An American Tragedy.

“An American Tragedy” is best understood not as a standalone aphorism but as the title of Theodore Dreiser’s major novel, published in 1925. Dreiser, a leading American naturalist, drew on real criminal cases and on his long-standing interest in how social class, desire, and economic pressure shape individual fate. The book follows Clyde Griffiths, a young man from a poor religious background who becomes entangled in ambition, romance, and a murder case. The title itself frames the story as a specifically American form of tragedy—rooted in modern capitalism, status anxiety, and the promise (and cruelty) of upward mobility.

As a phrase, “An American Tragedy” signals Dreiser’s argument that tragedy in the United States can arise less from heroic flaws than from impersonal forces: poverty, social aspiration, sexual desire, and the relentless logic of reputation and opportunity. The indefinite article “An” implies this is not an exceptional calamity but a representative one—suggesting that the conditions producing Clyde’s downfall are widespread. The title also ironizes the American Dream: the same culture that advertises limitless self-making can trap individuals in moral and legal catastrophes when they try to cross class boundaries. In this sense, the “tragedy” is both personal and systemic.