| Show rw r hiA e Y aRr n W. W J I n f f j f. f j 1 r fi n. n 1 i Ji I J. 1 A. A An with n HEODORE EODORE DREISER r w H 1 in which he lie discusses J ryr 3 ERRANT YOUTH t f fisi w isi 1 J tA t I A h 1 I i y W T viiI r a la 1 t I C l C LL I Fi 1 t I I II I j I I 0 il i j bAd Ad I 1 K t 1 b r t f 4 J 1 I i 1 1 I l i I 1 1 I ti a i. i 1 r N f t hl I ZIN r lN S I r r d rl i S i. i tJ P H 1 C I 1 M- M tf 7 r x t W b. b w f J tJ f. f tI 5 I 1 e r i f f lj f I y I Yf f vr i 1 J 1 l. l 6 t. h r Y C 0 lt l 1 rr 4 ar i l 1 I. I G 7 r r t I 1 y I I i S 1 I W WI rn 1 r 1 r I I W Z I I I r 1 i I M 1 K t I nr r 1 F v. v y A t I tS tSo o A r K lo I Ir 17 II II 11 h 11 ir I. I y f v. 5 0 u Ii II t 1 11 rr r.r. p y rJ 4 r f i J t l alwN v 1 1 IV auY j 1 l 1 a fi F r ry W t r Z A 1 I i f K 1 r. r II I r S r I 10 S' S i FP I S I IW 1 11 Ili Ii Id NS 1 y y f 1 o PI I r d M i I I. I t J 4 i r f S it r l N t f f b If S ok I. I n 11 1 tt i I I i il f r sh 1 iaN Si aN 1 1 I 1 I II 1 Ii r I N W 11 1 I h hl N l y 1 1111 I I 11 M I 1 9 i b fJ X 4 I m ii ll Yf l r A J.- J. II I s l fl I II tI t- t A 1 1 1 l f 11 i k 4 N k J l. l 5 1 a NN t I Cri R I i 1 fy k t tI N r i 1 n I ll 1 1 a 1 NI r I v ai T 1 v 1 Vi Vim 1 s m 11 mM h t il I M H 11 W v vi IN b y r i vv 1 I 1 0 o hl I Si SiS iL i S L rr H i r a li Jh 0 i b I 1 I l t. t I Is I's S THE THE tragic dilemma of youth today today today-if if such a dilemma exist as the moralists and philosophers tell us due us-due due to the clash between Reality and Illusion the on head-on collision between Truth and Romance Are youthful crime waves student suicides mental ups smash-ups and moral collapses to be accounted for on the ground that youth is hopelessly engaged in the pursuit of a pot of gold at the end of an impossible rainbow and the romantic fiction that good fortune will appear on the scene in any crisis t If cold facts facts' and ideals are re to be reconciled wh what t philosophy of life must be evolved f for r youth in an age of super-sophistication super Theodore Dreiser the American novelist wrote a book around this theme a little time back It was done into a play that countless thousands of Americans have seen the seen the pitiful story of an American boy boy gone wrong and coming ruefully to an ignoble death in the el electric chair This man should have some answers for the q queries eries listed above And he has as the following interview demonstrates He says we mu must t learn to adopt the compromise of tolerance which is as cleansing as laughter and as fruitful as good orchards i By y Philip Emerson Wood o 4 4 THE HE astonishing success of Dreiser's masterpiece An American Tragedy Tragedy Tragedy Trag Trag- edy proceeding as it has from its first edition as a novel through sj six triumphant months as a play on Broadway Broadway Broadway Broad Broad- way way and still persisting as one of the six sellers best-sellers testifies to a bre breadth of public interest that would justify many inquiries Having both read the book and seen seen the play I had two excellent reasons poignantly to appreciate this epic as American fictions fiction's s superlative tragedy of youth but I wanted to know why Dreiser had written it in the first place And I wanted to learn from Dreiser Dreiser- and this for purposes of sharing sharing just just what monstrous fault lies at the bottom of this terrible story what sin of commission commission commission com com- mission or of omission constitutes the gr greatest American tragedy And I wanted his remedy The great novelist proved to be a big boyish man of middle age a man of leonine head shoulders and delicate tapering hands who welcomed me with such genuine enuine cordiality as actually to seem pleased at my intrusion You take your ashtray and Ill I'll eat my candy he said seating himself in inthe inthe th the other chair and well we'll have a wonderful won won- time So while he held his sweet chocolate hoco te in one hand han 1 and the other occupied itself with a handkerchief we conversed to the perpetual accompaniment accompaniment ment ment of a nervously rocked rocking- rocking chair one chair one sign of an active mindI mind I 7 WROTE it he said because I had to Th That t is why 1 have written all of 01 my books L because cause they demand to tobe tobe tobe be written And that incidentally is justification enough for any writer so willingly a medium for art as to be both regardless regardless' of the market and fearless of the cen censor or You have quoted John Drinkwater as saying in his Estimate of that the true poet is mastered master mas mas- mastered ter d by his song sorg that must be so 1 I Iam am s sure ure at any rate that the same is characteristic of the true novelist that novelist that the real teller story-teller is mastered by his story As regards the story of of- Clyde Griffiths Griffiths Grif Grif- Im I'm frank to admit that I I was mastered mas- mas toed for ten s sympathetic years and that thai for more than two of those I sat at that table every single day from 9 in the 1 morning until after midnight obediently spinning the yarn I was possessed of a frenzy for sketching sketching sketching-or or so it seemed to me at the time so great was my rny haste moment haste moment after moment detail after detail of that tragic experience fearful that if I omitted