their education in life itself, in a real and savage struggle for place,
money, and social prestige, rather than in schools.

Dreiser was educated, like his characters, not so much by his schooling
as by hi repeated moves with their resulting contrasts of urban and
rural life. From the farm lands and the many towns of Indiana, he came
to know the vigorous young city of Chicago in the seventies and
eighties. The moral and social consequences of the triumph of town over
country were impressed upon him. In his early stories his characters,
whenever they move to the city, find it an exciting adventure. The
growth of cities is an integral motif of all his studies of youth. The
decade of the nineties, when Dreiser was a youth in Chicago, was a
crucial period in its history. By the time of the world’s fair it was
beginning to play an increasingly important role in national life,
especially in finance and politics. No wonder he wrote, in Newspaper
Days.

To me Chicago at this time seemed with a peculiarly human or realistic
atmosphere. It is given to some cities, as to some lands, to suggest
romance, and to me Chicago did that hourly. It sang, I thought, and …I
was singing with it.

There he saw the contrasts of grandeur and misery which he was later to
describe so movingly; there his dreams and hopeless of love, success,
knowledge, prestige was born. It seemed to be a world city in the
mating, a center of gravity for the American Success Dream.

Dreiser as a boy absorbed this dream of social power and easy money as
if by osmosis, at the some time that he saw poverty, failure, ignorance,
and defeat all about him, even in his own family. Attending popular
lectures and reading Eugene Field, he determined to understand it and to
report it faithfully; to become a newspaperman. He inescapably was that
Norris, Crane, and Carlen envisioned the modern American to be.

There has been much debate among the critics as to whether Dreiser was a
«naturalist» after the manner of Zola. Only when it serves to confine
creative genius within a formula must it be rejected, for Dreiser
belonged to no school, studied no sources with intent to obey, knew
little of literary movements at home or abroad.

He was an objective realist who gathered his facts impersonally, but he
was more. He lived in his dreams, his hopes, his brooding. For this
reason, he absorbed both the realistic method and the new conceptions of
the universe from science into his thought and his writing. His views
are loose in formulation, and inconsistent. For example, his theory of
the relativity of morals is as inconsistent as it is challenging. But
such views of man and native as he had, however ill formed, are
essential parts of his writing; without them, his works would be
entirely different. They helped to deeper his imagination; they
contributed toward the feeling of awe he creates concerning the
condition of man, they served him in his very construction of theme, of
story, of character. He was an artist, not a philosopher.

The absence of money means defeat; it means the back of education, of
beauty. It means that one is a victim, like Clyde Griffiths, of the
rich, of one’s relationships with others. Dreiser directly described the
pitilessness and the hierarchical character of capitalistic society by
showing that just as the poor are the victims of the rich, the weak of
the strong, so are women, inferior to men, usually victims. American
tragedy, like all tragedy, is the consequence of weakness. The impulses,
the passions of man pitilessly drive him to satisfy himself; the force
of social circumstance, the force nature of the social struggle, toward
him and produce both social and biological tragedy.

2. The main part

2.1 Clyde Griffith’s character and its reflection

We meet a little band of six, a man of about fifty, shout, stout, with
bushy hair protruding from under a round black felt hat, a most
unimportant, looking person, who carried a small portable organ as in
customarily used by street preambles and singers. And with him a woman
perhaps five years his junior, taller, not so broad, bur solid of frame
and vigorous, very plain in face and dress, and yet not homely, leading
with one hand a small boy of seven and in the other carrying a Bible and
several hymn books. With these three, but walking independently behind,
was a girl of fifteen a boy of twelve and another girl of nine, all
following obediently, but not too, enthusiastically in the wake of the
others.

It was not, yet with a sweet languor about it all.

The man the father as he chased to be looked about him with seeming will
eye assurance. The third of the family is Hester-the oldest girl, who
until now had attempted to appear as unconscious and unaffected as
possible, bestowed her rather slim and as yet undeveloped figure. This
family was an unimportant looking (невзрачное семейство). The father had
rather dubious baritone. Impractical materially inefficient feature of
the father, whose weak black eyes and rather flabby but poorly clothed
fissure bespoke more of failure than anything else.

At the group the mother alone stood out as having that force and
determination which, however blind or erroneous, make for
self-preservation, if not success in life… She stood up with an
ignorant, yet somehow respectable air all conviction.

A tall and as yet slight fissure, surmounted by an interesting head and
face while skin, dark hair he seemed more keenly observant indeed to
resent and even to suffer from the position in which he found himself.
Plainly pagan rather than religious, life interested him, although as
yet he was not fully aware of this. All that coned be truly said of him
now was that there was no definite appeal in all this for him. He was
too young, his mind much to responsive to pleases of beauty and Theodore
Dreiser fought for life and for justice and in these fields he opened
new era of a prose and publicist writer. He paved the path for Sinclair
Lewis, Sherwood Anderson, William Faulkner, Ernest Hemingway and others.
If he could save some success in his youth he achieved it thanks to his
hard looking, he studied in the University of Life. He worked hard for
newspapers. Only from 1887 he turned into writing.

The future writer felt that there existed an invisible wall between real
life out the society of journalism and literature. He wrote that he
became indignant because of the contradictions which existed between
what he read and the things which he had experienced. In the books
everything was beautiful, quiet. But the real life consisted of
hardships; it was rule, low, there even was no hint of the beautiful.
Theodore Dreiser chose facts well-known for him. The life described in
«An American Tragedy» is very much like Dreiser spent in his youth. This
book may be considered to be Dreiser’s the masterpiece, it is rich, and
it penetrated deep American life. The events are true to life, there are
much dark and light as well, and they are full of contradictions,
conflicts, disappointments. True is one of true critics who consider
that if even Dreiser’s main heroes hadn’t died. The fact would not b e
able to hide the tragedy of the Clyde Griffith like youth. This book the
life full of served as a mirror put before. Americans and later before
the people of all world, because the novel is translated into many
languages of the world. The novel may be thought to be the most
important, valuable for Dreiser. We feel pettiness according to Clyde.
Sometimes we want him to achieve the desired, but unfortunately he is
not to cope with the tasks put before him. We sympathies with him, but
real life dictates him its own laws and these laws are heavy. Clyde is
too passive in An American life one must be very strong willed. We can’t
be simple spectator or observer of Clyde’s fate. We are sorry for him
when he is sentences to death to an electric chair. We don’t like his
behavior; he falls down little by little. He is not eager to help
himself, he is not honest. At the some time we understand that the
society in which is born is also responsible for his failure. The
problem of Clyde like people failure is put not only in «An American
Tragedy» but in Dreiser’s other things as well.

The book exposes that the idea as if «American has great opportunities»
is not so in reality. Material wealth does not comprise the base of
happiness. An individual’s interests are criticized when they are
private interests.

The author opposes the characteristic features of a common people from
humanistic point of view. We are quoting citing this passage in order to
show yare how poor was Clyde Griffith’s childhood. He is from a poor
family. He «appeared indeed to resent, and even to suffer from the
position in which he found himself», the family was always «hard up»,
never very well clothed, and deprived of many comforts and pleasures
which seemed common enough to others. Hester or Esta the older daughter
was called by the family.

Asa Griffiths – the father, was one of those poorly integrated and
correlated organisms, the product of an environment and a religions
theory, but with no guiding or mental.

Insight of his own, yet sensitive and therefore highly emotional, and
without any practical sense whatsoever. Indeed it would be hard to make
clear just how life appealed to him, or what the true full of his
emotional responses was.

The creator of the novel is interested in Asa Griffiths and his wife
because of their relation to Clyde, who was only twelve years old.

2.2 Clyde Griffiths is a typical character of capitalist society

Клайд Гриффитс существенно отличается от героев предыдущихпроизведений
писателя своей обыденностью, обычностью, заурядностью. Керри обладала
актерским дарованием, Дженни Герхард поражала душевным богатством,
Каупервуда писатель даже уподобил Люциферу, у Витлы был талант
художника. У Клайда нет талантов Витлы ели Керри, нет изворотливости и
силы Каупервуда, нет душевной красоты я частоты Дженни. Он самый обычный
и заурядный американский юноша, «средний молодой американец с типично
американским взглядом на жизнь». Трагедия Клайда похожа в не похожа на
трагедию Витлы или Дженни. Буржуазная Америка растаптывает душевную
чистоту Дженни, глумятся над ее самыми сокровенными и искренними
чувствами; буржуазная Америка губит талант Витлы; судьба же Клайда
трагична именно потому, что он усваивает законы буржуазной Америки и по
мере своих сил и возможностей следует ям, и оттого страшнее его
трагедия, трагедия простого американца, американская трагедия.

