Analysis of Sister Carrie英语论文写作

Analysis of Sister CarrieAbstract: The purpose of this thesis is to prove that a person’s nature is influenced by his living environment through analyzing the changing of the leading role ofSister Carrie.Keywords: Sister Carrie literature desire changeSister Carrie, written by Theodore Dreiser, was his first novel. Dreiser was one of the principal American exponents of literary Naturalism. A critics once said, "No other author has withstood so much vehemently negative criticism and retained such a high status."1 As his first novel, Sister Carrie faced the same situation. Because the readers are shocked by the heroine, a "fallen woman", Sister Carrie got poor sales. Several years later, Sister Carrie was received favorably in England, and was reissued in the United States. Someone said, "Sister Carrie was unique in American fiction, departing sharply from the gentility and timidity of Howellsian realism."2 Certainly, Sister Carrie gets a very important position in American Literary history. Carrie, the heroine of the novel, has the most ideas and emotion of the author. Therefore, we can know what's the thesis of the novel through analyzing the leading role--Carrie. I think that a person's nature is influenced by his living environment and people’s requirement towards life is limitless.First of all, to analyze a person must follow some order. This order must be obvious and easy to understand. In this article, I analyze this character through different locations of the actions that happened in this novel because of three reasons.First, changing location changes a person obviously. This is an objective law. After moving to a new place, one faces new environment including new friends, new traditions, new customs, etc. A person is influenced easily by these elements. In ancient China, Meng Zi's mother moved their home to other places three times for her child, Meng Zi. Because she knew that bad environment did harm to Meng Zi's study. This story can be a good evidence to prove this theory. Time can change a person's appearance but it cannot change a person's inside. But the changing of the location can easily change a person's inside such as appearance, behavior, tastes and so on.Second, the author really wants to prove that a person's psychological desire changes with environmental changing. From immature to mature, Carrie Meeber makes some decisions. These decisions all have connections with the place where she lives in. For example, Carrie decides to live with Drouet because of her sister’s poor home and the prosperous Chicago. Another example is that she feels unsatisfied with Hurstwood because she can not bear the gap between their small apartment and the wonderful New York. The new environment spurs her on new desire and deserts her present life.Third, in this novel, the leading characters' outside and inside changed obviously when they lived in the different cities. For example, Carrie's second lover, Hurstwood,becomes a beggar in New York. He was a successful manager of a reputable saloon, but when he lives in New York, an unfamiliar city to him, he lost his charming, courage and vigor. From being somebody to being nobody, he cannot get used to his new life. He gives up his efforts and starts to read newspaper everyday. Finally, he kills himself at a snowing night. We cannot say that his changing is caused by the change of the place. However, we can see that the change of the location is a very important reason for that.Another reason is that the author also has the same experiences. To some degree, some plots are reflections of his actual life. Author wants to show his life experience in his novel. From Dreiser's life introduction, we can see it clearly. Dreiser was born in a poor Indiana family. When he was young, he went to Chicago and sought his fortunes. Finally he arrived in New York, and his journey was almost the same to Carrie's. So the author wrote some of his actual life in his first novel.Through the changes of the location of action, we can see it clearly that Carrie changes herself and her nature was expressed during different terms. I think that the course of her changing should be divided into three parts--on the train, in Chicago and in New York.Someone might say that the plot on the train is not something important, but I think the first chapter is extremely important. It is the basic of the plots followed. The writer introduces his theme and plot through foreshadowing, and he sets carefularrangement of details and describes the first figure of the heroine.First, the first chapter shows an eighteen-year-old innocent young girl to us. "She looks forward to Chicago with mixed timidity and hope, ignorance and youngful expectancy."3 That is, a young inexperienced girl leaves her home in the country to go and try her luck in a large city. From some details of her talking and action, she shows her innocence and immaturity. She is young, inexperienced and even naive, poor, and frightened by the city. The conversation with Drouet expressed her vanity and mutability. Carrie expresses her keen interest in attractive clothing and the shame of her own clothing. Drouet flatters Carrie by saying that she resembles a popular actress. She was fascinated by his elegant appearance. Carrie does not realize that the man who approaches her does not