he dream that they all sought. Uncle Griffiths really is not a tycoon; only Clyde's biased narration leads us to this inaccurate conclusion. Sondra is not the most intelligent girl in the world; she speaks baby talk when deep in thought. She is not particularly beautiful; Clyde is attracted to any good-looking woman. She is not super-elite, either; she may have a butler and a lake side mansion, but Clyde's and Dreiser's tendencies to exaggerate -- Clyde for vanity, Dreiser to reinforce his naturalist theme -- have blown her out of proportion. Clyde's women -- Hortense, Sondra, Roberta, Rita, and many others -- are nothing more than pleasure seekers who want more from life. Hortense, as her name suggests, uses boys for money; she hopes one of them will deliver her from poverty. She is doomed. If Clyde had not chased Hortense, the girl in Kansas would not be dead. Sondra wants to stay socially active, but Clyde's infamy forces her and other elite socialites to move elsewhere. She has no goals and loves on a whim, so she will turn out no better than Clyde's other girls. Roberta is a pathetic, emotional creature who only wants love and happiness. When Clyde does not marry her, she threatens to expose him. Clyde kills her so he can have sex with Sondra. Rita, a bad girl in Lycurgus, only wants sex. Ironically, she is one of the two content characters in the novel. The poster child for the futility of the American Dream is Clyde Griffiths. During his short life, he wants only wealth, social status, and sex (together, the American Dream). He wins his way into Chicago and Lycurgus' high societies, is ruined by wealth, and is abandoned. In each city, he has several romantic interludes, which give him a sense of mission and fulfillment for a moment. But, after each affair, he sinks deeper into despair, which corrodes his abrasive morals. Soon, there is nothing Clyde will not do for money, social status, and sex -- he will even kill for it. Each c...
