The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1926-09-18
BY v. F. cALvERToN.

IN contemporary American literature
there are few dramas and fewer
novels that deal with the class strug-
gle in a definite or direct fashion. All
of them, however, reveal its influence
in both style and substance.
The cry attributed to Chaliapin, 81
am neither bourgeois nor proleta-
rian. am an artist" no longer
arrests, since we know that art
is dependent as much upon social
life for it's conceptions as is politics
or philosophy, and the artist, there
fore, is neither free of social compul-
sions nor. aloof from social struggles.
It is because art seems so removed
into a blue-mist world of illusion that
the connection between its substance
and that of the social world is so sell
dom detected.
In the novels of the nineteenth cen
tury the virtues and ambitions of the
bourgeoisie were extolled. Toward the
end of the century prOletarian senti-
mentalists began to multiply. With
the Goth century distinct anti-bour-
geois trend had developed in art.
Theodore Dresser is an expression
OF that anti-bourgeois trend. Dresser
is nosproletarian. He is neither class
conscious nor class-inspired. Altho
his heroes very often represent the
period of individualistic development
and achievement that belong to the
early days of capitalism, Dreiser's
whole attitude toward the ethics of
the bourgeoisie is one Of disgust and
detestation. The smugness of bour-
geois virtue he scOrns. The religiosity
Of the Victorian bourgeoisie he ridi-
cules with callous gesture. The
mOney-madness of our civilization he
records with weary contempt. In the
optimism of the 18th century bour-
geois-
"The snail's on the thorn.
Tha. birds on the wing,
Gods in his heaven.
Alps well with the world"
he sees only hollow rhetoric.
Dresser represents the spirit of So
cial decadence. F'utility is his domi-
nant note. Faith has fed. Social re-
construction appears but a myth. He
has no hope, no aim-only an unre-
luctant resignation to futility. The
proletariat means nothing more to him
than the bourgeoisie. Men as a whole
do not awaken in him the promise of
prophecy. Progress is a delusion.
Yet in his very contempt for man
Dresser paints life in patterns that
nave social significance. That is why
one should read IAN American Trag-
edy," which is his latest and best
novel; and which is the most effective.
literary achievement of a contempt
rary American.
IAN American Tragedy" does not
deal with the life Of the proletariat,
altho its hero is never more than a
minor foreman in a collar factory. It's
tragedy is one of sex and social aspi-
ration. Clyde Grifiths, the son of
religious parents, after an automobile
catastrophe that drove him. from his
home town, finally finds work and a
mistress in his uncles establishment
Pregnancy converted his mistress
from a source OF pleasure into an or
gaRof pain. His aim to marry Sondra,
a girl in rich society, is endangered by
the pregnancy of his mistress, who
threatens to disclose their liaison.
Clyde, driven by ambition, arranges a
scene for the murder Of his mistress,
loses his courage at the crucial mo-
ment, but finally allows Roberta to
drown when their boat is capsized.
He is tried, convicted and electro.
cuted.
The story is simple, and aside from
its sex candor is not peculiarly mod
ern in spirit OF peculiarly original in
structure. Its protagonist is charac-
ter Of weak, irresponsible type, whose
aspirations are devoted neither to the
DrOmisa and nagsion ~ thn nnafic Iifa