论嘉莉妹妹的美国梦

论嘉莉妹妹的美国梦

论嘉莉妹妹的美国梦

学院、专业 研 究 方 向 学 生 姓 名 学 号 指导教师姓名 指导教师职称

Abstract

Sister Carrie is the first novel of Theodore Dreiser, the outstanding novelist in American literature. The novel received wide controversy since its publication, and the main character Carrie is also a controversial person. The thesis tries to analyze Carrie’s American Dream and the causes of her disillusioned dream.

Besides an introduction and a conclusion, the thesis is divided into three parts. In the introduction, the author introduces the plot of Sister Carrie and former studies on Sister Carrie briefly. And the author also tells the purpose of the thesis. In the first chapter, the author introduces Dreiser and his works first, and then describes American social environment in the 1900s. In the second chapter, the author briefly introduces American Dream and analyzes what Carrie’s American Dream is. In the third chapter, the author tries to explain how Carrie’s American Dream disillusioned, and then gives two causes of Carrie’s disillusion with the American Dream: one is her greed, another is her way of pursuing happiness. At last, the author draws the conclusion: Carrie is the representative of most Americans in the early 20th century, her way of pursuing happiness is influenced by the social environment. And we should draw a lesson from her.

Key words: Carrie;American Dream; desire; disillusion

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摘要

《嘉莉妹妹》是美国文学中著名的小说家西奥多•德莱赛的处女作。小说自发表以来受到广泛争议，小说的主角嘉莉妹妹也是一个争议性人物。本文试图分析嘉莉的美国梦以及她梦想破灭的原因。

除了引言和结尾部分，本文被分为三个章节。在引言部分，作者简要介绍了《嘉莉妹妹》的故事情节以及前人对《嘉莉妹妹》的研究并提出了本文的研究目的。第一章主要介绍了西奥多•德莱赛的生平以及作品，然后作者描述了二十世纪初美国的社会环境。第二章简要分析了美国梦，然后又描述了嘉莉妹妹的美国梦的内涵。第三章作者试图解释嘉莉妹妹的美国梦是如何幻灭的，并且给出了两点导致梦想破灭的原因：其一，嘉莉的贪婪；其二，嘉莉追求幸福的方式。最后，作者得出结论：嘉莉是20世纪初期大多数美国人的代表，她追求幸福的方式是受到美国当时社会环境影响的。

关键词：嘉莉；美国梦；欲望；幻灭

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Contents

Abstract ..................................................................................................................................... I Chapter One Introduction ................................................................................................... 0 Chapter Two Social and Literary Background ................................................................. 3 I. The Writer and His Works ............................................................................................. 3 II. American Social Environment in the 1900s ................................................................. 5 Chapter Three Sister Carrie’s American Dream .............................................................. 7 I. A Brief Introduction to American Dream ..................................................................... 7 II. Sister Carrie’s American Dream ................................................................................ 10 Chapter Four The Disillusion of Carrie’s American Dream and the causes .................. 0 I. The Disillusion of Carrie’s American Dream ................................................................ 0 II. Causes of Carrie’s Disillusion with the American Dream .......................................... 1 Chapter Five Conclusion ..................................................................................................... 0 Works Cited ............................................................................................................................. 0

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Chapter One Introduction

Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) is regarded as an outstanding American naturalism writer and one of American foremost novelists. In 1900, Dreiser’s first novel, Sister Carrie published in America, became a classic in American literature. And the novel had a great impact on many writers’ writing. Sister Carrie focuses on a country girl who has hopeless dreams. Sister Carrie came to Chicago alone, hoping that she could live a better life through her own efforts and hard work. But the actual situation was not always satisfactory. She tried her best to find herself a job, but she got just repeated setbacks. Sister Carrie lost in hunger, sickness and despair of unemployment. At this time, she met the salesman Drouet by accident. He showed the olive branch to her. Forced by the reality, Carrie became Drouet’s mistress. Then the bar manager Hurstwood who got to know Sister Carrie through Drouet fell in love with Carrie at first sight. Finally Hurstwood lied to Carrie and absconded with the money, and they settled in New York. In the center of the city buried Hurstwood. Because of the bankruptcy of his business and the long-term unemployment, he eventually committed suicide. However, Carrie showed her acting talent in New York and eventually became a widely-known star. Carrie eventually left Hurstwood because of the income gap and large capacity .The novel came to an end with Carrie’s glorious achievements and Hurstwood’s death.

