haracter's emphasis on material success is the cause of tragedy. Strangely, Clyde's parents remain surprisingly happy. Their secret is religion. Whether it is an opiate (for Clyde), a loose set of guidelines (for Uncle Griffiths), or a binding pact (for Elvira Griffiths), religion gives meaning to otherwise meaningless and chaotic lives. For Clyde, religion provides a sense of unity and wholeness, and helps him realize that he is wrong and ask for forgiveness. Uncle Griffiths's religion is a set of moral guidelines which all humans should follow -- love and justice. (E.g. Despite his qualms, Uncle Griffiths does not pay for Clyde's retrial, because he knows Clyde is guilty. While his policies are sound, Uncle Griffiths fails. As he said, "mixing business and family is folly;" he trusted Clyde, and Clyde ruined him. Elvira is seemingly the most content, both with her failures and her successes, because she bound a pact with God. She finds solace in the Bible; no matter what may go wrong, she will always have help and understanding. When the novel ends, every main character but her is dead or a failure. She, however, changes peoples' lives -- even Clyde's and the skeptical DA Mason's. While she may be nave, whenever others fall to temptation, Elvira follows her morals. Despite her son's electrocution and her daughter's illegitimate child, Elvira is not ruined by the American Dream, and all because of religion. A novel's mode is its style (E.g. satirical, romantic, psychological, naturalistic, science fiction, mystery, adventure). While An American Tragedy contains many psychological insights, its dominant mode is naturalistic. A naturalistic novel is "realistic fiction taken one step further, in which the author pessimistically portrays squalor, violence, sordidness, and characters who have little control over their own destinies" (1). Naturalist writers Crane, Morris, London, and Dresser all even believed that man is "a helpless pawn of ...
