Abstract:As the rapid economic development in modern society, what people pursue is more about material wealth. People tend to regard wealth as the only standard to measure success. Many people give up the fine value of self-sacrifice and become selfish and indifferent to other people. An American Tragedy is a representative work which attacks egoism. This thesis intends to analyze egoism through Clyde’s crime which is driven by his endless desires. Firstly, this paper provides a brief introduction to Theodore Dreiser and his masterpiece An American Tragedy published in 1925. Then the paper discusses egoism from its origin, and definition and controversial views on it, laying a theoretical foundation for the thesis. Part Three is the core part of the thesis when it expound egoism through the life of the protagonist Clyde and explores main reasons for his tragedy. What’s more, the author also relates egoism with moral decay in our modern society to emphasize the negative effects of egoism on individual and society. In the end, the paper concludes that it is egoism that is to blame for Clyde’s tragedy and intends to raises people’s social consciousness of side effects incurred by egoism.
Key words: An American Tragedy, Egoism, Desire
摘要:随着当今社会经济发展越来越迅速，而人们所追崇的价值也越来越物质。人们开始把金钱作为衡量成功的唯一标准。为了自身利益，大部分人摒弃了人类舍己为人的高尚情操，开始变得自私冷漠，对他人漠不关心。《美国的悲剧》是典型的批判利己主义之作，所以，本文旨在通过《美国的悲剧》中主人公克莱德在欲望的驱使下令人深恶痛绝的行为描述对利己主义进行深刻地剖析，并让读者意识到人性问题对个人成长存在及对人类社会的重要性，并促使人们对当今社会中存在的各种利己主义行为有所反思。本文首先对西奥多德莱赛及他的代表作——1925年出版的《美国的悲剧》进行简略的介绍。接着对利己主义的起源，定义和人们对利己主义持有争议性的观点进行了分析讨论，为论文打下了理论基础。第三部分是论文的中心，本文作者通过主人公克莱德的一生阐述了利己主义，并揭露了造成克莱德悲剧一生的原因；还结合利己主义与现代社会中道德败坏的实例强调了利己主义对个人和社会的影响。最后，论文阐明利己主义是造成克莱德悲剧的最主要原因，本文作者希望通过这篇论文能够引起人们对利己主义产生的负面影响进行更多地思考。
关键词：《美国的悲剧》,利己主义，欲望
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