Jennie Gerhardt: A Novel

"Jennie Gerhardt: A Novel" by Theodore Dreiser is a story set in the early 1900s about a young, impoverished woman, Jennie Gerhardt, trying to make her way in a society filled with inequality. As the story begins, we meet Jennie and her family struggling with poverty after her father becomes ill, which drives Jennie and her mother to seek employment at a fancy hotel to survive. The contrast between their humble lives and the wealth they encounter at the hotel underscores the challenges they face, highlighting the emotional toll poverty takes on them as they hope for better opportunities, only to encounter a powerful senator who will change the course of Jennie's life.