美国文学 重要作家评价和作品分析

Sister Carrie 1. The themes

1) the social Darwinism:the fittest can survive in a competitive, amoral society

2) American Dream:Each of Dreiser’s characters in Sister Carrie search for their own “American Dreams”

2. The character analysis of Carrie

She follows the right direction to a pursuit of the American dream.She desires for a better life direct to the successful goal.But she is not contented, because with wealth and fame, she still finds herself lonely.( In essence, she is a product of the

society.Sister Carrie best embodies Dreiser’s naturalistic belief that men are controlled and conditioned by heredity, instinct and chance. )To Sister Carrie, the world is cold and harsh. She is alone and helpless.She moves along like a mechanism driven by desire.She catches blindly at any opportunities for a better existence,

opportunities .She makes use of first Droust, and then of Hurstwood.She has no control, no freedom of will.Then there is the tragedy of Hurstwood. Here Spenser’s influence is seen at its most powerful.

3. The character analysis of Hurstwood

He is a negative evidence of the theory of the survival of the fittest:He is still conventional.\He can not throw away the social morals.\He is not fitted to live in New York. In this novel, Dreiser expressed his naturalistic pursuit by expounding the purposelessness of life and attacking the conventional moral standards. Hurstwood can not help himself in his relationship with Sister Carrie.He hovers between being a man and a beast in his behavior.

Carl Sandburg Evaluation评价

He played a significant role in the development in American poetry that took place during the first two decades of the 20th century.His emphasis on the tradition of American experience associate him with Hart Crane. His free verse, reflecting industrial America, gained wide popularity during the Depression years, although his use of everyday language at first shocked readers.

The People, Yes:probably Sandburg’s most popular single book.From his very first volumes Sandburg was interested in the speech of Midwesterners, spoken by the working class of the industrial cities. his interest in folk speech and folk expression became a clear feature of his poetry. It also gave evidence of the author’s epigrammatic skill and felicitous phrasing

Chicago:The poem presents a striking and impressive description of the vigor and vitality of Chicago primarily by means of personification, images and metaphor.

By using metaphor, the vigor of Chicago is highlighted.

1.In the first 5 lines, Chicago is compared to those whom are powerful and vigorous. “hog butcher”“tool maker”“stacker of wheat”“Players with railroads”“the National Freight Handler”“the Big Shoulders”

2.In the next 13 lines, the poet agrees that Chicago is wicked, crooked and brutal in a straightforward way by assuming a talk between the poet and the personified city, but he goes on to develop the theme of the poem by stating that Chicago is “alive and coarse and strong and cunning”.

3.Then in the last 21 lines, the poet delineates th e images of “a tall bold slugger”, “a dog lapping for actions” and “a savage pitted against the wilderness”.