Consumer Culture in Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie

Consumer Culture inTheodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie

Abstract

Theodore Dreiser, the American novelist (1871-1945), wasa keen witness of the huge industrial changes in America.Dreiser minutely portrayed the lives of the poor in societybecause he had experienced poverty both as a child andan adult and he could also depict the lives of the rich ashe was a journalist who was in everyday contact with thefacts of such people‘s life. In one o f his novels, SisterCarrie, Dreiser, impersonally, represents the struggles ofa poor girl who finds her way up the social scale. Carrie,the protagonist of the story, lives in an industrial andcommodified society in which people find their identityin items of consumption. In this article, the researchersattempt to examine the dexterity of Dreiser in portrayingthe inner and outer lives of characters in such a societyand in the light of the theory of consumerismand the way this portrait approximates real life.

Key words: Sister Carrie; Dreiser; Commodified Society; Consumerism

美国小说家西奥多·德莱塞（1871-1945），是一个美国庞大的产业变化敏锐的见证者。德莱塞精细地刻画了社会中穷人的生活，因为他作为一个孩子和一个成人都经历过贫穷，作为一个记者，日常接触各种人，他还丰富的描绘了生活。在他的小说中，德莱塞客观的用“嘉莉妹妹”代表了一个可怜的小女孩，努力地寻找通往上层社会的路。嘉莉，故事的主角，住在一个人们用消费水平来衡量身份的工业和商品化的社会中。在这篇文章中，研究人员试图运用消费主义相关理论剖析德莱塞所刻画的社会，并尽可能地与真实生活联系在一起，研究其内部和外部深层意义，

关键词：嘉莉妹妹；德莱塞；商品化；消费主义

Chapter 1 Introduction

1.1 A Brief Introduction to Dreiser and Sister Carrie

Theodore Dreiser was an American naturalism writer in the 20th century, and he took an important role in the world literary history. Dreiser was born in Terre Haute, Indiana in 1871. His father was a German textile worker, who became an American immigrant in order to avoid serving in the army, while, his mother was a peasant‘s daughter. Dreiser was born in a large but poor family, so he lived a hard life and did not receive a good education. At the age of 15, he went out to earn his living. When he was 18, a female high school teacher sponsored him to go to the university for one

year. In 1892, he worked as a journalist in Chicago Global Newspaper. In 1894, he moved to New York. His first novel Sister Carrie came out in 1900. In 1911, he finished Jennie Gerhardt. Since then, his creation came into a strong period, and he began to write the famous work Trilogy of Desire, The Genius and American Tragedy, and so on. At the year of 1941, he was elected to be the chairman of American Writer Association. He then joined Communist Party USA at 1945 and passed away at the same year. Lawson, the American progressive writer praised him as ―Our own Gorky, and Romain Rolland of American version.‖

Dreiser is quite different from any other American novelists. He has his own particular writing style. Indeed, his writing style is simple and easy. He can describe different characters with the use of plain language. He always uses strong contrast to set off characters‘ life and fate. Besides, he is good at creating huge social life scene. The stories he creates are not quite complicated, but they can deeply reveal social problems. He always pays attention to the whole structure to make the story complete. His stories often involve a seeker or quester – sometimes driven by desire, sometimes by other motives – who finds at the end of the novel thathe has returned to where he started. It is possible tovisualize Dreiser‘s novels as a graphic irony –the charactersbelieve they are pushing forward but they are really moving ina circle. So, in this way, his works can give readers some unexpected effectivenesses.

In a word, Dreiser is a great naturalist writer—the one who dares to fight against American tradition, while, Sister Carrie becomes a morning star in his writing career.

Sister Carrie – a famous work knocking at the door of the 20th century in 1900 is a realism masterpiece. The story mainly focused on three characters –Carrie, Hurstwood, and Drouet. Carrie was born in a country of West America. Though she lived in a poor family, she still had a strong vanity, and always looked forward to rich city life. Then she decided to go to Chicagofor her dream. In Chicago, she lived in her sister Minnie‘s home. The life was not as good as she ever thought, so Carrie had to look for a job to make a living. But she was often left out in the cold when living in such an inanimate family. What‘s worse, once Carrie lost her job, she was forced to go back to the country. However, she didn‘t want to do so, and went to Drouet for help—a salesman whom she came across in the train. Then, she became Drouet‘s mistress, and lived with him together. After Drouet introduced Hurstwood–a hotel manager to Carrie, Hurstwood soon fell in love with Carrie and tried to seduce her with all kinds of methods. They finally eloped to New York together. However, experiencing a series of failure, Hurstwood used up money and collapsed finally. At