act out of kindness but simply because he is moved by "an insatiable love of variable pleasure"4.Second, the conversation between Carrie and Drouet gives her the first impression of a big city. It's the beginning of the uncovering of her nature. His clothing, talking and taste are what she has never met. He gives her the first impression of a big city before she arrives in Chicago. She admires Drouet's appearance which looks very popular and she accepts his bold overtures, like the author says,"When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse."5This is a beginning, a beginning of changing. In this chapter, the author givesCarrie all the characteristics of a young, inexperienced country girl, Drouet all those of the enterprising young man of the world.When Carrie lives in Chicago, her nature leads her to the ladder to the upper class. Her life is changing through her decisions towards the opportunities.Firstly, after departing with Drouet, Carrie Meeber follows her sister to the flat where her sister lives with her husband and baby. Watching her sister's family and perceiving the poorness of the apartment, she feels the drag of a lean and narrow life which consists mainly of hard work. Carrie's experience of job-hunting and hardworking makes her sad and tired. As a shy country girl, at first she does not dare enter buildings to enquire. When at last she gathers enough courage and applies for work, she fails. But eventually she does manage to find work at the end of this long and exhausting day and returns to her sister's flat with uplifted spirits. But the kind of the work she has found is mechanical, repetitive, and because of the lack of even minimal comfort on the premises, exhausting. Carrie nearly cannot bear the hardworking as well as the chatting between the other girls and the young men in her factory. Now, Carrie is starting at the very bottom of the ladder, but at least she is off to some sort of a start. We can see from Carrie's working process that she is remarkably ambitious, that she has a feeling of superiority for she feels sure "that she did not want to make friends with any of these [people]"; "she felt as though she should be better served"6. This can explain her living with Drouet for pursuing better living conditions in the following days.Secondly, Carrie does not appreciate her sister's life style. She thinks that her sister is very industrious while she does not appreciate that. Her sister and her sister's husband are the same kind of people. Their family life is full of plans and ties and they get used to the poor living conditions. However, Carrie, a young girl, likes popular things. She thinks they are too dull, too dreary, and they lack the magic and fate which she is searching for.Thirdly, prosperous big city and abundant materials simulated her vanity. Carrie can't resist the temptation of the clothing and the jewelries placed in stores. All above builds a foreshadowing that Carrie will leave this apartment to quest her life.To live with Drouet leads her to the first step towards the better life. Since she cannot go to work and pay for the rent because of her illness, she is very depressed. Drouet appears and helps her. He takes her to dinner, agrees with her that she deserves a better lot, and "loans" her some money.Her acceptance of the 20 dollars is a turn of her life which her nature requests. She lives with her sister and must pay for two and a half dollars for renting. Since she can't get any income because of her illness, she needs the money so that she could stay at Chicago. She doesn't want to go back, but she has her self-esteem, so she refuses the money at first. She feels ashamed that she has been weak enough to take his money. This emotion shows that she is still a pure, innocent girl. Dreiser opens Chapter 7 with a justification of the power of money which betrays his uneasiness about it:When each individual realizes for himself that [money] primarily stands for and should only be accepted as a moral due-that it should be paid out as honestly stored energy, and not as a usurped privilege-many of our social, religious, and political troubles will have permanently passed.7Carrie does not seem to be troubled by the morality of the capitalist system so long as she does not have to suffer from it: "Ah, money, money, money!" she thinks, "what a thing it was to have. How plenty of it would clear away all these troubles".8 She is lured by Drouet because he has money, and he is attracted to her because she is a pretty girl who needs protection. He talks to her into buying new clothes, renting a room in town, and leaving her sister's apartment. At this time, she thinks Drouet is kind and intends no evil. For her needs are so desperate, she is glad to have "two soft, green, handsome ten-dollar bills." The 20 dollars leads her heart much closer to Drouet and apart from her sister. This is the first time for a girl from the countryside to have so much money. Her vanity is simulated though she does not use that money to buy anything.Since Carrie thinks Drouet can be relied on and she couldn't bear the atmosphere in her sister's apartment, she has the last dinner with her sister's family and leaves there in a streetcar with Drouet. To go with Drouet is a mark that Carrie's nature demands her to cast off her present life and to pick a new way to