Клайд – само олицетворение обычности, и в этом смысле он так же типичен.
Иллюзии и мечты, привитые ему в детстве, определяют дальнейшую судьбу
молодого человека, охваченного непреодолимым желанием во что бы то ни
стало добиться легкой жизни, В образе Клайда писатель акцентировал
неустойчивость, податливость влияниям среды. Повествование строится
таким образом, что Клайд все время в центре внимания, и вместе с тем
четко видны силы, формирующие его характер. «Одних только разговоров в
вестибюле, – пишет Драйзер, – не говоря, уже о сценах в баре, в
ресторанах я номерах, было достаточно, чтобы внушить каждому неопытному,
и не очень разборчивому существу, будто главное занятие в жизни для
всякого, у кого есть кой-какие деньги и положение в обществе, – это
ходить в театры, детям посещать стадион, танцевать, кататься в
автомобиле, угощать друзей обедами и ездить для развлечения в Нью-Йорк,
Европу, Чикаго или Калифорнию».

Так раскрывается социальная обусловленность поведения Клайда, который
проникается стремлением попасть в этот мир роскоши и богатства.
Эти-мечтания определяю и его отношение к Роберте Олден. Вот размышления
Клайда: пусть эта девушка бедна и ей, по несчастью, пришлось стать
простой работницей, он все равно был бы очень счастлив с нею, но только
при одном условии: чтобы не нужно было жениться. Что касается брака, тут
честолюбивый Клайд был словно под гипнозом: он женится на девушке из
круга Грифитсов! Брак с богатой девушкой казался Клайду путем к
исполнению его сокровенных желаний. Карьера для него дороже тех чувств,
которые он испытывал к Роберте, – в его сознании любовь неотделима от
пышности, удовольствий, богатства, видного положения в обществе. Так
создаются предпосылки для трагедии Клайда и Роберты.

В «Американской трагедии» достигается та удивительная художественная
цельность, которая отличает истинные произведения искусства. И заглавие
романа, и его композиция, в пейзаж, и авторские отступления, и логика
развития характеров, и их психология в «Американской трагедии»
раскрывают ответственность американского буржуазного общества за
трагедию Клайда Грифитса.

Широта социального замысла «Американской трагедии» выявляется и
композиция романа, Драйзер писал о композиции «Американской трагедии» в
апреле 1931 года: «Этот роман должен представлять в трех различных
социальных и экономических сферах карьеру очень чувствительного, но
умственно не очень развитого парня, который обнаруживает, что жизнь его
в самом начале затруднена бедностью и низким социальным положением, из
которых, повинуясь присущим ему желаниям и служащим побудительной силой,
он и пытается вырваться». Разъясняя затею своей мысли, Драйзер отмечает,
что первая часть книги была посвящена изображению таких социальных
невзгод, какие могут естественно подавить, «держать, и расстроить, а
следовательно, и усилить эмоции в желания очень чувствительного парня,
плохо приспособленного для великой жизненной борьбы, с которой
сталкивается любой юноша.

Часть вторая, по словам Драйзера, была специально предназначена, чтобы
показать, что такой темперамент может случайно быть поставлен лицом к
лицу с гораздо более удачливым мирон, который разовьет в нем стремление
к роскоши в любви, я проследить, как в неравном состязании между
бедностью, невежеством великими соблазнами мира он может легко в помимо
своей воли оказаться побежденным и даже обвиненный в убийстве, как эта и
происходит с Грифитсом.

Часть третья была тщательно спланирована Драйзером таким образом, чтобы
продемонстрировать, пак такой слабый человек – сначала пленник своих
мечтаний, а потом закона – может легко ‘стать жертвой одержимых
предрассудками и мстительных провинциальных политиканов, которые, в свою
очередь, по причине социальной в религиозной ограниченности никак не
могут воспринять смягчающие обстоятельства преступления и поэтому, как
отмечает Драйзер, судят его куда более жестоко, чем это могли сделать
люди более проницательные и умные.

2.3 Clyde’s attitude towards to

a) Hortense

Итак, первая книга – экспозиция романа – посвящена формированию
характера Клайда, вторая – трагической гибели Роберты, третья – гибели
Клайда. В основу сюжета положено развитие характера и личности Клайда в
его взаимоотношении с обществом. Клайда водит за нос ветреная продавщица
Гортензия Бриге. После нескольких встреч Гортензия стала казаться Клайду
воплощением всего, что он всегда мечтал найти в девушке. Она была такая
живая, гордая, обаятельная и такая хорошенькая. В её глазах казалось
ему, плясали огоньки. У неё была необыкновенно соблазнительная манера
сжимать и вновь раскрывать губы, равнодушно глядя прямо перед собой,
словно вовсе и не думая о Клайде, а его от этого бросало в жар и дрожь.
В такие минуты он ощущал слабость, голова шла кругом; по жилам жестко
обжигая, пробегали огненные струйки, – это было осознанное желание,
мучительное и безысходное.

Развлечения в Канзас-Сити кончаются для Клайда печально, – во время
возвращения с вечеринки автомобиль, в котором находились Клайд и его
друзья, сбил девочку, а потом, когда напуганные молодые люди пытались
скрыться от полиции, произошла автомобильная катастрофа. До смерти
перепутанный Клайд бежит из Канзас-Сити, Так заканчивается юность
Клайда, который, покинув родительский дом, вступает в самостоятельную
жизнь.

b) Roberta Olden

Во второй книге Клайд после мытарств и лишений, которые ему пришлось
претерпеть во время странствий по различным городам Америки, попадает
под опеку богатого дяди фабриканта. Клайду кажется, что он может,
наконец, сделать карьеру. На его пути оказывается Роберта Олден которая
работает под его началом и зависит от него, и хотя Роберта отнюдь не
относится к числу девушек нестрогих правил, Клайду удается достигнуть
того, чего он не смог добиться от многоопытной Гортензии Бриге ни
ухаживаниями, ни щедрыми подарками.

Клайд не собирался жениться на Роберте с начала их знакомства. Встреча
же с богатой Сандрой Финчли внушила Клайду мысль о возможности вступить
в столь желанный для него мир в заставила искать пути отделаться от
мешавшей ему. Роберты. Подчеркивая расчетливость Клайда, Драйзер
отмечает, что «Роберта больше нравилась ему. Она нежнее, мягче, добрее,
не такая ледяная». В то же время Сандра «воплощала и неизмеримо
увеличивала в его глазах значение своего круга», и Клайд относился в ней
иначе, – «в отличие от того, что он с самого начала испытывал к Роберте,
его мысли о Сандре не были чувственными». Если отношение Клайда к
Роберте диктовала страсть, то к Сандре его влекли расчет, мысль о
богатстве, преклонение перед тем, что он считал высшим светом.

c) Sondra

Удивительная девушка!

Какая красавица!

И как богата, и такое видное положение занимает в обществе!

Мышление Клайда всегда было языческим, чуждым всяких условностей; и
теперь он всерьез спрашивал себя, почему бы ему не перенести свое
внимание с Роберты на Сондру, раз мечты о ней доставляют ему больше
удовольствия. Роберта не должна об этом знать. Она не может прочитать
его мысли, не может узнать о том, что с ним происходит, если он сам ей
не скажет, а он, разумеется, ничего не собирается говорить. Да и что ту!
плохого, если он, бедняк, стремится попасть в высшие круги общества?
Ведь бывали случаи, когда такие же бедняки женились на богатых девушках
вроде Сондры.

Новая встреча с Сондрой, так внезапно ставшей на его пути, подстегнула
его и без того пылкое воображение. Эта безмерно восхищавшая Клайда
богиня в своем украшенном позолотел и мишурой храме соблаговолила
вспомнить о нем и так открыт и прямо предложила его пригласить. И она
сама, несомненно, будет там, мысль эта волновала его безумно.

