Biography

Born in Terre Haute, Indiana, Theodore Dreiser grew up in a poor family with an emotionally distant and morally rigid father. Dreiser supported himself from the age of fifteen, spending one year at Indiana University before obtaining a job as a reporter with the Chicago Globe. He read the works of late-nineteenth-century scientists and social scientists such as Charles Darwin and Thomas Huxley who agreed that human evolution was based upon the principle of the "survival of the fittest." Fascinated by human destinies and motives, Dreiser addressed the tension between determinism and human compassion in his fiction. In the early 1900s, Dreiser suffered a nervous breakdown but rallied to become an editor and, later, editorial director of the Butterick Publishing Company. His novels include Sister Carrie (1900), Jennie Gerhardt (1911), and An American Tragedy (1925).

Explorations

Though Dreiser's reputation is sustained chiefly by long novels, short, compressed tales such as Old Rogaum and His Theresa (1918) can show us the complex textures and motives of literary naturalism in bold relief. Like Crane in The Blue Hotel or Wharton in The Eyes, Dreiser characterizes quickly and presents his personages as configured by ethnicity, economic luck, and immediate social context.

1. Old Rogaum is set in lower Manhattan, in a neighborhood of recent immigrants, mostly German and Irish. How are they described? Where does the narrator seem to situate himself with regard to this cast of characters?

2. Like stories by Crane, Wharton, and Hardy, Old Rogaum is in some ways about the plight of young women at the turn of the century. Describe this predicament. Is it explored in this story? Exploited? In other words, is Old Rogaum a careful social observation? A melodrama? How would you describe it, and why?

3. In what ways does the plot of Old Rogaum suggest a fable or a parable? If it has these qualities or overtones, do they conflict with the naturalistic and realistic elements in the story?

Other sites to consult:

• Dreiser reference page. From Paul P. Reuben's PAL: Perspectives in American Literature site, this page includes a selected bibliography and a brief assessment of Dreiser's work.
• Online text of Sister Carrie. From the Electronic Text Center at the University of Virginia (scroll down to Dreiser).
• Dreiser forum. Read what others have said about Dreiser's works and contribute your own thoughts.