On Sister Carrie

Why did I choose this particular book?

1.      I like the author.

2.      I like this type of book which is about one’s life and journey of the heart. And Sister Carrie is an epoch-making book in history of fiction of America.

3.      My classmate who had read the book recommended the book to me.

4.      And it was also on the required reading list teacher had given to us.

On Sister Carrie

Abstract:

Dreiser is one of the most significant American naturalists profoundly influenced by Darwinism. Sister Carrie which is called the first modern American novel by many people is Dreiser’s first work. Naturalistic style is fully reflected in this work. The author pays much attention to the depiction of desire, environment and heredity and emphasizes the influence of them on the fates of characters.

Key words:  Sister Carrie, naturalism, environment

1. Brief Introduction of Theodore Dreiser

Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser is a forerunner and representative writer of American modern novel. He is regarded as one of the three tycoons of American modern novel with Hemingway and Faulkner. He was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on August 27, 1871, the twelfth of thirteen children. His gentle and devoted mother was illiterate His German immigrant father was severe and distant. He received early education in public school, and then went to Indiana University to study. Most of her life was engaged in journalistic work. He had walked around Chicago, Pittsburgh, New York, etc. he observed society deeply and widely which was accumulated abundant materials for his literature creation. He was in an immigrant family. When he was young, their life was poor and he was always discriminated by his neighbors which influenced his work very much. He loves studying, and at 21 he became a journalist. At 23,he published his first novel Sister Carrie.

2. Plot

The story happened in Chicago and New York in 1880s-1890s. The novel is centred on Carrie Meeber and George Hurstwood. Carrie was in a village near Chicago. Her family is very poor, but her vanity is very strong. And she always looks forward to the rich life in urban. Carrie is a pretty girl; she comes to Chicago for a better life. She says to her sister who also lives a poor life that she has to look for a job. And finally she finds a job in a small shoe factory earning 4.5 dollars a week punching lace holes on leather for ten hours a day. Money is hardly enough. The chilly winter makes her ill seriously and she loses her job. Drouet, the man she meets on the train comes to her rescue when she can’t find another job. Soon she becomes his mistress. Through Drouet, Carrie meets Hurstwood, the manager of a well known bar. After meeting Carrie, Hurstwood can’t help falling love with her. So he betrays his friend and elopes with Carrie first to Canada and then to New York after he has robbed his employer’s safe. Carrie hates what he has done but she has no choice but depending on him. After arriving in New York, Carrie goes out to find work on the stage and gradually rises to fame. And Carrie finally leaves Hurstwood who sinks lower and lower until he commits suicide by turning on the gas at last. While after being rich, Carrie is not happy, she feels lonely. She often sits besides the window thinking, crooning and dreaming.

3. Character Analysis

In order to make a better analysis of the novel, I have first to briefly analyze the main characters in the book.

Carrie: she was such an ordinary rural girl at the beginning of the story. She couldn’t help feeling exciting at the sight of the urban’s spectacle when she was sitting on the seat of a bus. She was impressed deeply by large crowd on the avenue, the tall buildings. Far more different from other heroines, Carrie was not a plain pure angel like white snow, nor was she brave enough to be a heroine of revolutionist or even a reformer, nor was she so clever as to be a successful career woman who start from scratch. An eighteen country girl went to her sister in Chicago for shelter by herself. Carrie is a girl who had her own desire, just like many others in the realistic world. At that time, Carrie was only an innocent girl with adolescent dreams. She dreamed about rapidly going up in the world. However, the big city was full of ruthless reality, arrogance of the rich and temptation of materials. She felt at a loss facing the new environment. Carrie was struggling in the mentality of anxious, scared, confused and troublous. She found herself entering a strange world which was full of many kinds of obstacles and limits. Though Carrie was a shy girl and not brave enough, she still wanted to pursue her dreams. Through hard work, Carrie becomes a successful actress. She didn’t depend on any men, she had an independent job. And she also became braver.

Drouet: He was the first man of Carrie. They met on a train leaving for Chicago. Suffering from hardships, Carrie chose Drouet who could give her a better life. But she didn’t love him. Soon she realized Drouet’s superficiality. She even didn’t feel ashamed when she betrayed and gave up Drouet. Of course, Drouet wasn’t pitiful, because he wasn’t worth being loved. When Carrie became a star, he wanted to be reconciled with her. But he was still with another woman. From beginning to end, he hadn’t fallen in love with Carrie. He just treat Carrie as a goods to abreact and showy.