Страсть к Роберте была убита страстью выбиться в мир богатых.

2.4 The significance of the novel. «An America Tragedy»

Драйзер подчеркивает сходство характеров Клайда в Роберты. Клайд для
наивной Роберты олицетворяет мир роскоши я, богатства, «Встретив Клайда,
Роберта увлеклась им и притом вообразила, что он принадлежит к некоему
высшему обществу. И в душу ей проник тот же яд беспокойного тщеславия,
который отравлял и Клайда». Поэтому она так настойчиво добивалась, чтобы
Клайд женился на ней, и пошла даже на связь с ним, хотя и считала, что
это нехорошо, безнравственно.

Клайд и Роберта не опытны в житейских делах, даже инфантильны, «Клайд по
своему характеру, – отмечает Драйвер, – неспособен был когда-либо стать
вполне взрослым человеком». Их отношения заканчиваются трагической
гибелью Роберты. Theodore Dreiser “An American Tragedy” “Pravda”
Publishing House, Moscow 1987

Скрупулезно, как бы под увеличительным стеклом рассматривая все
обстоятельства трагедии на озере Большой Выпи, Драйзер мотивирует все
поступки, которые совершил Клайд, стремясь избавиться от Роберты.

Клайд читает газетное сообщение о несчастном случае на озере Пасс, где
утонули мужчина и девушка, причем тело девушки обнаружили, а тело
мужчины не нашли. Далее Драйзер передает ход мысли Клайда, который
привел его к роковому выходу! «…итак, он и Роберта плывут в лодке и
лодка опрокидывается» и как раз теперь, когда его так терзают все эти
ужасные осложнения. Вот и выход! Как просто разрешилась бы эта
головоломная, мучительная задача! Однако… стоп!., не спешить. Может ли
человек, хотя’ бы в мыслях, допустить для себя такой выход из тупика, не
совершая преступления в своем сердце – поистине ужасного, чудовищного
преступления? Нет, нельзя даже и думать об этом. Это скверно… очень
скверно, ужасно! И, однако, если бы – разумеется, нечаянно – несчастье
все же случилось? Ведь это был бы конец всем его тревогам из-за
Роберты…»

Внешний повод, вызывающий такое смятение в мыслях Клайда, как

будто «не очень значителен, но он ведет за собой цепь событий,
завершающихся гибелью Роберты и осуждением Клайда.

Драйзер не стремится превратить Клайда в законченного злодея, негодяя,
убийцу и вместе с тем не оправдывает его. Он хочет показать истинных
виновников смерти Роберты, показать степень морального падения Клайда,
который, впитывая индивидуалистический дух американского буржуазного
общества, становится преступником, еще не совершив преступления. Ведь
Клайд понимает, что если он избавится от Роберты, утопив ее в озере, то
превратится в убийцу. Он колеблется, размышляя о возможных последствиях
своего поступка. В Клайде Грифитсе происходит внутренняя борьба,
свидетельствующая о его душевном смятении. И «Драйзер выносит приговор
не столько Клайду, сколько тем, кто морально подготовил его к
преступлению.

«A certain emotionalism and exotic sense of pronouns which characterized
him, which he took more from his father than from his mother».

The profession career of Clyde’s parents was the shabby, trivial thing
that it appeared to be in the eyes of others. Mrs. Elvira Griffiths was
an ignorant farm girl. The one thing that really interested Clyde in
connection with his parents was the existence somewhere in the cast in a
small city called Lycurgus, near Utica a brother of his father uncle
Samuel Griffiths who was rich and could do help Clyde. But here in
Kansas City they were living in toe some wretched and hum-drum hand to
month state that had always characterized their lives.

But he understood that he had to do everything to live better only
himself, nobody could help him but himself. He had a straight, well-cut
nose, high white forehead, wavy, glossy, blank hair, eyes that were
black and rather melancholy at times.

He envied richer people. He envied young people who were of his age. The
example shows that tie Clyde Griffiths too connected family is not
fight; on the contrary it is too stock «lightly».

Esta’s going away from the paternal house before him showed that she was
probably dissatisfied, just as Clyde was. He was also thinking of going
away somewhere himself. Their going away world cause his father and
mother misery. At any rate their leaving world not be anything worth.
«It was only another something which hinted that things were not right
here. Mission work was nothing. All that religious emotion and talk was
not so much either.

«It hadn’t saved Esta Evidently, like himself, she didn’t believed so
mush in it, either»

«At last Clyde had to girl up his work help in the mission. He saw that
his condition might be better if he found another job, meanwhile» he was
sixteen and old enough to make his own way, he ought to be getting out
of this. And yet he was earning almost nothing not enough to like on, if
he were alone and he had not as yet developed sufficient skill or
courage to get anything better.

Let’s see the translation of the above cited thoughts in the Russian
language.

«Но теперь ему уже шестнадцать лет, он достаточно взрослый, чтобы жить
по своему, и должен избавится от такой жизни. Однако он слишком мало
зарабатывал недостаточно, чтобы прожить одному, и ему не хватало ещё
уменье и смелости для того, чтобы устроиться лучше (стр. 43) Theodore
Dreiser “An American Tragedy” “Pravda” Publishing House, Moscow 1987

So he began to look for any opportunity which would supply him with
«better» life seeking for a job, he entered the drag store. Interested
by his tentative and uncertain manner as well as his deep and rather
appealing eyes, and instinctively judging to do, she observed: «Why, Mr.
Seear, there, the manager of the store?»

We are interested in this example because we see me other beaters of the
main hero’s character. His manner are «factitive and uncertain» «робкий
и неуверенный»; His eyes are «deep and appealing» «глубокие и словно

умоляющие глаза»

«Унинг ?ур?а-писа ва ботилмай турганлигига, шунингдек, чу?ур ва илтижоли
бокишларига ?изикиб ?олган кассир жувон иш ?идириб юрганлигини сезиб
олди».

Магазин бош?арувчиси мистер Синор-ди, – деди у (27 бет)

In Russian the translator used one word – «словно» «as if» concerning.
Clyde’s eyes. The word in the Russian sentence is not necessary at all.
If the Uzbek translator would have translated it as «гуё» – what would
not very nice, as this word is not necessary at all. Because his eyes
were «realy», «very» appealing. So he appeared in at an institution as
the Green Davidson. One more details Clyde’s characters.

«And as he hurried on about his various errands now, it occurred to him
as a final and shrewd and delicious thought that he need not go home on
such night as he wished to go to a theatre or anything like that.

He could just stay down town and say he had to work. And that with free
meals and good clothes think of that!

And it was «astonishing and entrancing» in this perfectly
marvelous-marvelous realm»

И пока он бегал по всяким делам, ему пришло на ум ещё одна лукавая и
восхитительная мысль; он может не приходить домой в те вечера, когда
захочет пойти в театр или ещё куда – ни будь. Он просто останется в
городе, а после скажет дома, что ему пришлось работать.

И к тому же даровать стол и форменную одежда! Подумать только «Все это
было так поразительно, так увлекательно» «в этом чудесном, чудесном
царстве» (стр. 53–54). Theodore Dreiser “An American Tragedy” “Pravda”
Publishing House, Moscow 1987.с.53-58

«У турли-туман ишлар билан югуриб юраркан, хаёлига Яна бита мугамбирона
ва ажоиб фикр келиб келди: У театрга ёки бошка бирор жойга бормокчи
булган окшомларда уйга келмаслиги хам мумкин, шунчаки шахарда колаверди,
кейин эса уйдагиларга ишладим, деб ?уя ?олди. Хаммадан хам овкат Билан
формали кийимнинг текинлигини айтмайсизми? Буни каранга!

Буларнинг барии нихоятда хайратомиз ва ?изикарли», «бу ажойиб ва гароиб
оламда» нималарга эриша олишини куриши керак.

Ха, шундай килиш лозим (36бет.).

Herman Theodore Dreiser, son of German immigrants, was born in Terre
Haute, Indiana, on August 27, 1871. He was the ninth in a family of ten
children. In 1869, his father’s woolen mill was destroyed by fire, and
the family remained in poverty and was forced to move numerous times out
of financial necessity. Dreiser was a sensitive child, stuttered, and
was often humiliated by his family’s poverty. All these experiences had
a profound effect on his writing. Because he came from a poor family, he
developed a preoccupation with wealth and success at an early age. Many
of his novels describe the moral decay of people who become obsessed by
a desire for wealth. He was educated at various public and parochial
schools in Indiana. When he was twelve years old, the family moved
briefly to Chicago and Dreiser developed a fascination with the city
that lasted his entire life. As a young man, he attended Indiana
University, however, he only remained in college for one year, from 1889
to 1890.

