Theodore Dreiser - The Second

Theodore Dreiser - the Second Choice

Theodore Dreiser, author of such realist classics as Sister Carrie is famed for his starkly realistic works of fiction that depict the "conflict between human needs and the demands of society for material success" (Liukkonen & Pesonen 2008). For example, his short story "The Second Choice" depicts what might be called a typical love plot, in which the central character must choose between two men who represents different needs, one of which is her need for adventure and emotional fulfillment, the other material prosperity and comfort. The heroine Shirley lives in a dull place, with "front yards and houses nearly all alike" and "commonplace souls" within those houses. At first, Shirley hopes that Arthur will take her away, "far away from all commonplace things."

Shirley's hopes come to nothing. Dreiser does not depict this as a grand tragedy, although Shirley might think so, as is characteristic of the naturalist school of fiction to which he belongs. Dreiser depicts Shirley's feelings, but views them with a dispassionate distance, to illustrate something about society, namely the way it encourages women to view marriage as everything, and to pin their hopes upon men rather than try to change their own lives. The tragedy is not that Arthur leaves Shirley, but her failure of imagination to envision a life away from her hometown.

Shirley values her personal worth solely in terms of who will have her, who she can obtain on the marriage market, rather than her own intrinsic worth. Dreiser's "Second Choice" jolts Shirley out of her "lower-middle-class complacency by Arthur, a dashing, romantic newcomer who woos, wins, and leaves her. Love, Shirley suddenly finds, is excitement, defined by Arthur as freedom, movement, exploration," and a different way of being in the world (Harris 73). When Arthur leaves her, instead of using this reinvigorated sense of purpose to change her own life, her inability to win Arthur causes Shirley to regard "herself as a failure because in his eyes, she is worthless" (Harris 73). Shirley engages in an act of self-punishment, forcing herself to settle for a "steady, phlegmatic suitor, and resume the life she had abandoned when Arthur appeared. 'What's the use?'" she asks herself (Harris 73). Dreiser does not endorse this sense of ineffectualness, merely depicts it as a sad warning to the reader as something that is, like the town itself, "commonplace." By showing the sadness and commonness of such choices in human nature, Dreiser encourages the reader to change his or her own life and assumptions.