satisfy herself. Facing Drouet, Carrie feels that she is something, not the poor manufacture worker. This satisfies her vanity greatly.In Drouet's presence, Carrie feels thoroughly at ease and sees the world clearly. Through Drouet the world shows more of its possibilities and kind. It is Drouet whoshows Carrie the step to the upper class. We can analyze this in three aspects.Firstly, living in the new environment which provided by Drouet, Carrie becomes much more beautiful and attractive. Since she becomes Drouet's kept girl, she does not work-and hardly thinks of doing so any more-and he pays her expenses. She is a good imitator of worldly manners and attitudes. She assumes the airs of a lady gradually, as the novel tells, "She became a girl of considerable taste".9 Secondly, she meets Hurstwood through Drouet. Hurstwood has fallen under Carrie's charm: "She was pretty, graceful, rich in the timidity born of uncertainty, and with something child-like in her large eyes which captured the fancy of this starched and conventional poser men."10 On the other hand, for Carrie, "When Hurstwood called, she met a man who was more clever than Drouet in a hundred ways",11she senses that Hurstwood is the superior man, and this man can give her better chances to further her ambitions, so when Hurstwood tells her that he loves her, she allows him to kiss her. She is ambitious and furthers her own ends rather unscrupulously.Thirdly, Drouet gives her first experience on the stage. This simulates her another aspect of her nature. Through Drouet she gets a part as the leading actress in an amateur performance of Daly's Under the Gaslight. This, after a disastrous beginning, proves to be quite a success. Carrie is excited about this. She has gifts to be an actress. She is good at learning and imitating. This is a foreshadowing of her future-Miss Carrie Madenda, a famous actress. She realizes that to be an actor will satisfy her vanity in another way. So this is always her hope through all her life.Falling in love with Carrie Meeber, Hurstwood's married life now takes a turn for the worse. He makes several mistakes which give his wife good grounds to suspect that he has a lover. She sues him for divorce, which threatens to ruin him as all his wealth is under her name. Then he steals the money in the safe although he doesn't intend to. He deceives Carrie and persuades her to get on the train. He has Carrie but he has almost lost all his property--his family, his job and his fortune.Hurstwood and Carrie move to New York. Carrie finally realizes her dream and her nature is satisfied by her success there.After they move to New York, Hurstwood rents an apartment. This small apartment is a peaceful place for Carrie, in fact, it limits her nature opened in Chicago. Carrie's nature uncovers gradually and she is ambitious and furthers her own ends rather unscrupulously.First, New York, which is full of "wealth, place and fame", gives Carrie a deep impression. Everywhere is fashion and popular to Carrie. But to Hurstwood, in New York, he is nothing and has no friends, no job and little money. He finds work as a manager of a saloon but he has little money left. "It was no gathering or lounging place. Whole days and weeks passed without one such hearty greeting as he had been wont to enjoy every day in Chicago".12 The money he earns can only allow them to subsist. The free-wheeling and free-spending Hurstwood of Chicago has been reduced to a rather pitiful penny-pinching individual. This is not a good thing to Hurstwood, but to Carrie, this situation is even worse. Carrie senses the change in Hurstwood of course. Shefinds him nervous and secretive. She can clearly feel that life in New York is not so comfortable as that in Chicago. This contrast makes her feel more uncomfortable but she doesn't think that she is limited by Hurstwood because she is always passive and receptive.Second, in the year of their living in New York, Carrie meets and knows a young woman--Mrs. Vance, their neighbor. She is a striking woman who makes Carrie realize that she would like to be treated as well as she is. She begins to be dissatisfied with the current state of affairs.Mrs. Vance takes her to a matinee party and opens her eyes. She notices that her new neighbor is much better dressed than she is. "It cut her to the quick, and she resolved that she could not come here again until she looks better."13 Carrie feels that she is insulted by the beautiful and expensive clothes. Her vanity makes her sad and has a huge desire of owning all that she admires--clothes, perfumes, mansions, carriages. She is really disappointed because of Hurstwood's income and his limitation.With new friends, Carrie takes to going to the theater and eating in very expensive restaurants, but Hurstwood is not interested in and could not afford anymore. Carrie begins to think other men wiser than Hurstwood. She thinks that this man isn’t reliable and Hurstwood is much duller in her eyes. Her desire of entering the upper class becomes stronger.After she goes to the theatre, she thinks again of trying to become an actress. It is clear that her independence starts to grow up, and she is never happy with what she has. Carrie always wants more and more and she will do anything to obtain what shewants. However, since Hurstwood's income can allow them subsist and Carrie