Hurstwood: In the book, he was a tragical person. He was a remarkable super stratum person at first. He had a lot of friends. And he was also admired by people because of her talent and glamour. While his eyes was dazzled by Carrie’s appearance. Love is selfish, Hurstwood betrayed his friend in order to make Carrie become his mistress. Love makes smart Hurstwood become crazy. And madness is doomed to repay with huge cost. When he eloped with Carrie like a homeless dog, he became uncollected. He didn’t want to sink into poverty, so he worked hard to make a comeback. But life is cruel, good luck would not be with someone. He failed, and at last Carrie left him as well. He became a parasite lingering on in a steadily worsening condition. Finally, he ended up his life in a winter. His fate is a warning for people. Once he regarded everything for the sake of love. What he had done is worth considering by people. People’s desire should be restrained by sane. Without wealth, the glory of him can’t exist. Just like some middle age persons at nowadays, some beautiful girls would fall in love with them. But if their wealth and position are missing, many girls will leave them.

    Ames: There were not so many plots about him, but he was also important. He had higher wisdom than Drouet and Hurstwood. What’s more, he was not captivated by Carrie’s beautiful appearance and well-built body. He influenced Carrie’s thought in a large part. He makes Carrie’s pursuing from material desire to spirit. Carrie reached the top of wisdom because of him. Without him Carrie wouldn’t be so successful.

4.     Comment

Many people hold such an opinion that Sister Carrie is a tragedy, in which Carrie is described as an immoral woman and she had an empty life though she succeed as a famous player at the end of the novel. They believed that it is impossible to possess true happiness in a money-oriented capitalism society. The city changed Carrie, a once innocent girl into a seemingly successful but lonely woman. Carrie represents the woman who experiences desiring, chasing, struggling, falling and disillusioning. In the material world, she is successful but in the inner world, she is unhappy.

Carrie has two persons to help her, but she goes from bad to worse instead of getting better. In fact, there is no one who can be the saviour for Carrie in the society. She comes to realize it is impossible to be a success by working hard honestly. Carrie is a victim in a corrupted society. She has her own motivates as an independent person.               

Maybe many people will think Carrie is degenerate, immoral, cold-blooded, and without a lofty soul. But like everything has two sides, lots of people have different viewpoints. They don’t take Carrie so simply, so traditionally. In my opinion, I really don’t think Carrie is a fallen woman. At first, I think she is greedy for material gains and she loses her sense of morality when she pursues her desire. After reading several times, I understand the novel deeply. It is true that Carrie has sexual relations with two men, but if you say Carrie is immoral, it is wrong actually. Instead we can say that Carrie’s intention is to have a good husband.

She firstly met Drouet who attracted her attention with his beautiful clothes and fine manners which represented he belongs to a high class. We know that Carrie Jogos Dora comes from a poor country family and she wanted to search a better life in Chicago. When she metsuch a young man who was an experienced traveler and a rich man, it is no wonder she would chose to be his mistress. When Carrie arrived in Chicago, she found things disappointing. She did try her best to find a job, but she failed at last. Drived by the desire for survival, she accepted Drouet. Because Drouet had the money to support her, and on the other hand, Carrie did have some good feelings on him. Besides he promised to marry her. So at the beginning, the story went like lots of other love stories. While later, Carrie found another man who seemed worth her love. Hurstwood stands for a class higher than Drouet’s. He was more attractive for Carrie and he knew woman’s heart. Carrie once hesitated, but Drouet really couldn’t touch her heart any longer. Carrie found Drouet was not a guy who really wanted to get married. So when Hurstwood lied to her and brought her to New York, she didn’t refuse. Carrie thought Hurstwood would marry her and gave her a happy life. At a degree, we can see Carrie was an innocent woman. We still can say she is pure. She was just drived by the circumstances. So sexual relations with two men didn’t make her become a fallen woman.

When Carrie met the living crisis in New York, at the beginning she still believed that Hurstwood could made all things right. But later, she found Hurstwood was falling quickly. She tried to encourage Hurstwood to find a job to support the family, but he failed. He couldn’t find his place in the bigger city at all. His pride was gone. But Carrie didn’t want to wait to die. She got a job in a theatre, and then she left Drouet. From here, you may think Carrie is a bit cruel. But to me, Carrie’s behavior still can be forgiven. Because she has to make a living in New York. Next, Carrie made herself successful on the stage by a small chance. She got money and fame gradually. Ames is an important person for Carrie. His influence causes Carrie to become disillusioned with her success as an actress in comedy and makes Carrie desire to perform more dramatic works. He introduced some writers to Carrie, and also gave some astonishing views about the surrounding people. Carrie thought he was a special man. Carrie began to think about lots of other things deeply. She had her own understanding of the world and became independent.