For a while, Dreiser drifted from job to job; he worked as a driver for
a laundry, in a real estate office, and as a collector for a furniture
store. He began his writing career by working for the St. Louis Globe
Democrat. He also worked for newspapers in Pittsburgh, Chicago, and New
York, where he finally settled in 1894. He was a voracious reader and
was influenced by the writings of Poe, Hawthorne, Balzac, Freud and
philosopher, Herbert Spencer. He eventually came to view people as
helpless victims of indifferent natural forces. In 1898 he married Sara
White, a school teacher from Missouri, however, Dreiser found it very
difficult to remain faithful to one woman. He had numerous affairs,
sometimes several at once. During these years he earned a living as an
editor for several magazines for women. He also published accounts of
his travels through the United States and abroad. A Traveller at 40 was
published in 1931. A Hoosier Holiday was published in 1916; and his
articles about Russia, Dreiser Looks at Russia, which were originally
published in the New York World, was published in 1928. In 1932 he
published Tragic America, in which he applauded the achievements of
Russia. This book was followed by America is Worth Saving, published in
1941. Later his writing took him out west where he died in Hollywood,
California on December 28, 1945.

American author, outstanding representative of naturalism, whose novels
depict real-life subjects in a harsh light. Dreiser’s novels were held
to be amoral, and he battled throughout his career against censorship
and popular taste. This started with SISTER CARRIE (1900). It was not
until 1981 that the work was published in its original form. Dreiser’s
principal concern was with the conflict between human needs and the
demands of society for material success.

«A woman should some day write the complete philosophy of clothes. No
matter how young, it is one of the things she wholly comprehends. There
is an indescribably faint line in the matter of man’s apparel which
somehow divides for her those who are worth glancing at and those who
are not. Once an individual has passed this faint line on the way
downward he will get no glance from her. There is another line at which
the dress of a man will cause her to study her own.» (from Sister
Carrie)

Theodore Dreiser was born in Sullivan, Indiana, the ninth of ten
children. His parents were poor. In the 1860s his father, a devout
Catholic German immigrant, had attempted to establish his own woolen
mill, but after it was destroyed in a fire, the family lived in poverty.
Dreiser’s schooling was erratic, as the family moved from town to town.
He left home when he was 16 and worked at whatever jobs he could find.
With the help of his former teacher, he was able to spend the year
1889–1890 at Indiana University. Dreiser left after only a year. He was,
however, a voracious reader, and the impact of such writers as
Hawthorne, Poe, Balzac, Herbert Spencer, and Freud influenced his
thought and his reaction against organized religion.

In 1892 Dreiser started to write for the Chicago Globe, and moved to a
better position with the St. Louis Globe-Democrat. In 1898 he married
Sara White, a Missouri schoolteacher, but the marriage was unhappy.
Dreiser separated permanently from her in 1909, but never earnestly
sought a divorce. In his own life Dreiser practised his principle that
man’s greatest appetite is sexual – the desire for women led him to
carry on several affairs at once. His relationship with Yvette Szekely
Eastman is recorded in Dearest Wilding by Yvette Eastman (1995) – she
was 16 and Dreiser 40 years older when they met.

As a novelist Dreiser made his debut with Sister Carrie, a powerful
account of a young working girl’s rise to success and her slow decline.
«She >yas eighteen years of age, bright, timid and full of the illusions
of ignorance and youth. Whatever touch of regret at parting
characterized her thoughts it was certainly not for advantages now being
given up. A gush of tears at her mother’s farewell kiss, a touch in the
throat when the cars clacked by the flour mill where her father worked
by the day, a pathetic sigh as the familiar green environs of the
village passed in review, and the threads which bound her so lightly to
girlhood and home were irretrievably broken.» (from the 1981 edition)
The president of the publishing company, Frank Doubleday, disapproved of
the work – Dreiser illuminated the flaws of his characters but did not
judge them and allowed vice to be rewarded instead of punished. No
attempt was made to promote the book. Sister Carrie was reissued in 1907
and it became one of the most famous novels in literary history. Among
its admirers was H.L. Mencken, an aspiring journalist, whom Dreiser had
hired as a ghost-writer in his paper. William Wyler’s film version,
starring Laurence Olivier and Jennifer Jones, was made at the height of
the Cold War and McCarthy era. Paramount executives delayed the
releasing of the film – they thought the picture was not good for
America and it was a flop. «It was a depressing story», said Wyler, «and
it might not have been a success anyway.»

The 500 sold copies of his first novel and family troubles drove Dreiser
to the verge of suicide. He worked at a variety of literary jobs, and as
an editor-in – chief of three women’s magazines until 1910, when he was
forced to resign, because of an office love affair. In 1911 JENNIE
GERHARDT, Dreiser’s second novel, appeared. In the story a young woman,
Jennie, is seduced by a senator. She bears a child out of wedlock but
sacrifices her own interests to avoid harming her lover’s career. A
passage in which Jennie’s lover Lester Kane, the son of a wealthy
family, tells her about contraceptives, was removed by Ripley Hitchcock,
the editor at Harper & Brothers. Jennie Gerhardt was followed by novels
based on the life of the American transportation magnate Charles T.
Jerkes, THE FINANCIER (1912), and THE TITAN (1914), which show the
influence of the evolutionary ideas of Herbert Spencer and Nietzsche’s
concept of the Ubermensch. Last volume of the trilogy, THE STOIC, was
finished in 1945.

«At the height of his success, when he had settled old scores and could
easily have become the smiling public man, he chose instead to rip the
whole fabric of American civilization straight down the middle, from its
economy to its morality. It was the country that had to give ground.»
(Nelson Algren, in Nation, 16 May, 1959)

Dreiser’s semi-autobiographical novel THE ‘GENIUS’ (1915) was censured
by the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. The book remained
off the market until Live right reissued it five years later. Dreiser’s
commercially most successful novel was AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY (1925), which
was adapted for screen for the first time in 1931, directed by Josef von
Sternberg. Dreiser had objected strongly to the version because it
portrayed his youthful killer as a sex-starved idle loafer. The second
time was in 1951 under the title A Place in the Sun, starring Montgomery
Cliftand Elizabeth Taylor. During the filming the stars became attached
to one another, which is reflected in the tenderness of their
performance. The director George Stevens won an Academy Award, as did
the writers Michael Wilson and Harry Brown for Best Screenplay. However,
Robert Hatch in the New Republic (September 10,1951) dismissed the film.
«Unfortunately, the power and bite of the book have been lost in the
polite competence of the screen. These are such nice, such obviously
successful people, they must be playing characters… there doesn’t seem
much use in dragging Dreiser’s classic off the shelf just to dress it in
this elegant, ambivalent production…» The book made Dreiser the champion
of social reformers, but his later works did not attain similar notice.

An American Tragedy tells the story of a bellboy, Clyde Griffiths,
indecisive like Hamlet, who sets out to gain success and fame. After an
automobile accident, Clyde is employed by a distant relative, owner of a
collar factory. He seduces Roberta Alden, an employee at the factory,
but falls in love with Sondra Finchley, a girl of the local aristocracy.
Roberta, now pregnant, demands that Clyde marry her. He takes Roberta
rowing on an isolated lake and in this dreamlike sequence ‘accidentally’
murders her. Clyde’s trial, conviction, and execution occupy the
remainder of the book. Dreiser points out that materialistic society is
as much to blame as the murderer himself. Dreiser based his study on the
actual case of Chester Gillette, who murdered Grace Brown – he hit her
with a tennis racket and pushed her overboard at Big Moose Lake in the
Adirondack in July 1906. An American Tragedy was banned in Boston in
1927.

Much of Dreiser’s works evolved from his own experiences of poverty.
Among his rare excursions into the realm of fantasy is the ghost story
The Hand1 (1920). It is a tale of murder and the haunting of the killer,
but again behind the nightmare of the protagonist are the familiar
themes of Dreiser’s novels – fear of losing ones social position,
feelings of moral guilt arising during the unrestrained struggle for
success.