At the very beginning of Sister Carrie, it has aroused much controversy from critics. The novel received mixed criticism. H.L.Mencken (1880-1956), the representative of the critics, thinks that it stands for the idea of freedom and is of high artistic value. Another school of critics, which is represented by The Business and The Life Newspaper, strongly criticized Sister Carrie, arguing that it ignores the traditional moral standards and the moral restraints, which may lead to suspicion, and even the society's moral decay. “Indeed, though turn-of the-century readers found Dreiser’s point of view crude

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and immoral, his influence on the fiction of the first quarter of the century is perhaps greater than any other writer’s’’(吴伟仁 134). Although it was under great controversy at the beginning of publishing, in a very long period of time, Sister Carrie has been proved to be a classic. Since its release, the study of Sister Carrie has not been interrupted. There are many books studying on Dreiser and Sister Carrie, one of those books is The Distinguished Theodore Dreiser (1955). It was co-written by Alfred Indian and Charles Shapiro. The book is a collection of a large number of critical articles on Sister Carrie, and it is valuable and comprehensive in the study of Sister Carrie. The study on Sister Carrie around the country has been developed to a mature stage. And there are no less than 300 critical articles on Sister Carrie at home at present.

There are many types of critical analysis methods, one of which is feminist critique, such as the New Image of Women in Sister Carrie. This type of literary criticism in the article has changed the protagonist-Carrie’s moral and ethical judgment, but from the perspective of human and woman’s rights, it analyzes the reasonableness of Carrie’s using her own advantages to meet her material needs. And in the writer’s mind, Carrie is the representative of the new woman who has enough courage to break through the traditional moral constraints, and is bold to pursue personal happiness and achieve self-value. In addition to different types of criticism, there are also numerous research papers on the theme of Sister Carrie, such as An Interpretation of Naturalism and Consumerism in Sister Carrie. In this kind of articles, Dreiser’s naturalism tendency in Sister Carrie has been fully revealed. In the article, the innocent little girl Carrie gradually sank into the slave of materialism, and this is exactly Dreiser’s expression which advocates his naturalism：Individuals succumb to external environment, and this is a society of surviving the fitness. Besides the naturalism theme, there are also articles that discuss the pragmatic theme in Sister Carrie, such as The Tragedy of Pragmatism-Taking Sister Carrie as An Example. This article analyzes the thought of pragmatism in Sister Carrie, which is result-oriented, not paying attention to principles. In order to survive, people neglect the moral constraints. And there are also articles which analyze the American Dream in Sister Carrie, such as The Naturalism and

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American Dream in Sister Carrie and An Analysis of the Shattered American Dream in Sister Carrie. This kind of article explores the shattered American dreams of those lower class people who have the desire to live a much better life through their own hard-working. Other articles analyze the causes of the fate of the protagonist’s in Sister Carrie, such as The Analysis of the Heroine’s Fate in Sister Carrie.

In addition, many critics also pay much attention to the relationship between the main characters in Sister Carrie, such as, The Interpretation of Impact on Carrie’s Growing from Four Male Figures. This kind of articles explore the materialized relationship in capitalist society, that is to say, the relationship between human beings is like commodity transaction. There are also articles which make analysis of gender and money relations in consumer society from the viewpoint of consumer culture to analyze the cause of the swelling desires of Carrie’s, such as An Analysis of the Fraudulent Theme of Sister Carrie in the Context of Consumption. Besides, there are articles that study on the relationship of man and society, man and nature and man and self in Sister Carrie from the perspective of ethic, such as The Ethical Interpretation of Sister Carrie. And there are also plenty of commentary papers on Sister Carrie, such as The Study on Sister Carrie in China. Through analyzing the research status at home and abroad, it is obvious that Chinese scholars mainly pay attention to the topic of the personal characters, ethical issues, and the cause of fate and so on. Here is another example of commentary article—A Comment on Divergence of Opinions Relating to Sister Carrie. This article summarizes different opinions on the issue-Carrie’s attitude towards life, personality, code of ethics and the morals of authors.

And in this paper, the author studies the main theme of Sister Carrie—American Dream. From the perspective of American Dream, the author analyses Carrie’s American Dream and studies the disillusionment of Carrie’s American Dream, and also gives causes of Carrie’s disillusion with the American Dream. From the analysis, we can see how American Dream influences Americans.

