Naturalism in Sister Carrie
Abstract: Theodore Dreir ,the writer of Sister Carrie ,is one of the most outstanding reprentatives of American naturalism. In this thesis, his first novel Sister Carrie is taken as an example to analyze the features of Dreir’s naturalism. The thesis referred to three great historical and cultural background of the novel which are Darwinism, Determinism, American Naturalism and Industrial Revolution .And the thesis analyzes three features of naturalism. At last, we pay attention to Dreir’s exploration ------human desire and revelation of the dark side of human nature
Key Words: Naturalism Darwinism desire environment human nature
Naturalism of Dreir in Sister Carrie
Introduction
Theodor Dreir (1871-1945)， an American author, outstanding reprentative of naturalism, who novels depict real-life subjects in a harsh light. Many of his works referre
d to the description of naturalism and weakened his critical spirit. His first novel Sister Carrie published in 1990 revealed the financial disparity and the moral decline of American society and thus regarded as forbidden book. But now the book becomes one of the best-llers of American literature becau of the naturalistic features in it. Then Dreir is regarded as a pioneer of American naturalism and as a naturalist Dreir express the characteristics of naturalism in most of his works. The themes of Darwinism and Determinism are the common features of Dreir’s story which also characterize Sister Carrie.
Dreir cho to reflect life truthful in his works when other novels deal only with the beautiful aspects of life,. It is not an exaggeration to say that Dreir's Sister Carrie clears the way for the development of American fiction.
From follow analysis of three aspects and conclusion,we can find out the naturalism of Dreir in Sister Carrie
1. The historical and cultural background for Sister Carrie
Theodore Dreir's Sister Carrie reflects the profound transformations in American life in the late nineteenth century.
1.1 Darwinism and Determinism
In 1859, Darwin’s The Origin of Specie appeared. It soon changed man’s recognition. Before Darwin, human was parated from the animals becau of its moral. However, at this time evolutionist considered human as a part of natural things and a member of the animal kingdom. American naturalists accepted “bestiality” and “ human beast” as an explanation of desire.
They attempted to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness prenting characters of low social and economic class who are determined by their environment and heredity. They dismisd the validity of comforting moral truth. Darwinism is the most important theory, which greatly affects Sister Carrie.
Freud’s theory gives theoretic basis to Dreir’s description of man’s desire. Freud consid
ers man’s natural instinct as determination. To him man is a part of nature since man is a member of animals. Human mentality and action will forever be determined by instinct. Desire is just a genetic instinct in his opinion.
1.2 American naturalism
Sister Carrie was written and published also at the ri of American naturalism, which means a particular genre of fiction that developed in the late 19th century America, and associated principally with writers such as Jack London , Stephen Crane, Frank Norris and Theodore Drei.
At the end of nineteenth century came a generation of writers who ideas of the working of the univer and who perception of the society's disorder led them to naturalism. A new and harsher realism, naturalism was introduced to the United States, literary naturalists spoke out against the ideas that literature should prent what Howells called f
or the " smiling aspects of life". Instead, they attempted to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness prenting characters of low social and economic class who were dominated by their environment or heredity in depicting the extremes of life. American naturalists emphasized that world was amoral that men and women had no free will, that their lives were controlled by heredity and the environment, that religious "truths" were illusory, and that the destiny of humanity was miry in life and ablivion in death.
1. 3 Industrial Revolution
Industrial Revolution brought American people a value crisis. The 19th century was the time of industrialization. Serial changes made people feel they were conquering the world and obtaining their treasures. The surprising development made people feel too clo to wealth and happiness. Then appeared small amounts of industrial giants and large number of poor people, American value materialistic to the core. Living in such a society with such a value system, the human individual is obsd with a never end, yet meaningless arch for satisfaction of his desire.
2. The typical characteristics of naturalism in Sister Carrie
In Sister Carrie I find out that some of its themes differ from tho of other naturalistic works.
2.1 The desire, instinct and the ifluence of environments
