摘 要

作为美国自然主义作家的重要代表，西奥多·德莱塞在其一生中创作了许多有影响力的作品，为美国文学做出了不可磨灭的贡献。德莱塞的代表作《美国的悲剧》被认为是其最成功的作品，许多学者和评论家曾从不同的角度对这部小说进行了解读。而本文试图从小说中反复出现的说谎行为出发，基于圣奥古斯丁关于谎言的理论对这部小说进行分析和解读，试图阐明说谎这一行为在这部小说中的重要作用。本文分为五个部分，第一部分介绍德莱塞的个人经历以及《美国的悲剧》的创作背景；第二部分介绍圣奥古斯丁的谎言理论；第三部分分析小说的主人公克莱德在小说中各阶段的说谎行为；第四部分分析小说中其他人物的说谎行为；最后一部分对文章进行总结。这篇文章以圣奥古斯丁关于谎言的理论为指导，分析《美国的悲剧》中角色的说谎行为，进而更深刻地理解这部小说。这部小说里的许多角色在人际交往中不顾道德，为了自身利益使用谎言欺骗他人，反映了当时美国社会道德的沦丧。

关键词：《美国的悲剧》；说谎；圣奥古斯丁

Abstract

As an important representative of American naturalist writers, Theodore Dreiser has created quite a few influential works and made an imperishable contribution to American literature. His masterpiece An American Tragedy has been considered to be his most successful novel. Many scholars and critics have interpreted this novel from different perspectives. This paper however, attempts to make use of the theory of lying of St. Augustine to analyze the actions of lying which have repeatedly made their appearance in this novel. In doing so, this paper tries to demonstrate the significance of lying in this novel. The paper is divided into five parts. The first part introduces the personal experience of Dreiser and the background of the creation of An American Tragedy. The second part introduces the theory of lying of St. Augustine. The third part analyzes the scenes of lying of the novel’s protagonist Clyde in each phase of the novel. The fourth part analyzes the scenes of lying of other characters. The last part serves as a summary of the whole paper. Under the guidance of St. Augustine’s theory of lying, this paper studies the lies of characters in this novel to attain a better understanding of it. Most characters in this novel attach little importance to morality and use lying to deceive others to benefit themselves, which reflects the moral degeneration of American society at that time.

Key Words: An American Tragedy; lying; St. Augustine

Contents

1 Introduction 1

1.1 The writer and his works 1

1.2 Literature review 2

1.3 Structure of the paper 4

2 The theory of lying of St. Augustine 5

2.1 The definition of lying 5

2.2 The categorization of lying 6

3 The scenes of lying of Clyde Griffins 8

3.1 The relatively mild lies of Clyde in Kansas City 8

3.2 The harmful lies of Clyde after fleeing to Chicago 10

3.3 The heinous lies of Clyde in and after the murder 12

4 The scenes of lying of other characters 15

4.1 Clyde’s mother’s lies—goodwill but bad effect 15

4.2 Hortense’s lies—a harmful lesson 16

4.3 Lies in the judicial system—the “unjust justice” 17

4.4 Roberta’s lies—spotted innocence 18

5 Conclusion 20

5.1 Summary 20

5.2 Limitations 21

References 22

Acknowledgements 24

Analysis of An American Tragedy Based on the Theory of Lying of St. Augustine

1 Introduction

1.1 The writer and his works

Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) is a significant novelist and journalist in the 20th century America and a pioneer of American Naturalism. Born on August 27, 1871, in Terre Haute, Indiana, Dreiser grew up in a religious family. His father, John Paul Dreiser, was a stern Roman Catholic and raised his children in the strict way accordingly. Contrary to his father, Dreiser’s mother, Sarah Maria, was kind, gentle, and tender. In 1870, just the year before Dreiser was born, his father Paul lost a decent position in a factory. Dreiser and his siblings suffered from Paul’s unemployment from time to time and the family moved from place to place. The drifting life caused by Paul resulted in Dreiser’s unstable education. What’s more, Paul’s imposing upon his children the strict religious rules led them to rebel against him, some of them causing scandals and disgracing the family. The miserable youth made Dreiser aware of the difficulties of life. He left home in 1887 and started working. After a long period of doing low-paid humble jobs, he was given a chance by a former teacher of him to study at Indiana University from 1889 to 1890, which was a great stimulation for him. Later in 1890, he got a job as a journalist and started his writing career.