The second book of «An American Tragedy» opens with the description of
the Home of Samuel Griffiths in Lucurgys, New York, a city of some
twenty-five thousand inhabitants midway between Utica and Albany (p 157)

We set the acquaintances of Myra – the oldest daughter, Gilbert
Griffiths, the only son of this family, and Bella, who wasn’t like her
sister Myra. Let’s have an information about them, Myra was not
beautiful, but Bella;

«Contrasted with her sister, who was tall and dark and rather sallow,
Bella, though shorter, was far more gainfully and vigorously formed. She
had thick brown almost black hair, a brown and alive complexion fainted
with red, and eyes brown and genial, that blared with an eager, seeking
light addition to her sound and light physique, she possessed vitality
and animation. Her arms and legs were graceful and active. Plainly she
was given to liking things as she found them enjoying life as it was and
hence, unlike her sister, she was unusually attractive to men and boys
to men and women, old and young-a fact which her mother and father well
knew» (p 158)

«Indeed she was his pet, the most pleasing and different and artistic
thing, as he saw it, that all his years had brought to him – youth,
health, intelligence and affection – all in the shape of a pretty
daughter» (p 165)

Дом Сэмюэл Грифитса в Ликурге (город с двадцатью пятью тысячами жителей,
расположенный в штате Нью–Йорк, на полпути между Утикой и Албании)
(стр. 164) Theodore Dreiser “An American Tragedy” “Pravda” Publishing
House, Moscow 1987

Белла была совсем не похожа на свою сестру – высокую, болезненно бледную
брюнетку. Она была ниже ростом, но грациознее и в тоже время крепче. У
нее были густые, почти черные волосы, смуглый оливковый цвет лица с
горячим румянцем, веселые карие глаза, сверкавшие жадным интересом ко
всему на свете, гибкое тело и красивые ловкие руки и ноги. Жизнь била в
ней ключом. Она попросту любила все вокруг, наслаждалось жизнью такой,
как она есть, и по этому, в отличие от сестры, неудержимо привлекала к
себе всех – мужчин, и юношей, и женщин, старых и молодых – что, конечно,
прекрасно замечали ее родители (стр. 165)

Разумеется, она была его любимицей. Он считал ее очаровательной,
несравненной, своего рода произведением искусства, лучшим, что подарила
ему жизнь; юность; здоровы, веселы, ум и любовь – все воклощалось в
образе прелестной дочери. (стр. 172)

Самуил Грифитснинг Ликургда (бу ахолиси йигирма беш минглик шахар булиб,
Нью – Йорк штатида, Утика Билан Олбэнининг уртасидаги уйи) (бет – 143)

Белла опасига сира хам ухшамаган киз эди. Опаси новча рангпар ва кора
соч булса, у пастакрок, нозанинрок ва Айни пайтда пишик ?из эди. Сочлари
калин корамтир, зайтун тусли бугдой ранг юзлварида ?ирмизи ранг хам
купчиб турар, оламдаги хар бир нарсага сабрсизлик Билан ?изи?увчи куй
кузли, танаси новдадекгина, оек – ?уллари хам бенихоя латиф ва эпчил
эди. Уни олов киз деса буларди. Теварак – атрофидаги нарсаларнинг барини
куш курар, бор хаетдан завкланар, шунинг учун хам опасидан фаркли
равишда хаммани – эркаклару усмирларни хам кексаю еш аелларни хам узига
жалб килар, бу нарса унинг ота – онасига хам яхши маьлум эди. (бет –
144)

Белла унинг арзандаси эди, албатта. У Беллани хает узига иньом этган
мафтункор, бекиес узига хос саньат дурдонаси деб карар, бу ажойиб кизи
тимсолидаешлик, соглик, ?увноклик, а?л ва мухаббат, хуллас, хама –
хаммаси жамулжам булган эди. (бет – 151) Theodore Dreiser “An American
Tragedy” Gofur Gulom Publishing House, Tashkent 1976

For ever since he had fled from Kansas City, and by one humble device
and another forced to make his way, he had been coming to the conclusion
that on himself alone depended his future. They were too impractical and
too poor – his mother, father.

Esta, alb of them (p. 171)

И это особенно отличала его от Клайда прежних дней, удравшего из Канзас
– Сити в товарном валлоне – он стал гораздо осторожнее и сдержаннее. Ибо
с тех пор как он бежал из Канзас – Сити и должен был пускаться на
всяческие украшения, чтобы просуществовать, он понял, что его будущее
зависит только от него самого. Его родные – в этом он окончательно
убедился – ничем не могли ему помочь. Все они и мать, и отец, и Эста –
были слишком непрактичны и слишком бедны. (стр. 179)

У энди анча эхтиёткор ва босик булиб колган, уни Канзас-Ситидан товар
вагонида кочиб кетаётган пайтидагидан бошкача курсатиб тургани хам шу
эдию Зероб Клайд Канзас – Ситидан кочганидан бери тирикчилигини утказиш
учун кирмаган кучаси колмаган, шунинг учун хам келажаги факат узига
боглигини тушиниб олганди. Ота-онаси унга ёрдам кулини чузиша олмас,
бунга у тула-тухис ишонч хосил килганди. Нега дегандаб онаси хам, отаси
хам, Эста хам кули киска ва жуда камбагал эдилар. (157–158 бет.)

Clyde writes to his mother that he became different after the auto
accident, «I’ve got a lot more sense now, anyone I see things different
than I used to. I want to be successful. I only have a fair place now,
not as good as I had in K.C., but fair, and not in the same like. But I
want something better, though I don’t want to go back in the hotel
business either if I can help it. It’s not so very good for a young man
like me too height flying, I guess. You see I know a lot more than I did
back there. They like me all right where I am, but I got forget on in
this world. Besides I am not really making more than my expenses here
now, just my room and board and clothes, but I am trying to save a
little in order to set into some line where I can work up and lean
something. A person has to have a like of some kind this day, I see that
now» (p 174) Theodore Dreiser “An American Tragedy” New American
Library, New York and Toronto

Теперь я кое-чему научился и лучше всё понимаю. Я хотел бы добиться
какого-то положения в жизни. Надеюсь, что мне повезёт. У меня теперь
довольно хорошее место, правда, не такое, как в Канзас – Сити, но
всё-таки вполне приличное, хотя и в другом роде. Но я хочу добиться
чего-нибудь лучшего. Только я постараюсь больше не работать в
гостиницах. Это не подходящее дело для таких, как я. По-моему не стоит
забираться так высоко. Видишь, я теперь поумнел. Там, где я служу, мною
довольны но я хочу достигнуть лучшего положения. Кроме того, зарабатываю
я не так много, хватает только на самое необходимое; комната, стол,
одежда. Но я все-таки стараюсь понемножку складывать потому что хочу
найти себе какое не будь подходящее занятие что бы можно было чему – не
будь научиться. В наше время каждый человек должен иметь специальность,
теперь я это понимаю. (181–182 стр.) Theodore Dreiser “An American
Tragedy” “Pravda” Publishing House, Moscow 1987

Мен энди о?-?орани анча-мунча ажратиб, у буларга дурустрок тушунаяпман.
Дурустрок одам булишни истайман, омадим келишига ишонаман. Хозирги ишим
Казас-ситидагидай булмай, бошка сохада булса хам, хар холда ёмон эмас.
Мен булсам ундан яхширогига интилмокчиман. Факат мехмонхоналарда бошка
ишламасликка харакат киламан. Бу менга ухшайдиганларга тугри келмайдиган
иш. Менимча, бунчалик баландга чикиб кетиш ярамайди. Курдингизми анча
аклим кириб колган. Хозир ишлаётган жойимдагилар мендан хурсанд, бирок
мен дурустрок мавкега эришсам дейман. Хозирча, топадиган пулим унча куп
эмас, хона, овкат, кийимга етарли. Шундай булса хам озгина – озгинадан
чегириб коляпман, нега деганда, узимга бирорта муносиб иш топиб, у-буни
ургансам дейман. Бизнинг Давримизда хар бир одам уз мутахасислигига эга
булиши керак, буни энди тушунаман.