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Chapter Two Social and Literary Background

I. The Writer and His Works

Theodore Dreiser was born in Terre Haute, Indiana in 1871. And he was the

eleventh of thirteen children. Dreiser’s childhood was permanently scarred by the incompetence and poverty of his large family. His father, John Paul Dreiser, once rented a cotton mill and lived a comfortable life, and was a veteran wool manufacturer. However, in 1869 the mill caught a fire, and it was burnt to the ground. Of course, in the disaster, his father lost his fortunes. In addition, when his father rebuilt the mill, a beam fell down from the roof, hit him on the head. And he was disabled due to the injury. Since then, his father was very disappointed and lost all his courage and became extremely harsh, religious and stubborn. Meanwhile, his father was cheated very easily by other merchants, which caused his family became poorer. Dreiser was deeply dissatisfied with his father and the poverty. Being disappointed at materialism of the capitalist society, Dreiser developed a profound and sincere consciousness of the tragedy of life in modern America.

Dreiser’s writing for a newspaper was the beginning of his literary career, which took him to St. Louis, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, and finally New York, where he got the position of a magazine editor. The year 1900 was a year that marked the end of an old century and the beginning of a new one, and it was this year that Dreiser published his

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first novel Sister Carrie,

and “ this novel [Sister Carrie] reveals Dreiser’s basic style:

simple in outline, tight in structure, serious in tone, and intense, dramatic in action” (吴定柏 136). Through this novel Dreiser opened the new ground of American naturalism.

Dreiser published his second novel Jennie Gerhardt in 1911, similar to that of his first, it was about a woman’s struggling and destruction in big city, and he took one of his sisters as prototype, “but Jennie’s character was based far more on what he had loved most in his mother” (Mattiessen 113). Then the first two novels of his Cowperwood trilogy were finished, which were The Financier (1912) and The Titan (1914). And after this period, Dreiser published a series of his writings: a book of travel articles which is entitled A Traveler At Forty (1913), and his autobiographical novel The Genius (1915). Then Dreiser finished a collection of plays, such as Plays of the Natural and Supernatural (1916), Twelve Men and The Hand of the Potter (1919), and An American Tragedy (1925), a novel which was based on an actual New York murder case, and Joseph Wood Krutch called it “the greatest American novel of our generation” (Elias 225). An autobiography A Book About Myself came out in1922, and in 1931, Dreiser published another autobiography Dawn, and it was about his first twenty years. In 1947, the last novel of the trilogy, The Stoic had been finished.

A great literary work is acting as a mirror of social life, thoroughly reflecting and revealing the conflicts and evils existing in society. And definitely Theodore Dreiser’s writings are such great works, which reflect the ordinary people’s bewilderment of existence and the conflicts of American society during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century, describe the tragic life and miserable fate of people who live at the bottom of social ladder, and express Dreiser’s speculation on social realities and his deep sympathy for those people. Dreiser couldn’t figure out a solution to the ugly inequality under the capitalist system, and therefore in his novels he made harsh criticism on the society and expressed a deep sense of pessimism.

Theodore Dreiser was the first novelist who drastically criticized the futility of the American Dream in his writing. Sinclair Lewis said that Dreiser provides American literature with the “first fresh air since Mark Twain and Whitman”(钱青 117).

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Although he didn’t get the Nobel Prize for literature, he is “more than any other man, marching alone, usually unappreciated, often, hated, has cleared the trail from Victorian and Howellsian timidity and gentility in American fiction to honesty and boldness and passion of life” (Cowley 156). Moreover, he was a mighty writer who depicted the 20th century America vividly, realistically and profoundly. Over these years Dreiser “has become recognized as a profound and prescient critic of debased American values and as a powerful novelist” (Baym 72). After him there were also some writers who described the futility of the American Dream, and among whom were Hemingway, Faulkner, Bellow and Steinbeck etc. He had a great impact on American literature during the first thirty years of the 20th century, and for a quite long time he was the only American writer who was worth mentioning in the same breath with the European masters.

II. American Social Environment in the 1900s

In the early 1900s, the United States had witnessed tremendous changes in its

economic development, which was from a free status to a monopolizing one. Living in the worst slums which were full of smoke, waste of sewage and odor, flocks of proletariats were generated by the widely used machines, and thus mass production was consummated. Theodore Dreiser was greatly shocked and felt very sorry to those people who lived in villainous places but also tried very hard to make a living and to be happy. And it is a tough job when he was assigned to write reports about slums. In fact, the underprivileged worked day and night diligently in order to survive.