Through writing reports, Dreiser made careful observations of American people, especially those of lower social class, accumulating precious materials for his later literary creation. He was then promoted to do editorial jobs and earned enough money to marry Sara Osborne White in 1898. Encouraged by his wife and friends, Dreiser began writing Sister Carrie, which was published in 1900. Although the publisher was afraid of advertising for such a controversial novel, its advent aroused the interest of critics, many of them praising his realistic writing style. The publication of Sister Carrie inspired Dreiser. He continued writing and produced other influential works, making an imperishable contribution to American literature. Of all his works that make Dreiser a leading figure in American literature, An American Tragedy has been recognized as his most popular and successful novel, which is also the focus of this paper.

Published in 1925, An American Tragedy was created in a special social context. The inspiration for the novel was from a kind of murder cases that caught the interest of Dreiser. He claimed to have collected many similar cases before and during his writing, the pattern of which was a young man murdering his naïve lover, usually due to her pregnancy that went on the way of his success and ambition. As for An American Tragedy, Dreiser had based it specifically on the notorious criminal case of Chester Gillette in 1906 which caught the attention of the public. News coverage in the newspapers wrote about this young man who was suspected to have murdered his lover on a lake journey by drowning, which had provided sufficient materials for Dreiser. In his novel, Dreiser depicted the life and death of the protagonist, Clyde Griffiths, showing his growth in a society which encouraged the pursuit of one’s dream at any cost. The influence of the environment on Clyde is emphasized as readers notice the dramatic changes of his behavior in the process of moral degeneration. For instance, when Clyde was having an affair with his first girlfriend Hortense in Book One, he was greatly frustrated by her lies which suggested that she was only taking advantage of Clyde. Nevertheless, in Book Two Clyde showed a dramatic change by imitating what Hortense had done to him in his relationship with Roberta, using lies to take advantage of her innocence and purity. Through depicting the lies told by other characters that affected Clyde and the lies told by Clyde that influenced other characters, both of which led to his final destruction, Dreiser suggests that this tragedy is based on the prevalence of lying, or the lack of truth, genuineness, and sincerity between people in American society, thus stressing the responsibility of the then society in this tragedy.

1.2 Literature review

Due to the special significance of An American Tragedy, many studies on this novel have been made both at home and abroad. Some scholars have studied the causes of Clyde’s tragedy. Applying Professor Nie Zhenzhao’s ethical literary criticism, Zhang Yu claims that Clyde is “a victim to the distorted ethic and morality in the society” (张玉, 2015, p.47). In his book The Studies on Dreiser, Jiang Daochao emphasizes the negative influence of consumerism as reflected in An American Tragedy (蒋道超, 2003). Nie Huajing has also studied the causes of Clyde’s tragedy based on the theory of psychoanalysis, concluding that “Clyde’s tragedy is the outcome of the chaotic personality structure” (聂华敬, 2017, p.50).

Some scholars have also studied the theme of this novel, the disillusionment of the American dream. Through analyzing the process of Clyde’s attempt to achieve the American dream, Guo Jing concludes that Dreiser has reminded the American people of the importance of morality with the disillusionment of Clyde’s dream (郭竟, 2018).

The naturalistic traits in this novel have also attracted the attention of scholars. For example, applying determinism to explain Clyde’s fate, Han Weiwei has analyzed “the biological and environmental factors that have played decisive roles in Clyde’s tragic life” (韩卫卫, 2011, p.50).

The images in this novel are also the focus of the research interest. Liu Haifen has made a specific study on the images in the novel and claims that the tragic images in An American Tragedy imply the tragic nature of American life (刘海奋, 2011). In addition to these studies, some scholars have also applied other literary and cultural theories to provide new perspectives for understanding this novel. For example, Yu Jia has applied the theories of cognition to study this novel and emphasized that money in this novel serves as a metaphor that reflects the life of Clyde Griffins (于佳, 2014).

Scholars abroad have also studied this novel from different perspectives. The judicial system as reflected in this novel, though being a part of society, has attracted the specific attention from scholars to discuss whether justice has been defended. In his paper on this issue, Donald Pizer introduces different opinions of people on the judicial system in this novel and explains why Clyde’s murder case has been controversial (Pizer, 2009). Sally Trigg asserts that Dreiser condemns the American criminal system by pointing out "the inherent injustice of its underlying structures" (Trigg, 1990, p.430).