How is the American Dream represented in Theodore Dreiser's An American Tragedy?American dream and An American Tragedy

The American Dream is represented in a negative way by
Clyde Griffiths' admiration of the wealthy people he reads about and eventually gets to
associate with in Lycurgus, New York. Theodore Dreiser does not merely depict luxury and
leisure as something to be desired by those who do not have it, but he actually shows
the privileged men and women in their natural environment, living in big houses,
vacationing at second homes at lakeside resorts, owning expensive automobiles and motor
boats, employing numerous servants, having all the material things it was possible to
enjoy at the time. Clyde is so enchanted by the world of the privileged class that he
even considers committing a murder of his pregnant mistress in order to be able to hang
onto his tenuous position in that society. That is the tragedy of An American
Tragedy. Dreiser had strong socialist leanings at the time he wrote the
novel. He thought there was something immoral about the vast divide between the haves
and have-nots in America, and he depicted both classes in this classic
book.