Theodore Dreiser (1871—1945) is one of the most outstanding writers-realists of the USA at the turn of the 20th century, the epoch which is characterized not only by considerable social shifts but also by significant transformation of thinking. In his stories, the writer ponders over the moral state of modern American society of his time and emphasizes the growth of the personality’s amorality and aggression. He continually forces his heroes to make their choice revealing the inconsistency of human nature and demonstrates in ad­dition the ability of the great expert at writing profoundly and on a good scale to elucidate acute problems in the small literary form.