The emphasis upon productive efficiency, force, the accelerating industrializing process, and the new science-based philosophy of life created the social, economic and cultural transformation of this country. The economic gap between the rich and the poor was widened. The poor lived in the city leading a life of suffering, insecurity, and

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violence. In such an environment, the thinking of human’s place in the universe and new ideas began to take root in the United States. Living in such an indifferent and cold world, in any sense, man was not free any longer. He was completely trapped in his struggle of survival. God was not amiable and warm to everyone any longer, and the sweet dream that man could rely on help and guidance of God was shattered. Life became a struggle for survival.

In addition to the impact on people’s thinking, industrialization also brought prosperity to the city and led to immigration movement from country to city. The immigration movement witnessed the country’s transformation of economic pattern from agricultural to an industrial one. Owing to those changes in the fields, Victorian values such as devoted, pure, hardworking and submissive, which were treasured by many people, especially by women, were collapsed. To consume was the new values held by most people. In Sister Carrie, this shift is visible from the early chapters, when Carrie rejects the frugality and hardworking favored by her sister, which were the representative of Victorian values.

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Chapter Three Sister Carrie’s American Dream

I. A Brief Introduction to American Dream

When it comes to “American Dream”, it often refers to the American people’s material and spiritual pursuit. It provides a very clear clue to help people have a full understanding of the history of America. It covers a wide range of American social life and contains plentiful historical content. And it is said that the origin of American Dream is that the first permanent settlement setting in the new land and it can be dated back to around four hundred years ago. Owing to this, the study of American Dream has also attracted many people from other countries. As a matter of fact, many writers in American literature have also drawn materials from American Dream, such as characters and imagination.

America is an emigrant country with a history of no less than two hundred years. With the ideal and spirit that represented in American Dreams, it had attracted so

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many people from other countries to come into her arms, and then build up an influential and great country with these people it had attracted in such a short time. The spirit and ideal did play an indispensable role in this process. It can not only be traced hundreds of years ago, it also works nowadays.

In James Adams’ word, American Dream is:

that dream of a land in which life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement. ...It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain to the fullest status of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others for what they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances of birth or position. (Adams 214-15)

So those things that most people have the desire to get, such as: wealth, fame, success, and freedom should be included in the essence of American Dream. And when material satisfaction and spiritual happiness are assembled together, it can be called American Dream.

The Americans believe all should have the chance to chart their own courses, to become

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rich, to be elected president, to mold their own destiny-to go as far as their abilities permit. Central to the American Dream is the notion that the land has opportunity for the enterprising. (罗选民 181)

So American Dream belongs to every American. Every person, despite of the gender, color, age, and social status etc., has the same opportunity to pursue his or her American Dream to become wealthy and successful. And it is everyone’s right to pursue a better life. So in American’s heart American Dream is a sovereign belief that deserves them to cherish. Moreover, American Dream has made a great influence on American writers, it is one of the important factors that constitute the unique American literary works. As universal consciousness, American Dream is a dream that belongs to the whole country, and an ideal that belongs to the whole race. And it has continuously got reflections in American literature. Many people think that the meaning of American Dream is “instant wealth”, which refers that a poor person can become rich in one night. Holding this in mind, the vast majority of American people think that their dreams can come true one day. They never regard American Dream as an unreachable illusion.

Though “American Dream” emphasizes that it is certain that everyone’s dream can be realized, no matter he is a male or female, no matter he or she is black or white, and no matter he or she is poor or rich, does it really have the same meaning for everyone in real life ? To tell the truth, it is very hard for a poor person to become rich by his work, let alone becoming famous. It is almost impossible for a great many poor people to get educated and then use the knowledge acquired to get a job to support himself or his family. And it is out of the question for them to have enough money to run business. And their families and relatives and even friends are also impoverished and remain uneducated. If they have the opportunity to get a higher education, they will

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produce more products and make more money. Being uneducated, they don’t have the ability to earn much money, to change their life style, to better their working environment, to enhance their purchasing power, to improve financial managing ability, or to help with their children's study. So the only way they have is to help themselves. And there are many kinds of jobs they can do to make a living, such as cleaning houses, washing dishes, unloading goods, and many other physical jobs. Although they are immersed in their work day and night, they get very little pay. And with the little money that they earned, they have to pay for their food, children’s milk and rent. Most people even cannot solve the problem of food and clothing. Although American Dream emphasizes that everyone is equal, it is still very hard for them to get money and become rich. So American Dream, from the perspective of poor individual, is really a dream. The majority of the common people just have no idea how to realize it. And eventually the dream would be disillusioned.

