Money Can Buy Happiness: The Question of Choice in Dreiser’s “The Second Choice” Essay

The United States in the of late nineteenth and earliest twentieth century was undergoing a drastic change. A war amid its states had just concluded, enslaved people were granted freedom, immigrants from all over the earth flocked to the commonwealth, and a bitter divide between rich and poor was beginning to form. The writings followed the same trajectory of the country and, as does most literature, became a reflect of the happenings across gender, race, and relegate. M some(prenominal) telling penetrations about the new construct of country post-Civil War could be found within these works.One such insight about the United States concerned the relationship between women and choice. During this new chapter of Ameri loafer history, women were making their voices known. Writers give care Margaret Fuller, Ella Wheeler Wilcox, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman were some of the most prominent pi as yetate writers during this time and were large contributors to this new wave of liter ature. They blended feminine location with a form of literature that became extremely popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century Realism.Feminine realism was so marketable that even mannish authors produced such writings. One such male author was Theodore Dreiser with his nearsighted story The Second Choice. Much can be inferred from this story, but mainly that while money can buy womens happiness and the freedom to choose, true mobility and choice is something only accessible to rich, snow-covered men. The human activity of the work may give many readers the implication that Shirley, the protagonist, in the long run resigns to her fate and chooses Bart, her second choice for a mate. musical composition that is a precise valid interpretation, it certainly isnt the only one. One reading into the title could suggest that Shirley is the second choice. Consider the opening pages of the story, which is Arthurs, Shirleys love, letter to Shirley. While Shirley is li mited to her choices, Arthur has, and has do, many choices. He tells her, But Im too young to marry now. You know that, Shirley, dont you? He continues with, Roxbaumthats my new employercame to me and wanted to know if I would like an assistant overseershipin Java (p. 1). Within one paragraph of a letter, Arthur has already made two choices Furthermore, the fact that he has even penned this letter to Shirley all the manner from Pittsburgh shows the mobility and free range that he has. Dreiser perchance was reminding his audience (which was largely quiet of immigrant and/or lower class women) that despite the fierce feminist effect that had gripped the nation, equality between men and women was still grossly imbalanced.In the couplet of about forty pages, Arthur easily moves from west Leigh (the adjoining suburb), to Shirleys town, to Pittsburgh to Java. However, for Shirley, West Leigh is the furthest she travels in the story, and even then, she was invited by a friend. I t is only through a nonher person that Shirley is able to move from one place to another. some other reading into both the title and plot is the uncertainty about class. contour already puts half of the population at a disadvantage in attaining mobility, but class can also be a major hinderance to the freedoms of choice.In the beginning of the story, Shirley muses, her parents, her work, her daily shuttling to and fro between the drug company for which she worked and this highroad and housewas typical of her life and what she was destined to endure always. She continues her lament by comparing herself to other girls who were so much more fortunate. They had exquisitely clothes, fine homes, a world of pleasure and hazard in which to move (4). Shirley is precise conscious of her position as a stomach not and yearns for that world of pleasure and opportunity in which to move. It is with this passage in mind that raises the question Is Shirley really in love with Arthur or is she simply drawn to the opportunity and world he represents? A compelling case can be made for both, however, the question nor answer are as important as the result. Due to her gender and class, she will not have the chance to come across out. Her gender and class are parts of Shirleys identity that prune her from movement. The choices that such confining circumstances allow are so limited, Shirley efficacy as well have no choice at all. She can marry Bart, marry someone else, or spend her life alone.none of these choices include Arthur, so none of them will make her happy. Through this short story, Dreiser is making a statement about the position of lower class women in the feminist movement. Feminism does not include someone of Shirleys status and gender. This was a movement strictly for the higher classes. Besides this, perhaps Dreiser is making an even broader statement about the right to vote movement. Indeed the suffrage movement was largely composed of genteel women, b ut much like Shirley, the only chance at more freedom and choice for any woman in this country is still through a man.Womens right to vote and the right to make more independent decisions for themselves still must be approved by a federal organization run exclusively by men. Regardless of any choice that Shirley (women) could have made, Arthur (men) still have the greatest mobility. Dreiser probably neither praises or condemns the feminist movement, but rather reminds his readers to keep things in their proper perspective and not to allow themselves to be carried away quite so quickly. No division class or gender, true freedom is still only speechless to rich, white males.