impossible for him to get along with such a poor, uneducated girl. They are different in status. Dreiser’s theory is that “a bird may not enter the domain of the fishes.” Of
course, we can argue his theory, but is his theory. He then applies it in his works. It seems to us that in this novel, the two young couple, Jennie and Lester must be
separated in the end of the story, for they do not match to each other. Lester must get married with a woman of the same level. In consequence, he has t leave Jennie.
Jennie herself is trying to be the member of his high-class society by getting along with two high – class gentlemen: Brander and Lester. Brander suddenly dies
from Typhoid; Lester has to leave her since his status has caused him to abandon her. Here, we can see that a person has to live accordingly in his own society. If Brander
were alive, he would probably face a very difficult problem in getting married with Jennie. His family, relatives, and friends would get angry with him if he gets married
with a poor girl. On the other hand, Jennie’s family would also be angry with her because she got married with an old and married man.
3.7 Sexual Desire
The character, especially the main characters in the naturalistic story usually yield to the temptation of sexual desire. They are not able to resist this temptation,
and consequently, they find their own doom of disaster. In this novel, we can see that Brander cannot resist his sexual desire when he sees such as a beautiful girl. He does
not care whether Jennie is poor or not. He is actually old enough to match with Jennie. He is now fifty – two years old, and he is at the same age with Jennie’s
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father. Besides that, Brander is a notable senator ad a rich man. He, of course, belongs to the high class society. But his sexual drive is so strong that he does not
care anything anymore. He yields to the temptation of Jennie’s beauty and youth. He is ready to help Jennie’s family financially because he wants to own her body. This
is what we call by ‘carnal love’ or ‘sexual love’. Some people call it ‘bodily love.’ Jennie herself is too young and immature to understand anything about love.
Besides that, she is so innocent that she cannot understand what Brander intends to do with her. When he gives her some money, she feels very happy. She is never
suspicious of his giving her the money. She only thinks that Brander is the savior. “Jennie accepted the money with mingled feelings; it did not
occur to her to look and see how much it was. The great man was so near her, the wonderful chamber in which he dwelt so
impressive, that she scarcely realized what she was doing ….she immensely taken with the comfort and luxury
surrounding this man, and subconsciously with the man himself, the most attractive she had ever known. Everything he
had was fine, everything he did was gentle, distinguished and considerate.”
Dreiser, 1963: 35 – 6
From the quotation above, we can see that Jennie adores Brander because he “saves” Jennie and her family from poverty. In consequence, she yields to Brander and gives
her virginity to him. Brander promises to marry her as soon as he comes back from Washington. But he suddenly dies before he keeps his promise. If he were still alive,
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would he marry her? Nobody knows about it. The fact is that Jennie suffers from shame because she is pregnant.
Lester Kane is described as an easy – going man and a woman hunter. The firs time he sees Jennie, he cannot resist his temptation to possess her physically. For
him, Jennie is the typical girl who can fulfill his sexual desire. She is still young, beautiful, and charming. He is anxious to know if Jennie will accept him or not. But
he believes that he can persuade her since she is very poor. He can use his wealth to seduce her. Besides that, he is also handsome. He usually uses his wealth to conquer
any woman he likes. Although his parents want him to get married and live decently, he likes to choose his own way of life. He wants to be free so that he can satisfy his
sexual desire whenever he wants. He is described as
“…a man of vigorous, aggressive, and sound personality; he was nevertheless an essentially animal-man, pleasantly
veneered by education and environment.” Dreiser, 1963: 138
Dreiser calls Lester an ”animal-man” which means that Lester has an animal drive – sexual desire.
Lester is actually appropriate to get married and live decently with family because he is thirty five years old. But he always thinks about enjoying his life with
different women.
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“Lester Kane was past the youthful love period, and he knew it. The innocence and unsophistication of younger ideals had
gone. He wanted the comfort of feminine companionship, but he was more and more disinclined to give up his personal
liberty in order to obtain it. He would not wear the social snackles if it were possible to satisfy the needs of his heart and
nature and still remain free and unfettered.” Dreiser, 1963: 140
From the quotation above, we can see that Lester wants to be free as a single man. Therefore, he does not like a wedlock. In the novel, he tries hard to win Jennie’s
love. He is not able to stop, or at least, to resist the temptation. Finally he is able to persuade her to live with him with out getting married. They have lived together for
four years when they finally realize that each of them must be separated.
3.8 Tragedy