omitted omitted omit omit- ted a single fragment of the mosaic the total effect might be ruined ft AFTER A FTER which came the considerable task of editing when the medium becomes the mentor and therefore additionally additionally additionally addi addi- responsible for the brain child to his care Because I never once intruded upon this book my own point of view or interpretation or philosophy philosophy philosophy phil phil- nor even indulged myself the relief relief re reo re- re lief of painting a word-picture word here or there there liberties liberties I h have ve felt free to take with other books I have written When the job was done th the result seemed so foreign to me that I simply couldn't ad adjust just myself to it at all It struck me as being just a monumental monumental mental failure If If it had been so adjudged ad ad- adjudged judged by the world I would have been disappointed naturally but but I should still have had the compensation of knowing knowing knowing know know- ing I had dont done my best add ad there is a certain success success' in that But that of course is not all To say that I wrote An American Tragedy because I had to do so is only half an answer to your question What you want to learn obviously is that which specifically commanded me that me-that that particular particular particular par par- vibration which found such complete complete com com- response in m me as to force me to listen l long ng that poignant chord which sounded over those ten years with such sustained intensity as to compe compel me to speak Well as a matter of fact it was no single note but a repetition it was a sequence of tragedies so insistent a as to achieve the terrible beauty of a dreadful dreadful dread dread- r ful monotone For you see Clyde Griffiths' Griffiths Griffiths' Griffiths Griffiths' Griffiths Grif Grif- experience was not unique it was typical Clyde himself is not unique he heis heis heis is a prototype There were were any number of youths victimized by a condition which I shall attempt to explain whom hom homI I might have chosen for my unfortunate hero as profitably as 1 chose Chester Gillette Gillette Gil Gil- lette that lu luckless kless lad who murdered one sweetheart in r of another in upper New York State those several years ago go M 1 11 N x Ml i 2 j I z C x y r ry hJ k v x h hOne One of the most poignantly dramatic moments in the play An American Tragedy comes when Clyde Griffiths Morgan Farley Fancy takes leave leave of his mother Caroline Newcombe just before he goes to the electric chair There was a minister down dawn in Massachusetts Massachusetts Massachusetts Mas Mas- there was a farmhand in Colorado there was a student only recently recently recently re re- re- re in Minnesota Day by day week by week year by year sufferers from Clydes Clyde's malady passed in dismal parade across the headlines of the newspapers and I witnessed their passage with in increasing increasing increasing in- in creasing pity Ultimately when I became became be be- came painfully conscious of the imperviousness imperviousness imperviousness with which nationally we dismiss dis dis- dismiss dismiss dis- dis miss youthful crime waves student suicides suicides suicides sui sui- sui- sui and such in our hectic sear search h for excitement and indulgence of ourselves in material prosperity I fled to my desk CLYDE LYDE GR GRIFFITHS the prototype was the victim of a prevalent confusion con con- fusion the fusion the confusion born of a heritage heritage heritage herit herit- age gone gone wrong That heritage is the Puritan influence our greatest possession possession possession posses posses- sion to my mind but like all great I p possessions capable if not properly utilized utilized uti uti- uti- uti of becoming our greatest menace This to a a large farge extent has happe happened ed It went wrong wrong when its strength was misspent misspent misspent mis mis- spent in a a clinging to its repressions in inan inan an effort to resist the tides of change As a result American youth was left high and dry with neither dependable foothold upon reality nor hopeful glimpse of promised fields neither fields neither solid establishment establishment in wise traditions nor the conception con con- of a properly enriched future Clyde for instance was the product of ofa a dogmatic religious atmosphere that took no account of actuality and the victim of a harsh actuality that made madeno no allowance for vague beginnings Between Be tween the two his life untutored to compromise m se was lost Lacking the positive endowment of ofa a backbone background he was incapable ble of facing the issue of his conflict lacking the tho vision that is the reward of living he was incapable even of real real- izing that it existed existed So he was left lefta a negative And he sought the nega negative tive solution which is escape sought to destroy the beautiful truth that was Roberta so that he might follow the br bright vision that was Sondra He took Roberta out in a boat vacillating as asto asto asto to whether to drown her or not but buthis buthis buthis his very vacillation is only a reflection of the conflict between illusion and reality that was visited upon him by his e early training and and environment He was incapable of ofa a a positive decisiveness