In writing Sister Carrie, Dreiser used the naturalism. The story was set in a true experience of his sister. It happened in Chicago which is a newly formed industry and commerce city. It truly depicted the fate of the heroine-Carrie. And it also emerged capitalists’cruelty and exploiture towards workers, and their extremely extravagant and luxurious life. In the novel, Dreiser made a vivid comparison of the fates of Carrie and Hourstwood. Carrie was from poverty to prosperity, while Hurstwood was from the rich to a beggar. It exposed money and commodity economy bringing morality undone. Naturalism is reflected by the force of environment. The booming economy in America at the end of the 19^th century dramatically changed the way people live. The rapid development of industry and transportation made country into town and town into city. Cities like New York and Chicago became international metropolis which thousands of people wanted to find a job there. It’s under such circumstances that Carrie leaves her hometown for Chicago with the hope of realizing her own American dream. For me, her fate seems to be decided at first and her behavior is controlled by the environment. Like Dreiser said "all of us are more or less pawns. We're moved about like chessmen by circumstances over which we have no control." Either better or worse, “of an intermediate balance, under the circumstances, there is no possibility”. Before Carrie is tempted by Drouet and Hurstwood, the possible chances of material enjoyment and success in the big city already tempt Carrie. Yet in reality, she is intolerable of the dirty working environment and the vulgar workmen. There is a great gap between dream and reality. So when Drouet takes her to the cozy restaurant, the seductive environment attracts her so much that a desire of living her life like Drouet burns in her. There are no good and evil, but winner and loser. In order to achieve success, Carrie uses her beauty to pave her way. This is an inevitable result of the external environmental force. The environment pushes Carrie on the way to purse money, success and enjoyment. Similarly, it is also the environment that makes Hurstwood end his own life abjectly. He is one of the impotent modern men unfit to the environment. Juegos Dora His miserable ending is the result of an unsuccessful struggle against environment. A manager as he is and rich as he is, his family life is not happy. In such environment, he abandons his position and elopes with Carrie. After they arrive in New York, the different experiences of Carrie and Hurstwood again prove that environment and chance play a significant even decisive role on one’s success. In his fifties, Hurstwood loses his advantages which he has in Chicago. Gradually, he goes from bad to worse while Carrie, who is appreciated by the theatre manager, rises quickly as a famous star. Form the point view of Darwinism, the decline of Hurstwood and the rise of Carrie are without rebuke, "the survival of the fittest" is ordained by nature. From this, Dreiser pointed out sharply that America society at that time was a society in which people acted wildly against law and public opinion in order to become stand out and rich. In this kind of society, only the persons who didn’t have moral idea could succeed.

Now we say Sister Carrie is such a great work, but in fact the publication of Sister Carrie was not that smooth. At first, it was thought of as an immoral and harmful book by the publisher. You may wonder why it is considered bad since there are no obscenities, flamboyance and unreality in the book. For me, the reason is obvious after carefully reading the book and consulting some information related to this book including the history background and literary context. Stories of relaxation and happiness were prevalent in American literature at the time as well as the detective novels with unchangeable plots. But young Dreiser was different. He wanted to depict life as it is and developed a new writing style of his own. Social mores tell Americans that contemptible people should be punished, severely. They especially have a deep hatred for the heroine Carrie who loses her chastity and lives a life of moral decadence but dora games still rises to the upper society. As a result, Sister Carrie was considered ungraceful the moment it became known. But about 20 years after the publication of Sister Carrie, novels such as The Song of the Lark in which more indecent details are described cause no indignation at all. Obviously, it's Sister Carrie that paves the way for Americans to accept contemporary novels which truly reflect their social life.

Like what many Americans think at that time, we may also have the same idea that girls like Carrie who uses their sex appeal and regard men as stepping-stone and men like Hurstwood who betray their wives are immoral. Is Carrie an immoral person? Does Dreiser intend to condone or condemn Carrie? Dreiser leaves the readers with no easy answers. But she is an opportunist, undoubtedly. In naturalism, freedom of will is helpless, ethical choices are illusory. Naturalism eliminates the ethical problem that lies at the heart of the realist novels. Since human behavior is determined, it can not be judged in terms of right or wrong, good or bad. The whole world is immoral actually, how can we require people in this amoral world moral? I think at least the author does not blame her as he feels she simply does what she has to do for survival. He just depicts what the world is in a detached method of narration.

5. Conclusion:

In Sister Carrie，Dreiser probes into the influence of desire, instinct and environment on the fates of different characters. It is incontestably one of the masterpieces of American naturalistic works. The author--- Dreiser is not only widely accepted as a naturalistic writer, but also an outstanding representative of American naturalism. Sister Carrie is a character which Theodore Dreiser describes elaborately to pursue the American dream. Some critics think the novel’s style of writing is clumsy and the form is vulgar. But others think that the novel is candid, plainspoken and full of passion of life. Dreiser is exactly a writer with great passion towards life. He is not afraid of being treated as a barbarian by people. He announces the cruel reality of America through a series of story in the society.