Clyde’s mother wrote to her son asking him not to drink wine. She also
asked her son to write a letter to Samuel Griffiths, of Licurgys, as
that was rich and successful.

And he met Kettener. Both of them were happy to meet each other.
Letterer helped him a message (about a vacancy) which real: See Mr.
Light all at the Great Northern before noon to morrow. There’s vacancy
over there. It the very best, but it’ll get you something better later.
(p178)

The work in a new place, very different from the «Great Northern» and
superior from a social and material point of view, as Clyde saw it, to
even the Great – Davidson, he was able once more to view at clone range
a type of life that must effected, unfortunately, his flump of position
and distinction. (p179).

Somewhat furtive and appealing or seeking-that at once interested her,
and reminded her, perhaps, since she was not much of success socially
either, of something in herself (P.230).

He met Sondra Finchley and miss Cranston at his uncle’s house.

А вообще, я думаю, из него может получиться толк в качестве начальника
цеха… пожалуй, по позже можно будет даже торгового агента из него
сделать (стр. 211).

Умуман айтганда эса, ундан цех бошлигига ухшаган одам чикиши мумкин…
кейинчалик уни эхтимол, савдо агенти килиш хам мумкин булар. (190бет).

Она уловила во взгляда Клайда какое-то беспокойство, выражение не то
мольбы, не то тревожного испуга и то её тронула: может быт, она
почувствовала в нем что-то близкое, свое она ведь и сама пользовалась не
слишком большом успехом в обществе (стр. 237).

У Клайднинг нигохида кандайдир асабийлик, илтижоли ё безовтакургами
ухшаган бир ифодани укиб олганидан, унга кизикди-колди: Майра эхтимол,
бунда узига якин ва маълум булган бир нимани сезгандир. Нега деганда,
узи хам купчилик уртасида унча баланд юрмасди.

For, somewhat after the fashoin of Clyde in relation in his family and
his life, she considered her life a great dis.

Nevertheless, her underlying thought in connection with all this, in so
far as Clyde and his great passion for her was concerned – and hers for
him – was thatshe was indeed trifling wiht fire and perhaps social
disgrace into the forgain (p. 303).

About Roberta Clyde thought that he would never abandon her, but about
their merriage no direct statement mentioned.

Подобно Клайду, недовольная своей семьей и своей жизнью, она думала о
собсвенной судьбе с чуством глубокого разочарования (стр. 265).

У хам Клайдга ухшаб оиласи ва хаетидан кунгли тулмай уз такдирини уйлаб,
эзилиб юрарди (243 бет). Theodore Dreiser “An American Tragedy” Gofur
Gulom Publishing House, Tashkent 1976

И все же, думая о Клайде и об их взаимной страсти, Роберта в глубине
души созновала, что играет с огнем и может оказаться опозоренной
(стр. 308).

Роберта шунда хам Клайд билануртадаги севгиларини уйлаганида ут билан
уйнашаетганини ва шармандаси чикиши мукинлигини ичида сезиб турарди
(285бет).

«The effect of this so casual contact was really disrupling in more
senses

than one. For now in spite of his comfort in and calisfaction with
Roberta, once more and in this position and to him entrancing way, was
posed the whole question of his social pessibilities here. And that
strangely enough by the one girl of this upper level who head most
materializid and magnificed for him the meaning of that upper level
itself the beautiful Sondra Fichley (p. 325).

Влияние этой нечаянной встречи во многих отношениях оказалось поистине
гибельным. Как ни много удовлетворения и радости давала, Клайду близость
с Робертой перед ним теперь снова в упор стал волнующий вопрос: может ли
он добиться положения обществе? И странно это произошло блогодаря
встрече с боготой светской девушкой, которая воплащала и неизмеримо
увилечивало в его глазах значение своего круга. Что за красавица эта
Сандра Финчли! (стр. 328)

Бу нагохоний учрашувнинг таъсири жуда куп маънода чинакамига хатарли
булди. Роберта билан якинлик Клайдга канчалик коникиш ва кувонч бахш
этмасин, энди жамоат орасида дурустрок мартабага эга буламанми-йукми,
деган хаяжонли масала яна унинг тинчини бузди. Кизиги шундаки, бу аёнлар
доирасида киз билан учрашув туфайли юз берди, бу киз унинг куз унгида
уша доиранинг тимсоли эди ва уша доиранинг ахамиятини бекиёс даражада
ошириб курсатарди! (305бет). Theodore Dreiser “An American Tragedy”
Gofur Gulom Publishing House, Tashkent 1976

On wiling our final graduation paper we have the following aims and
tasks:

1. To speak about American literature in connection with Theodor
Dreiser`s literary activity.

2. To enlighten specitic features of Theodor Dreiser in connection with
the creation of «An American Tragedy».

3. To talk about «An American Tragedy» not only in Theodor Dreiser or
american but both in world and Uzbek literatures.

4. To study the characters of Clyde Griffith, and its reproduction in
Uzbek. To see Clydes attitudes to Hortense, Roberta and Sondra.

Each of the character taken seperatly and in connection with the main
hero. To study ways and principles of reproducing punliaritics of every
image.

5. To pay attention to the fact how characters examined are reflected in
Uzbek language.

6. To express our point of view about the texts translated.

Conclusion

Theodor Dreiser compares two Griffits. Clyde`s father (twenty five years
before) «short, fat and poorly suit mentally as as well as
physically-oleagenous and a bit mushy, as it were. His chin was not
firm, his eyes a pale watery blue, and his hair frizzled (p. 183).

Из опасения гибели Роберты нельзя сделать вывод, что юридически Клайд
совершил убийство, если установить, степень его вины. О том, насколько
запутаны события на озере Большой Выпав, говорил известный американский
– юрист Клиренс Харроу, заявивший, что Клайда определить невозможно. В
американских юридических школах специально изучалось убийство Робберты
КАК трудный случай в правовой практике.

Над сценой на озере Большой Драйзер работал особенно. Он специально
доехал ил озеро Большого Лося, где был, убит Грейс Браун, разговаривал с
очевидцами убийства, ели плавал на лодке, но озеру. Эта сцена стоила
Драйзеру больших душевных переживаний. Он признавался, что оплакивал,
смерть Роберты,

В третьей, Заключительной, книге идет судебное разбирательство дела
Клайда. Вновь проходят перед читателем обстоятельства, при которых было
совершено преступление, вновь устанавливается виновность общества,
американское правосудие, приговор Клайду, вину которого трудно
установить и показать. То общество, которое толкнуло Клайда на
преступление, посадило его на электрический стул.

Трагедия Клайда состоит не только в то», что он совершил преступление,
но и в том, как его судят. Судьба Клайда была предрешена задолго до
начала суда. Он стал игрушкой в предвыборной борьбе двух буржуазных
партий. Продажность американского правосудия, его пристрастность,
приверженность узкогрупповым интересам олицетворяют образы прокурора
Менсона, следователя Хайта, многочисленных адвокатов. Среди романов
Драйзера «Американская трагедия» выделяется глубиной я всесторонностью
охвата явлений американской. «Роман Драйзера широк и безбрежен, как
Гудзон; необъятен, как сама жизнь» – писал советский кинорежиссер
С. Эйзенштейн, готовивший фильм «Американская трагедия» и не сумевший
его поставить из-за сопротивления кинокомпании «Парашют». Если для более
ранних романов, писатель в качестве эскизов своих использовал рассказы,
очерки, вырисован, то для «Американской трагедии» такими эскизами была.

Описание трудного детства, и юности Клайда главы «Гения», посвященные
мытарствам юного Ветлы; образы богатых Грифитсов заставляют, о «Трилогии
желания» родители Клайда и родители Роберты вызывают в образы отца и
матери Дженни Герхардт.

«Американская трагедия» развивает те глубокие гуманистические чувства и
мысли, которыми были проникнуты предыдущие романы Драйзера. Это ощущение
трагизма жизни простого американца, воплощенное в судьбах Герствуда и
Дженни Герхард, это осуждение духа стяжательства, составляющее пафос
«Трилогии желания» это, наконец, отстаиваемое в «Гении» кредо
реалистического искусства, призывающее писателя изображать, те стороны
жизни, которые вследствие своей обыденности считаются темой, недостойной
художника.