However, when we turn our eyes to the independence of the great country, the development of commodity economy and the international status it has got in two hundred years, it seems that we cannot say that American Dream is just a dream. So it is one-sided to only pay attention to poor people’s difficult process to success and their unrealized dreams. When we study the negative aspect of American Dream, we should learn lessons and gain experience from it. As for the positive aspect, we should take it as an example and utilize it as an encouragement.

II. Sister Carrie’s American Dream

Leaving her hometown, Wisconsin, Carrie comes to Chicago with only a small trunk and a yellow leather snap purse which contains her ticket, a crap of paper with her sister’s address and four dollars. In the train, she meets with the young traveling canvasser Drouet, and his stylish appearance catches her eyes immediately. She

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observes him furtively while answering his questions. His delicate clothes, shining accessories and elegant manners, all of these things attract Carrie deeply. And when she sees Drouet’s fat purse, she notices that “It was filled with slips of paper, some mileage books, a roll of greenbacks” （(Dreiser 14) and her dream begins to take shape in the dim carriage. She hopes that she can get beautiful clothes and shoes, a purse full of money and a comfortable life in big city, just like Drouet.

Until the moment she meets her elder sister Minnie who is “a lean-faced, rather commonplace woman” (Dreiser 17) Carrie realizes that realizing her dream is not as easy as she thought. She is not conscious of the cruelty of the real life. Although Minnie has lived in Chicago for some years, from the crowded apartment, old and broken furnitures, Carrie can see that she still leads a poor life. The hardship of life and work make her look older than her real age. But in Carrie’s opinion, even if her sister endures the tough work and hardships in the big city, she must have got more happiness in the meantime. So Carrie makes up her mind to live in the big city and not to go back to the country the rest of her life. But the life she pursues is totally different from her sister’s, even though she has no idea about what she can do for her dreaming life.

Carrie gets a job in a shoe factory after several days’ hunting. It is a long-hour job with very little pay. After paying her rent to her sister, Carrie has very little money left. However, even a menial job like this, Carrie loses it after several days because of a bad cold. Then Carrie has no choice but to search for another job, because her sister Minnie will send her back to the country if she cannot pay the rent and support herself. When Carrie is driven to a corner, she happens to meet Drouet, the salesman. He offers Carrie twenty dollars and asks her to buy herself beautiful clothes, as “Clothing constitutes a generally understood language of society” (Pizer 181) Carrie accepts the money after a drastic mental battle. Because she finally realizes that only by her own efforts her dream of becoming rich will never come true only by her own efforts. So she chooses the shortcut.

Carrie knows that if she wants to have a stable life in the city, the only way is to marry a rich man. But Drouet doesn’t have the intention of marriage. He puts off her

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proposal again and again. And Carrie feels dissatisfied with the life gradually. She wants a more comfortable and easy life, in other words, she wants to get more material. Introduced by Drouet, Carrie gets to know the bar manager, Hurstwood. Carrie is deeply attracted by his decent dressing, genteel manner. With further contact, Carrie falls in love with him. Hurstwood steals ten thousand dollars from his employer for some unexplainable reasons, and then he cheats Carrie into running away with him to Canada, then they come to New York. Carrie gets to know some rich women there, and through them, Carrie begins to get in touch with luxurious theaters and hotels. And again, she feels dissatisfied with current living conditions. She finds out that she is not satisfied with what Hurstwood provided for her any more. Carrie’s desire to get more material is getting stronger and stronger at this time.

After Hurstwood’s bankruptcy, Carrie has to earn money by herself. Fortunately she gets a job as an actress. Relying on her beauty and acting skills, she gains a lot of money and becomes very famous in the end. Although she gets what she dreams for, money, fame and carefree life, she is not happy. Sitting in the rocking chair, she often thinks about her future.

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Chapter Four The Disillusion of Carrie’s American Dream and

the Causes

I. The Disillusion of Carrie’s American Dream

While Carrie is struggling in big city for her dream, her dream is also changed with the situation. She has realized some of her dreams, but it is impossible for her to realize all her dreams. In order to make her dreams come true, she has almost spent all her energy and life time. But after she got all the things she wanted, money, fame, she is not happy at all, she only feels lonely and helpless. Her dreams are finally disillusioned.

When Carrie accepts Drouet’s money and lives with him, at that time, although she has got what she dreams for, beautiful clothes, comfortable and easy life, she is not happy. She feels guilty about what she has done. In her heart, she knows that it is immoral for her to sell herself to a man. But she has no idea why she did this. When she throws herself to Drouet’s arms, she is not the pure girl any more.

