American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser
An American Tragedy
Megan Kerns
October 20, 2011
ECI 430, Paul Harvey Project
John was born May 10, 1838 on a farm outside Baltimore, Maryland. He was the fifth of six surviving children. John enjoyed his childhood, but his father was haunted by alcoholism and spells of madness. His father had often been dismissed as a crazy and drunken actor. Like most children, John aspired to follow in his father’s footsteps; therefore, John blossomed into a performing actor and like his father suffered from an extreme case of alcoholism. Growing up on a farm in Maryland meant that John had been born into a world in which slavery was apart of the accepted order of things. Like most of the community, he believed that blacks were incapable of living alongside whites. John was a firm believer of Southern tradition and the institution of slavery. He was raised by hands of white supremacists and fostered those ideals through out the end of his life. As a southern white male, the idea of white superiority filtered through his veins and established a way of life. Not long after his father’s death, John began his acting career. As a beginning actor, he received a lot of negative criticism. He was given mixed reviews because of his father’s drunken legacy, his lack of ability to correctly recite lines, and attend practice sober. Despite John’s negative reviews, he persevered through the world of drama. At the age of seventeen, he made his first official debut, playing the Earl of Richmond in a popular adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard III. In this play, John’s character was that of a hero who destroyed a murderous tyrant. As he approached his early twenties, John had become a well known, handsome, and stunning actor in the city of Richmond, Virginia. At the age of twenty, his mother claimed he was “the handsomest man in America[1]”. John also understood women. He was one of the lucky men able to work his
Megan Kerns
October 20, 2011
ECI 430, Paul Harvey Project
John was born May 10, 1838 on a farm outside Baltimore, Maryland. He was the fifth of six surviving children. John enjoyed his childhood, but his father was haunted by alcoholism and spells of madness. His father had often been dismissed as a crazy and drunken actor. Like most children, John aspired to follow in his father’s footsteps; therefore, John blossomed into a performing actor and like his father suffered from an extreme case of alcoholism. Growing up on a farm in Maryland meant that John had been born into a world in which slavery was apart of the accepted order of things. Like most of the community, he believed that blacks were incapable of living alongside whites. John was a firm believer of Southern tradition and the institution of slavery. He was raised by hands of white supremacists and fostered those ideals through out the end of his life. As a southern white male, the idea of white superiority filtered through his veins and established a way of life. Not long after his father’s death, John began his acting career. As a beginning actor, he received a lot of negative criticism. He was given mixed reviews because of his father’s drunken legacy, his lack of ability to correctly recite lines, and attend practice sober. Despite John’s negative reviews, he persevered through the world of drama. At the age of seventeen, he made his first official debut, playing the Earl of Richmond in a popular adaptation of Shakespeare’s Richard III. In this play, John’s character was that of a hero who destroyed a murderous tyrant. As he approached his early twenties, John had become a well known, handsome, and stunning actor in the city of Richmond, Virginia. At the age of twenty, his mother claimed he was “the handsomest man in America[1]”. John also understood women. He was one of the lucky men able to work his
Cited: Borreson, Ralph. (1965). When Lincoln Died. New York: Meredith Press Van Rees Press. Good, Timothy. (1995). We Saw Lincoln Shot, One Hundred Eyewitness Accounts. Jackson, Mississippi: University Press of Mississippi. Rhodehamel, John, & Louise Taper. (1997). Right or Wrong, God Judge Me. Chicago, Illinois: University of Illinois. ----------------------- [1] Rhodehamel, John, & Louise Taper. (1997). Right or Wrong, God Judge Me. Chicago, Illinois: University of Illinois. Page 5. [2] Right or Wrong, God Judge Me. Page 7.