Реалистичны в романе и пейзаж, и те символы я сравнения, к которым
прибегает писатель. Квита начинается и кончается сценой сумерек. Глубоко
символична сцена гибели Роберты на озере Большой Выпи. Со встречи на
озере началась их близость. И теперь все ему напоминает о той
прогулке, – «над головой плывет такое же пушистое облачко, как-то, что
плыло над ним в тот роковой день на 1 озере Край». Он собирается
«поискать здесь водяные лилии, чтобы убить время, прежде чем…» лилии
вновь напоминают ту первую, случайную встречу на озере Край, когда
счастливый Клайд «рвал цветы с длинными влажными стеблями и бросал к ее
ногам». Эта деталь усугубляет драматизм ситуации, в которую попали Клайд
и Роберта.

Драйзер-романист обращает пристальное внимание на психологию своего
героя. С той же скрупулезностью, которая была характерна для пейзажа,
портрета, для обрисовки деталей, Драйзер передает и анализирует душевные
переживания Клайда в ожидавший смертной казни. Драйзер специально
посетил в тюрьме Синг-Сивг Дом смерти, где разговаривал с приговоренными
к смертной казни.

Драйзер часто использует внутренний монолог, особенно для
воспроизведения смятенного состояния духа Клайда. Газетное сообщение
наталкивает Клайда на мысль о возможности отделаться от Роберты. И его
внутренний монолог передает всю путаницу «смятение чувств Клайда,
загнанного и замученного, пытающегося выкарабкаться из пропасти, в
которую его увлекают мысли об убийстве. Пристальное рассмотрение
психологии Клайда неразрывно связано с раскрытием социальных причин тех
потрясений, которые он переживает.

Большой смысл в романе имеет его заглавие, к которому Драйзер пришел не
сразу. В первых вариантах книг весила назван «Мереж», оттенявшее
призрачность внушаемых американскому народу престарелых. Тема
американских иллюзий наиболее полно передана в образах родителей Клайда.
Это в их доме на стене висят два десятка изречений и текстов, клеймящих
пороки. Узнав о проступке Клайда в Канзас-Сити, мать заклинает его
помаять афоризмом: «Вино–обманщик; пить – значит впасть в безумие; кто
поддается обману – тот не мудр», просит не поддаваться дьявольским
искушениям.

Люди, подобные родителям Клайда в Роберты, живут в верном, далеком от
реальности мире, они «рождаются, живут а умирают, так ничего и не поняв
в жизни. Они появляются, бредут наугад и исчезают во мгле». В этом
Драйзер видит и суть американизма: «Родители Роберты были классическими
представителями того беконного типа американизма, который отрицает,
факты и чтит иллюзии». Золотой мираж губит Клайда, губит человеческую
личность, но смысл романа был шире, – за распространение и поддержание
этих губительных иллюзий ответственно американское общество.
Окончательное название – «Американская трагедия» – отлично передавало
пафос романа, но было не по душе издателям, которые считали, что своей
резкостью оно не понравится американской публике, и пытались заставить
Драйзера вынести в заглавие-фамилию главного героя, но Драйзер и здесь
не сделал уступки.

«Американская трагедия» завершила очень важную главу в истории борьбы за
реалистическое искусство в США, против ограничений, которых требовали
буржуазная критика и издатели. Эти требования в конце девятнадцатого
века признавал даже такой теоретик реализма, как американский писатель и
литературный критик, друг Марка Твена Уильям Дин Хоуэллс.

В 1891 году Хоуэллс утверждал, что в Америке невозможны книги с сюжетом,
подобным тому, который лег в основу «Преступления в наказания»
Ф.М. Достоевского. Хоуэллс писал: «…одна из мыслей, на которую меня
навело чтение романа Достоевского «Преступление и наказание» это то, что
если кто-нибудь возьмет поту столь глубоко трагическую в американской
литературе, то совершит ложный и ошибочный шаг. Наши романисты, поэтому
занимаются более улыбчивыми аспектами жизни, которые являются и более
американскими, ищут универсальное в личности, скорее, чем в социальных
интересах».

Драйзер своим романом опроверг Хоуэллса, – недаром многие критики
называли «Американскую трагедию» американским «Преступлением и
наказанием», недаром в этом романе можно найти я черты влияния
Достоевского, а о своем интересе к Достоевскому к роману «Преступление и
наказание» неоднократно говорил и Драйзер, который наперекор, Хоуэллсу
показал, что трагическая судьба человеческих лидерств: – неотъемлемое
свойство американского общества и что «трагическое»» близкие понятия.

Драйзер выразил то стремление американских писателей к большим
обобщениям, которое отличает литературу США в двадцатые и тридцатые
годы. Оно проявилось в творчестве Эпсона Синклера и Синклера Льюиса,
Шервуда Андерсена я Уильяма Фолкнера, Эрнеста Хемингуэя и Френсиса
Скотта Фицджеральда не продолжено в книгах крупнейших современных
писателей Америки. Каждый из них создал свою «Американскую трагедию» –
по-своему рассказал о трагической судьбе американцев. Особенно
показательна в этом отношении документальная повесть Трумена Капоте
«Обыкновенное убийство», которая через сорок лет после выхода в свет
романа Драйзера вновь выдвигает столь острую для американского общества
‘Проблему преступления и наказания.

В этом смысле «Американская трагедия» стала знаменем критического
реализма в американской литературе двадцатого века, Она определила
основную магистраль дальнейшего развития американской литературы. С
появлением «Американской трагедии» связан расцвет критического реализма
в США.

Правда, «Американская трагедия» не смогла избежать стандартных для
враждебной Драйзеру части американской критики обвинений в
тяжеловесности стиля.

Отвечая на подобные нападки критика. Г.К. Уиппля в еженедельнике «New
republic», Генри Миллер справедливо писал, что «сила романа Драйзера
достигается не вопреки, а благодаря его стилю. Эти «дешевые, избитые и
старые» приемы помогают ему ‘представить нам мир, на который нам мог бы
только намекнуть более элегантный и тонкий стиль. Он использует язык
сознательно или несознательно, в манере, в которой современный авторы,
например Джойс, пользуются им намеренно; то есть он идентифицирует свой
язык с сознанием своих героев».

Еще определеннее высказалась Маргарет Чедер, которая сказала, что стиль
Драйзера отличает то истинное изящество, с каким движется огромный слон,
сохраняющий, несмотря на кажущуюся неуклюжесть, истинную грацию в своей
походке.

Наиболее же точно этим критикам ответил Герберт Уэллс: «Это гораздо
больше, чем простое и жизненное описание типичного бедного уголка
американской действительности, освещенного вспышкой печальной трагедии…
Она передает большую, суровую Реальную правду с силой, которой не может
достигнуть никакая грамматическая точность».

Драйзер, писатель-гуманист, видевший враждебность капиталистического
строя развитию человеческой личности, не мог не, искать путей, которые
позволяли бы личности действительно бодро развиваться. Драйзер
задумывается над путями содействовавших таким социальным условиям,
которые сделают невозможными, а трагедии. Во время работы над
«Американской три дней» Драйзер не видел возможности найти разрешения
проблем развития общества. Он говорил: «Я не имею, каких теорий
относительно жизни или какого-либо средства решить экономические или
политические проблемы».

Поиски ответов на вопросы, затронутые в «Американской Трагедии»,
пробудили у Драйзера интерес к победе Октябрьской революции в России.
Поездка писателя в СССР, о которой оп рассказал в. книге «Драйзер
смотрит на Россию» (1928), способствовал коренным сдвигам в его
мировоззрении. Писатель сблизив с революционным рабочий движением в США,
написал боев публицистические, книги – «Трагическая Америка? (1931) и
стоит спасать» (1941). В июле 1945 года Драйзер вступи;
Коммунистическую; партию США. «Вся логика моей жизни и работы, – писал
он в июле 1945 года, – побуждает меня вступить ряды компартии’», И по
сей день автор «Американской трагедии остается крупнейшим мастером
реалистической литературы Америки двадцатого века. Не случайно в
шестидесятые годы возрос интерес к творчеству Драйзера. Поход против
него критики, начатый сразу же после смерти писателя, последовавшей в
1045 году, литературоведом Лайояелем Триллингом, валился. О своем
уважении к Драйзеру заявил Фолкнер.