However, when Carrie gets to know Hurstwood, the desire for material in her inner heart is stimulated again. From the clothes and manners of Hurstwood, she knows that this man is richer and more powerful than Drouet, and she also knows that he loves her. So she betrays Drouet and runs away with Hurstwood. And then, after Hurstwood’s bankruptcy, it is not surprising that Carrie leaves him, because he is useless for her, just like Drouet. She treats these two men as the stepping stones toward her success. The person she only loves is herself. In return, she cannot receive or own the two men’s love forever. Even if she gains money and fame as a famous actress, she cannot get sincere love from others.

Besides, after she becomes a famous actress and gets a lot of money, she feels helpless and lonely. She doesn’t have friends or relatives to share her happiness and

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sorrow. Things like beautiful clothes and shoes used to attract her much are not attractive any longer. She is lost in her American Dream.

II. Causes of Carrie’s Disillusion with the American Dream

From my point of view, the disillusion of Carrie’s American Dream can be attributed to two aspects. One is her greed: she is never satisfied with the things she has got, and always wants to get more. Another reason is that the ways of her seeking for happiness is kind of immoral. She relies on two men to get what she wants but not by her own effort. However, broadly speaking, the cruel society should take responsibility for Carrie’s disillusioned American Dream. It’s the source of Carrie’s tragedy.

When Carrie gets her first week’s salary, she is eager for the entertainment and beautiful clothes. Although she knows that she will have little money left after paying for the rent to her sister, she still gets plans. She doesn’t think about the poor living condition, she only wants to pursue material enjoyment. Maybe in her inner heart, she doesn’t think that she belongs to her sister’s old and crowded apartment, although they have provided her the place to live in.

And when Carrie loses her job, she has no money and no food, it is Drouet who gives her a hand. He gives her money to dress up herself and rents a beautiful and comfortable apartment for her, but he has his own purpose. Carrie does have a happy time with Drouet. But soon, she feels dissatisfied; she wants to get more material.

So we can say Hurstwood appears at a very time. He is rich, genteel, and has a higher social status than Drouet. Carrie thinks that she can have a better life with Hurstwood who can provide her endless wealth. So she chooses the more powerful one. While they live in New York, they have a happy life. However, when her neighbor shows her the life of people live in Broadway. She feels dissatisfied again. Their dressing and dwelling stimulate Carrie’s strong desire for material enjoyment. She is engulfed by her endless desire.

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Although Carrie becomes a famous actress by her own beauty and acting skills, her success is based on two men. Without them, Carrie will still be a menial worker. At first, Carrie takes advantage of her beauty to attract them. And she becomes elegant and confident after she met them. However, she abandons them with no hesitation when they are useless for her. This is very immoral for her. And the right way of pursuing happiness is to work hard.

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Chapter Five Conclusion

Sister Carrie is Dreiser’s first novel. It is a novel about American Dream. As a matter of fact, at that time, Carrie’s dream is the same as thousands of poor girls’ dream. She is just the representative of those girls who dream to live in big cities and lead a carefree life. After working in a shoe factory and being a mistress of two men, Carrie finds the way to realize her dream. With the beauty and performing skills, she becomes a famous actress. She obtains plenty of money and fame even without making any efforts. But she is dissatisfied with all the things she got. She cannot get happiness from her possessions. During the process of struggling for money, she deserts so many people and things. She leaves her elder sister Minnie, Drouet and then Hurstwood. All of these three people care about her, but in Carrie’s heart, when a person is useless for her, it is the time she abandons him. And this well explains why Carrie feels helpless and lonely when she becomes rich and famous. She never treats others with all her heart, she only takes advantage of others. And she even doesn’t trust anybody. So in the end, nobody comes to her, nobody cares about her. She gets no happiness at all after she realized her dream. In conclusion, Carrie’s dream has totally disillusioned in the end.

Even in today’s society, we can draw a lesson from Carrie: everyone has the right to pursue happiness, and everyone has the opportunity to pursue happiness, the difference lies in the way of pursuing happiness. Money and fame are precious and attractive, and thus so many people are longing for them. And when we pursue them, the right thing we should do is to make our own efforts and to make happiness reach the maximum value by ourselves.

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Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie. Beijing: Foreign Language Press, 2008.

Elias, Robert. Theodore Dreiser: Apostle of Nature. New York: Cornell - University Press,

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Matthiessen, F.O. Theodore Dreiser. New York: William Sloane Associates, 1951. Pizer, Donalded. New Essays on Sister Carrie. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press,

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