An American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser (i can read book club .TXT) π

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Clyde Griffithβs parents are poor street-preachers, but Clyde doesnβt βbelieve,β and finds their work demeaning. At fifteen he gets a job and starts to ease out of their lives, eventually landing in some trouble that causes him to flee the town where they live. Two years later, Clyde meets his well-off uncle, who owns a large factory in upstate New York. Clyde talks his way into a job at the factory, and soon finds himself supervising a roomful of women. All alone, generally shunned by his uncleβs family, and starved for companionship, he breaks the factoryβs rules and begins a relationship with a young woman who works for him. But Clyde has visions of marrying a high-society woman, and fortune smiles on him in the form of the daughter of one of his uncleβs neighbors. Soon Clyde finds himself in a love triangle of his own making, and one from which he seems incapable of extracting himself.
A newspaperman before he became a novelist, Theodore Dreiser collected crime stories for years of young men in relationships with young women of poorer means, where the young men found a richer, prettier girl who would go with him, and often took extreme measures to escape from the first girl. An American Tragedy, based on one of the most infamous of those real-life stories, is a study in lazy ambition, the very real class system in America, and how easy it is to drift into evil. It is populated with poor people who desire nothing more than to be rich, rich people whose only concern is to keep up with their neighbors and not be associated with the βwrong element,β and elements of both who care far more about appearances than reality. It offers further evidence that the world may be very different from 100 years ago, but the people in it are very much the same.
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- Author: Theodore Dreiser
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But in the meantime, Belknap, himself finally wearied and confused by this strange story, the impossibility as he now saw it of submitting to, let alone convincing, any ordinary backwoods jury of this region, of the innocence of these dark and bitter plans and deeds, finally in great weariness and uncertainty and mental confusion, even, getting up and placing his hands on Clydeβs shoulders, saying: βWell, thatβll be enough of this for today, Clyde, I think. I see how you felt and how it all came aboutβ βalso I see how tired you are, and Iβm mighty glad youβve been able to give me the straight of this, because I know how hard itβs been for you to do it. But I donβt want you to talk any more now. There are going to be other days, and I have a few things I want to attend to before I take up some of the minor phases of this with you tomorrow or next day. Just you sleep and rest for the present. Youβll need all you can get for the work both of us will have to do a little later. But just now, youβre not to worry, because thereβs no need of it, do you see? Iβll get you out of thisβ βor we willβ βmy partner and I. I have a partner that Iβm going to bring around here presently. Youβll like him, too. But there are one or two things that I want you to think about and stick toβ βand one of these is that youβre not to let anybody frighten you into anything, because either myself or my partner will be around here once a day anyhow, and anything you have to say or want to know you can say or find out from us. Next youβre not to talk to anybodyβ βMason, the sheriff, these jailers, no oneβ βunless I tell you to. No one, do you hear! And above all things, donβt cry any more. For if you are as innocent as an angel, or as black as the devil himself, the worst thing you can do is to cry before anyone. The public and these jail officers donβt understand thatβ βthey invariably look upon it as weakness or a confession of guilt. And I donβt want them to feel any such thing about you now, and especially when I know that youβre really not guilty. I know that now. I believe it. See! So keep a stiff upper lip before Mason and everybody.
βIn fact, from now on I want you to try and laugh a littleβ βor at any rate, smile and pass the time of day with these fellows around here. Thereβs an old saying in law, you know, that the consciousness of innocence makes any man calm. Think and look innocent. Donβt sit and brood and look as though you had lost your last friend, because you havenβt. Iβm here, and so is my partner, Mr. Jephson. Iβll bring him around here in a day or two, and youβre to look and act toward him exactly as you have toward me. Trust him, because in legal matters heβs even smarter than I am in some ways. And tomorrow Iβm going to bring you a couple of books and some magazines and papers, and I want you to read them or look at the pictures. Theyβll help keep your mind off your troubles.β
Clyde achieved a rather feeble smile and nodded his head.
βFrom now on, tooβ βI donβt know whether youβre at all religiousβ βbut whether you are or not, they hold services here in the jail on Sundays, and I want you to attend βem regularlyβ βthat is, if they ask you to. For this is a religious community and I want you to make as good an impression as you can. Never mind what people say or how they lookβ βyou do as I tell you. And if this fellow Mason or any of those fellows around here get to pestering you any more, send me a note.
βAnd now Iβll be going, so give me a cheerful smile as I go outβ βand another one as I come in. And donβt talk, see?β
Then shaking Clyde briskly by the shoulders and slapping him on the back, he strode out, actually thinking to himself: βBut do I really believe that this fellow is as innocent as he says? Would it be possible for a fellow to strike a girl like that and not know that he was doing it intentionally? And then swimming away afterwards, because, as he says, if he went near her he thought he might drown too. Bad. Bad! What twelve men are going to believe that? And that bag, those two hats, that missing suit! And yet he swears he didnβt intentionally strike her. But what about all that planningβ βthe
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