Жизненность традиций Драйзера, открывшего новых эпох американской
литературы, отмечена крупнейшими американским! писателями двадцатого
века. Это традиции реалистического искусства; благодаря которым были
созданы шедевры американской литературы двадцатого века – «Американская
трагедия», «Прощай, оружие!», «Гроздья гнева». Несмотря на запреты
реакцию вой критики, они продолжают жить и в тех произведениях
современной американской литературы, которые отстаивают идеал! подлинной
человечности.

«Американская трагедия» остается эпохальной вехой в истории литературы
США, определяющей магистральное направление ее развития.

Dreiser, DRY suhr. Theodor (1871–1946), ranks as the foremost American
writer in the naturalizm movement (a passimistic form of realizm)
Dreiser`s characters are victims of apparently meaningles incidents that
result in pressures, they can neither control understand. He based such
novels as «Sister Carrie» and «An american Tragedy» on events from real
life. He condemned not his villaines, but his best stories are powerful
and sobering. Theodore Dreiser “An American Tragedy” New American
Library, New York and Toronto

«An American Tragedy» (1925) is possibly the most impressive of
Dreiser`s books, it concerns a weak young man who in excuted for the
meerden of the pregnant girl friend. Again Dreiser did not condem his
villain, but the soceity that produced and destroyed him.

He was an objective realist who gathered his facts impersonally, but he
was more. He lived in his dreams, his hopes, his broodings. For this
reason, he absorbed both the realistic method and the new conceptions of
the ceniverse from science into his thought and his writing. His kiews
are loose in formulation, and inconsistent. For example, his theary of
the realitivity of morals is as inconsistent as it is challenging. But
such kiews of man and nature as he had, however ill formed, are
essential parts of his writing; without them, his works would be
interlay different. They helped to deepen his imagination; they
contributed toward the feeling of awe he creates concerning the
condition of man; they served him in his very construction of theme, of
story, of character. He was an artist, not a philosopher.

The absence of money means defeat; it means the back of education of
beauty; it means that one is a victim, like Clyde Griffiths, of the
rich, of one’s relationships with others. Dreiser directly described the
pitilessness and the hierarchical character of capitalistic society by
showing that just as the poor or the victims of the rich, the weak of
the strong, so are women, inferior to men, usually victims. American
tragedy, like all tragedy is the consequence of weakness. The impulses,
the passions of man pitilessly drive him to satisfy himself; the force
of social circumstance, the fierce nature of the social struggle, toward
him and produce both social and biological tragedy.

Dreiser’s methods of character Erabion are consistent with these
attitudes and social revelations. Just as he does not conceive the
individual as individual, so his characterizations are not mere
representations of atomized men and women struggling in the American
society of their time. They appear in their social roles, and their
natures as well as their actions are involved in the functions which
they perform in society. Carrie’s first lover, Drayed, is one of the
most successful and attractive of Dreiser’s minor characters. He is
jolly, genial, superficial, yet he is strikingly different from the
salesmen of, for example, Sinclair Lewis. Drayed does not subordinate
himself to the «fetish of commodities», a successful salesman, he is
concerned with a late of pleasure, he feels secure in his world. He
appears in a social role which is an integral feature of his
«individuality», similarly, Hurstwood has the charm, the savoir-faire,
the sophistication of the professional major domo in a high class
saloon, concerned with meeting important personage, when he loses this
position, he loses also the personality that goes with it. His character
is social rather than individual, and his defeat is that of a man who
has lost his function and place in society. The tragedy in Dreiser’s
novels is social tragedy. His characters do not merely represent
themselves, they speak for their classes and their occupation. «An
American Tragedy» would remain a tragic work even if Clyde and Roberta
had no died; but it is tragic in a new sense. In Dreiser, the old terms
of art are reset by the social thinking of his day. He wrote what he
knew what he was. His many colloquialisms were part of the coinage of
his time, and his sentimental and romantic passages were written in the
language of the educational system and the popular of his formative
years. In his style, an in his material, he was a child of his time, of
his class. Self-educated, a type or model of the artist of plebeian
origin in America, his language, like his subject matter, is not marked
by internal inconsistencies. As a style, in the formal sense, it never
developed at all, and he frequently permitted his novels to be revised
by others before publication.

In our final graduation paper aims at studying Theodore Dreiser’s
creative mastery skills. For this purpose we analyzed Russian
translation of «An American Tragedy» as the Uzbek translator chose for
his morel the Russian translation. We must study the translation
comparing English – Russian – Uzbek versions.

For fictional translation every author, every text should be carefully
selected. When translated any work becomes the spiritual heritage of the
people into whose tongue it is translated. As a Russian text we have the
translation made by Вершинина and Н. Галь. Теодор Драйзер, «Американская
Трагедия» Часть первая (книга первая и книга вторая) Часть вторая. Оба
они печатались по изданию «Художественная литература Москва, 1984 год, в
издательстве «Узбекистан», 1984 года

Bibliography

1. Theodore Dreiser «An American Tragedy» New American Library, New York
and Toronto.

2. Theodore Dreiser «An American Tragedy» «Pravda» Publishing House,
Moscow 1987.

3. Theodore Dreiser «An American Tragedy» Gofur Gulom Publishing House,
Tashkent 1976.

4. N.I. Samohvolova. «The history of an American Literature» Part 2.
«Proskusheniye» Publishing House, Moscow 1972.

5. Ronald Vroom. «XXth century American literature». «Progress».
Publishing House, 1976.

6. M. Tugusheva «The Wrieters of the U.S.A. about Literature».
«Progress» Publishing House 1974

7. Theodore Dreiser «Jennie Gerhardt», «pravda» Publishing House Moscow
1986.

8. Theodore Dreiser «Jennie Gerhardt», «Progress» Publishers, Moscow
1972.

9. Theodore Dreiser «An American Tragedy», «Foreign Languages»
Publishing House.

10. Theodore Dreiser «Sister Carrie» Moscow 1987.

11. Theodore Dreiser «Financier», «Pravda» Publishing House, Moscow 1980

12. Theodore Dreiser «An American Tragedy» Volume one Foreign Languages
Publishing House Moscow 1949.

13. Теодор Драйзер. «Американская трагедия» часть первая (книга первая и
книга вторая) Издательство Узбекистан Ташкент. 1978

14. Теодор Драйзер «Америка фожеаси» Биринчи кисм ?ўфур ?улом Адабиёт ва
санъат нашриёти. 1976.

15. Literary History of the United States the Macmillan Company. New
York printed in the United States of American sleuth Printing. 1962
(pages1087–1206)

16. English-Russian Dictionary V.K. Muller Russky Yazik. Moscow 1990

17. Russian-English Dictionary Compiled by probe. D.S. Akkmanova and
other: «Soviet Encyclopedia» Publishing Home Moscow 1969.

18. «American Tragedy»: a Fallen Dream, 2002. a look at The concept of
The American Dream through a review of «An American Tragedy» by THEODORE
DREISER. www.academon.com/lib/essay/Theodore-dreiser. html – 45k –
Дополнительный Результат – Сохранено – Похожие страницы Дополнительные
результаты с www.academon.com

19. An American Tragedy was part of what Frederick Lewis Allen describes
as the mid… From the Paper: «Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser was
published in 1900 and was…www.academon.com/lib/essay/
theodore-dreiser-american-tragedy.html – 45k

20. An Analysis of Clyde Griffiths, the anti-hero of «An American
Tragedy» by THEODORE… «Sister Carrie by Theodore DREISER was published
in 1900 and was the…
www.essaytown.net/theodore-dreiser_essays_papers.html – 50k

21. Theodore Dreiser’s «An American Tragedy», 2005…. «Sister Carrie by
Theodore Dreiser was published in 1900 and was the author’s first book….
www.essaytown.net/theodor-mommsen_essays_papers.html – 52k

22. Search Results on «THEODORE DREISER AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY»: Term Paper
#58570: Add to Cart (You can… «AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY» by THEODORE DREISER,
1999…. www.termpapers2000.com/lib/essay

23. Theodore DREISER, «An AMERICAN TRAGEDY», 1995. Examines This 1925
novel and a critical controversy… «An AMERICAN TRAGEDY» BY Theodore
DREISER, 1999…. www.termpapers2000.com/lib/essay

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