Character Background
The characters in "Old Rogaum and His Theresa" are created in resemblance of Dreiser's family. John Paul Dreiser, Theodore Dreiser's father, was a German immigrant and the model for old Rogaum. Theresa's love of the city matches Theodore's love and experiences of a large city. The experience of Theresa going off with the young man Almerting is the same as Theodore's sisters', Sylvia and Emma, when they went off with some young men in Warsaw, Indiana. Even old Rogaum's threat of locking Theresa out was the same as John Paul threatening to lock out Emma and Sylvia.
Read more about this topic: Old Rogaum And His Theresa
Famous quotes containing the words character and/or background:
“The family circle has widened. The worldpool of information fathered by the electric media—movies, Telstar, flight—far surpasses any possible influence mom and dad can now bring to bear. Character no longer is shaped by only two earnest, fumbling experts. Now all the world’s a sage.”
—Marshall McLuhan (1911–1980)
“Silence is the universal refuge, the sequel to all dull discourses and all foolish acts, a balm to our every chagrin, as welcome after satiety as after disappointment; that background which the painter may not daub, be he master or bungler, and which, however awkward a figure we may have made in the foreground, remains ever our inviolable asylum, where no indignity can assail, no personality can disturb us.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)