is always passive and receptive, she is under the controlling of Hurstwood and feels dissatisfied every day.Hurstwood begins to grow old physically and mentally. The business which he invested is going to break. The future looks bleak for him. They have to move out of the house to a smaller flat. Carrie becomes restless and dissatisfied. At this time, she begins to feel that living with Hurstwood is a mistake. To some degree, Hurstwood's failure on business gives Carrie a chance to liberate her life. I'll analyze this in three aspects.Firstly, after Hurstwood loses his job, he starts looking for another job, but he failed. His job-hunting experience is unpleasant and demeaning. He now begins each day with disgust, depression, shamefacedness. He also loses his heart and sits in hotel Cobbies instead of looking for work. He looks haggard about the eyes and quite old. Carrie notices this, and it does not appeal to her. At this moment, we can say that she has little with him. In this condition, Carrie finds a job as an actress. Their roles have been reversed and she is the one who earns their living now. Present time is far different from the past time. Carrie grasps the money and her independence expands. She can buy her new clothes. On one hand, this situation satisfies her vanity and natural request; on the other hand, it expands her nature's requests and vanity. Earning money by herself brings another problem. That is, Carrie begins to think that "It isn't right that I should support him".14 From here we can see that Carrie doesn't really lovesHurstwood, she is just pursuing a better living condition. Their relationship between Hurstwood and Carrie has reached a very low point. "So changed was her state that the home atmosphere became intolerable. It was all poverty and trouble there."15From Carrie's more and more dissatisfaction caused by her expanding vanity and desire of materials day by day we can see her nature clearly now. She can be indifferent to her lover's degrading and plans to come back home late to miss dinner with Hurstwood. Her nature leads her to stay away far from this burden.Secondly, as Hurstwood always fails in his attempt to find a job, Carrie gets a promotion and a rise in salary. Because of this and Hurstwood's increasing despondency, she makes up her mind to leave him. She is aware of that "There was something cruel somewhere"16 but she still goes away. She only leaves some fortune to him. What she does is somewhat heartless, even cruel, but since she doesn't really love him, she just follows the direction made by her nature, her ambition. In Chicago, she goes with Drouet for casting off the hard-working days and poor living conditions. After that, she deserts Drouet and agrees to stay with Hurstwood because she thought that Hurstwood would bring her a better life. Now she realizes that she can only rely on herself and she doesn't want to have any burden. So she makes the decision and finishes it quickly and mercilessly. Hurstwood's behavior and hers form a sharp contrast. When Hurstwood reads about Carrie in the newspaper in a third-rate hotel, he says "well, let her have it, I won't bother her."17This sharp contrast only shows that Hurstwood loves Carrie while Carrie just likes him or we can say that Carrie just likes his social position. For Carrie, she is always pursing the better life and she climbs tothe upper class step by step. She just wants to stay in the big city and live a comfortable life. Her moving out from the small flat symbolizes that she decides to cast off her former life and quest a new and beautiful life alone.Thirdly, Carrie's great success in her show brings her more money and her request of nature is simulated and becomes limitless. Since she succeeds in her job, Carrie now has a comfortable dressing room and gets an offer from one of the best hotels on Broadway to occupy one of its suites. She also receives a lot of love letters and marriage proposals. But Carrie remains level-headed: "She smiled to think that men should suddenly find get so much more attractive. In the least way it incited her to coolness and indifference".18She realizes that money does not create real friendship or eliminate loneliness. But for Carrie, she seems never to have enough.Her success satisfies her nature and vanity with abundant money and materials but she is empty. The novel closes with Carrie; she is rich successful, adulated. "Applause there was, and publicity…and yet she was lonely",19 longing for a happiness she will never find in wealth or popularity. Although Carrie lives a luxurious life and lives at the Waldorf, one of New York's most prestigious hotels, she can red Balzac's Pere Goriot, she cannot understand what the real happiness is. On the point of view, the rocking-chair is one of those concrete things. At the very end of the novel, the rocking-chair is connected directly with Carrie's brooding and pensive moods, with her realization that success, applause, and money do not necessarily bring happiness: "She was lonely. In her rocking-chair she sat…singing and dreaming".20 "In your rocking-chair,by your window dreaming, shall you long, alone. In your rocking-chair, by your window, shall you dream such happiness as you may never feel".21 These words expresses the empty and loneliness in Carrie's heart. She is very successful but she has no