An American Tragedy vs A Place in the Sun

Often, movie adaptations of novels will have many variances. These inconsistencies can change major themes in the story. Such differences appear between Theodore Dreiser’s An American Tragedy and its film adaptation, A Place in the Sun. The film’s title has a light-hearted and paradisiacal implication, in contrast to the novel’s tittle, which suggests hopelessness and suffering. These titles mirror the overall thematic difference in the two versions. The novel blatantly exposes the reality of American society to illustrate how the American dream is an illusion, whereas the film focuses on the consequences that result from foolishness.
In An American Tragedy, Clyde’s downfall is caused by tragic flaws deeply ingrained in American Society. Dreiser includes characters from every spectrum of social class and exposes their faults. Both Hortense Briggs and Sondra Finchley feign interest in Clyde for their own benefit. Hortense is a lower class Kansas City girl who manipulates Clyde in search of material possessions. Sondra, a wealthy and beautiful woman, shows interest in Clyde to irritate Gilbert Griffiths. Dreiser introduces many other characters with this same self-centered attitude, such as Orville Mason, the district attorney. “It looks to be the biggest and most important case in all my term in office, and if we can only clean it up satisfactorily and quickly, before things break here this fall, it made do us all some good, eh?” (532). Orville does not see Clyde’s case as a fight for justice, but an easy win for his political standing. Dreiser includes these details to highlight the harsh intentions and motivations of Americans. This consistency in motive emphasizes the theme that Americans have a toxic obsession with personal gain that drives many individuals, regardless of class. Clyde is manipulated and his mind is corrupted by people trying to achieve what they think is the “American dream,” when in reality there is no such thing. Clyde becomes obsessed with