even at the crisis risis and confided his pro problem lem to circumstance It is my sad conviction con conn that that this this same has hasa a sad analogy in all the tragedies of contemporary American life In the same boat with Clyde figuratively figuratively figura figura- speaking are innumerable young Americans desperately b believing that there is a pot of gold at th the end of an impossible rainbow The scion of wealth who imagines he can buy happiness the flapper who dreams she can exchange her be beauty uty for fora a palace and live happily ever after the singer choir r who lets acts her passion robe her shepherd with heroic dimensions dimensions dimensions dimen dimen- dismissing life itself in her frenzy to live the the deception deceptions and saddest and saddest of all the all the student suicide so confused by intellectual bankruptcy as not to b able to meet and dispose of pessimism Obviously there is is' some fundamental error and I believe it tt happens to be bea a unifying one A certain influence has exerted itself upon one a d all from all from the young explorer in crime to the saddest saddest sad sad- dest of willing victims of delusion It Itis Itis Itis is a romantic fiction desperately clutched at through the negative darkness the fiction of Fortunes Fortune's appearing on the scene at the crisis and giving something for nothing And the reason for this i The great novelist proved t to ba be a big nan man of middle age a man of leonine head massive shoulders and and delicate s J tapering hands hands' American Novelist Blames Hidebound Conventional Morality for the Negative Conf Confusion si n That Pervades American Youth Youth the the f Confusion Born of a Heritage Gone Wrong 1 Th That t Heritage Heritage the P. P Puritan ritan Influence Is Our Ou r i 1 5 Greatest Possession but Like All Great xv v t. t Possessions Capable i j of Becoming Our I Greatest Menace l t r I the the darkness itself so so to to speak constitutes constitutes constitutes con con- wh what t we we might call call if if tragedies were n not t so s to th the pound of feathers and the pound of the lead lead the greatest American tragedy ct HIS I I. I believe to be hid hidebound conventional c conJ con con- n- n THIS J- J mora morality Like e a huge cloud it has settled over us to suffocate suffocate cate us as it has blinded It has fast fastened ned upon our puritanical virility and rendered rendered rendered ren ren- dered it ineffective Now personally I feel that we have nothing so vital and vigorous as that Puritan strain if we will only shake e off off the shackles of misinterpretation We must be worthy of it When the P Puritan ritan fathers left the meads of Britain to batten on the g granite anite moors of f New England it was imperative for them to employ a a rigid code in the enforcement of their pur pur- pose But the experience seems to have resulted result d in a focusing upon the rigidity at the expense of all purpose So that today with our frontiers broken and our commercial prosperity established and secured we have a condition pitifully divorced from imperative purpose and burdened with decayed repressions We have a nation relaxed into the pursuit of pleasure with no hard necessity to keep its nose to the grindstone and we have only a a succession of prohibitions brought bluntly to challenge the rel release ase of inhibitions naturally subsequent upon leisure and enjoyment We Ve have been guilty of mass thought mass action mass judgment too long we have made a fetish of generalizations What is right for the many many we we have taken the dictum over from Puritan days to an epoch to which it does no not apply apply is is right for the few what is a asin asin asin sin in the throng we adjudge to be a asin asin asin sin in in the individual Such reasoning has been always always always- been erroneous but in our busy and more intensive ancestors it it was at least excusable its adoption eliminated involved considerations of the individual when community interests were all Y we sho should ld be able to corr correct ct TODAY TODA the error Conscious that no civilization civilization civilization tion ever has survived except through its individuals we should ind indulge ind o ourselves the profitable experiment of adopting latitudes that would permit of individual development We should assume the wisdom wisdom wisdom wis wis- dom though we have it not of letting youth be young first so that it may proceed proceed pro pro- naturally to a development broader and ana more vigorous and more accomplishing accomplish accomplish- ing than our own Let me s sketch etch briefly the contrast ina ina in ina a different setting A friend of mine minea mine mine- a Russian was Russian was approached by his daughter with a confession that would have bave shocked and dismayed the average Ameri American an parent This father though did not weigh the issue on n the scales of an impervious m morality but but simply imply r asked Do you think you have acted wisely 7 To him it was a matter of practicality rooted in ethics rath rather r than one of f morals derived from p precedent That Thit however was due to his peculiar heritage But the incident is enough to indicate that to older civilizations if not notto notto notto to our own the ethical side of the |