true love. Through Drouet and Hurstwood, she has the chance to be successful. Now what she lacks is the spiritual life. She envies Ames but she can never understand him. She always seeks the materials and that's why she feels empty now.Conclusion:First, it's Carrie's nature that leads her to success step by step. On the train, she is attracted by Drouet's dressing. At that time, Carrie is young, inexperienced and naive, and she leaves her home in the country and only wants to try her luck in the big city. In Chicago, she goes with Drouet for casting off the hard-working days and poor living conditions. That's because she knows for sure that she wants to stay in Chicago and she longs for a comfortable life. When she meets Hurstwood, she begins to see Drouet's weak points and to compare him with Hurstwood, and she can clearly define that Hurstwood is superior to Drouet. Her nature which is full of ambition makes her to accept Hurstwood's love for improving her living condition. So she deserts Drouet and agrees to stay with Hurstwood with the thoughts that Hurstwood would bring her a better life. In New York, as Hurstwood always fails to find a job, Carrie realizes that she can only relies on herself and she finds a job by herself. Because of Carrie's nature which is always longing for money and Hurstwood's increasing despondency, Carrieleaves Hurstwood and becomes more and more successful in her career. All through these actions, we can see her nature which is expressed through her vanity which makes her full of ambition. Her ambition has a direction that she should have a happy life. But because of her innocence that she thinks beautiful dressing means happiness, she never gets real happy life even when she is rich in fortune.Second, on the whole, Carrie is rather passive and receptive. Carrie is not a woman of calculation but of instinct who constantly wants to push on towards something better. Initially she wants things which she does not have and she improves her material condition gradually, step by step, first with Drouet, then with Hurstwood, finally through her career as an actress. When she has everything, she is bored. Carrie is not aggressive, even not very calculating. She does not create opportunities for herself, she is drawn into them as they present themselves. She is quick to seize a new opportunity, but on the whole, she is rather passive and receptive.Third, we can see people's requirement towards life is limitless. In this novel, every step of Carrie is to pursue a higher standard life, she is longing for materials. At the end of the story, she is rich in her career, but she still feels lonely. She needs spiritual comfort. She has to persist in seeking the happiness. So in all, people's requirement towards life is limitless.Notes1Dennis Poupard, Twentieth-century Literary Criticism; vol. 10 (Gale Research Company, 1983), P.492 Dennis Poupard, Twentieth-century Literary Criticism; vol. 10 (Gale Research Company, 1983), P.493 Frederick J. Balling, M.A., Cliffs Notes on Dreiser’s Sister Carrie (U.S.A.: Lincoln, Nebraska, 1967), P.184 Professor A.N. Jeffares & Professor Suheil Bushrui, the Licensed Edition of York Notes: Sister Carrie (Beijing: World Publishing Corporation, 1992), P.175 Frederick J. Balling, M.A., Cliffs Notes on Dreiser’s Sister Carrie (U.S.A.: Lincoln, Nebraska, 1967), P.206 Professor A.N. Jeffares & Professor Suheil Bushrui, the Licensed Edition of York Notes: Sister Carrie (Beijing: World Publishing Corporation, 1992), P.187 Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (Now York: the New American Library, 1907), P.638 Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (Now York: the New American Library, 1907), P.679 Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie(Now York: the New American Library, 1907), P.10310 Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie(Now York: the New American Library, 1907), P.10311 Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (Now York: the New American Library, 1907), P.9412 Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie(Now York: the New American Library, 1907), P.27713 Professor A.N. Jeffares & Professor Suheil Bushrui, the Licensed Edition of York Notes: Sister Carrie (Beijing: World Publishing Corporation, 1992), P.3014 Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie(Now York: the New American Library, 1907), P.36915 Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie(Now York: the New American Library, 1907), P.37216 Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie(Now York: the New American Library, 1907), P.40217 Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie(Now York: the New American Library, 1907), P.41318 Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie(Now York: the New American Library, 1907), P.42019 Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie(Now York: the New American Library, 1907), P.46220 Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie(Now York: the New American Library, 1907), P.46221 Professor A.N. Jeffares & Professor Suheil Bushrui, the Licensed Edition of York Notes: Sister Carrie (Beijing: World Publishing Corporation, 1992), P.16BibliographyMATTHIESEN, F.O. Theodore Dreiser. New York: Dell Publishing Co., 1996McALEER, JOHN J. Theodore Dreiser. 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