Analysis of the Image of Sister Carrie
Abstract: 行李房Sister Carrie was the first long fiction written by naturalistic American writer Theodore Dreir. It has profound historic and realistic meanings and it also takes up a great position in the American literature. It is a great fiction which sharply broke away from the traditional writing style at the beginning of the 20th century so that Sister Carrie became a milestone in American literature. Even today, there are still a lot of scholars who are studying it carefully from different perspectives. In the fiction, Dreir realistically described how an innocent and naive girl Carrie, from a peaceful village, climbed from the bottom of the society to the top of fame and wealth in New York. The novel included a great amount of realistic descriptions. This thesis, bad on naturalism literature theory and Dreir’s naturalistic writing style in Sister Carrie, analyzes the unique female image of Carrie Meeber and her characteristics from the view of character image. In the end, the special characteristics brought the heroine to her tragic fate. Though she obtained wealth, Carrie could never be satisfied or feel happy for long. Never satisfied在 线翻译, she would only dream of the happiness she could never got. Carrie’s tragedy also illustrates the disillusionment of her A
merican Dream, which further reveals that in American society which centred on wealth and enjoyment, such a figure like Carrie who was both confud and desirous could never obtain true happiness in real world.
Key Words：Naturalism; desire; rebel; disillusionment of American Dream; tragedy
gre官网摘要: 《嘉莉妹妹》是杰出的美国自然主义作家德莱塞创作的第一部长篇小说，具有深远的时代意义和现实意义，在美国文学史上占有重要地位。这是一部伟大的小说，它突破了20世纪初传统写作风格，成为了一块美国文学的里程碑。直到今天，仍然有很多学者在从不同的角度仔细研究它。小说主要讲述了一个天真无知的乡村姑娘嘉莉如何从社会的最底层一步步上升到名誉和财富的颠峰，其中有大量真实社会情景描写。本文结合了自然主义文学理论及德莱塞《嘉莉妹妹》中的自然主义创作风格，从人物形象的角度入手，重点研究了嘉莉妹妹这一女性形象及她的独特性格特征，并阐释了这些性格特征最终带给女主人公的悲剧命运——尽管嘉莉获得了财富，但是她永远不会感到满足或幸福。她永不满足，只梦想着永远不能得到的幸福。同时女主人公的命运也昭示着其美国梦的幻灭，进而揭示出在当时以金钱、享乐为中心的美国社会中，像嘉莉妹妹这样一个既迷茫又充满欲望、永不满足的人物，是不可能在现实社会中获得真正幸福的。
关键词：自然主义；欲望；反叛；美国梦幻灭；悲剧
Ⅰ.Introduction
Theodore Dreir was an outstanding naturalistic writer in American literature while Sister Carrie was his first long fiction. The appearance of the novel meant great to American lierature. It also took an important place in literary history. In the beginning of the 20manifestationth century in America, the fashionable trend was to write about the “smiling” side of life 法语学习网by molding beautiful,faithful characters. But the author dared to break through tradition and create a fiction which clearly and cruely showed the miry lower class suffered and the emptiness and vanity upper class experienced. Right after the publication, it received a storm of criticism and scolding made by traditional critics and arid numerous comments and arguments. To arch for a reason, the controversy attributed to Dreir’s unusual ethics. He showed a realistic and peaceful style in writing Carrie’s private life, which caud great criticism by traditional morality guards. His ethics, though violating traditional morality, was shaped by social background and his own experience. It is a true
feeling from heart. Later, Sister Carrie became a historically meaningful milestone and influenced reader’s standards. Thus, Sister Carrie was of great importance. It is also meaningful to study this fiction carefully.
Since its important status in literary history, scholars have made many different comments on it. The earliest comments could be divided in two branches: one approved this novel and thought Sister Carrie brought great surpri to American literature; the other criticized that Dreir didn’t tell the truth and negated the whole naturalistic literature. After a certain period, almost all the critics criticized the novel by equaling this work to society and life. Meanwhile, there appeared some extreme appreciation which departed from the relationship between history and society. Modern comments have been diversified, including psychological analy of Sigmund Freud and feminist criticism. Besides, many results of rearch in the author and the origin appeared. Critics mainly analyzed the fiction on its naturalism, feminism and the social scenes. Mou Ying of Nanjing Normal University has commented “the description of heroine life and fate was to show that fate decides people’s power, and natural power leads human life.”一致英文 Another sch
olar Wang Yulian also comments “少儿法语学习Carrie grew from a rural girl to a economically independent woman, she realized her potential.”Comments as such have been many more.
With comments above, I will analyze Sister Carrie from the view of figure analysis. At the independent woman, she realized her potential.”Comments as such have been many more.
With comments above, I will analyze Sister Carrie from the view of figure analysis. At the beginning of the fiction, Carrie was an innocent, naive girl who was full of imagination. She had not much education nor any skill unique enough to make a living. I think it is right to
ciganalyze the novel by analyzing the main figure becau the novel was around Carrie. Dreir’s naturalistic view showed on Carrie——she was controlled by natural power, and she could not press her desire, which was a typification of heros and heroines in naturalistic works. But to find Carrie’常见英文名s characteristics, first I will introduce Naturalism , the
theory which influenced Dreir greatly.
Ⅱ.Analysis of the Image of Sister Carrie
Carrie was influenced by environmental factors and her own desires, which gave her four typically characteristicss: unsatiable desires, violation of traditional morality, changing from dependence to independence, and disillusionment of her American Dream.
2.1 Unsatiable desires
Dreir advocated Darwinism. He regarded the society as a huge jungle, where people ek for survival like animals. People were not free becau of their desire’s control.He thought, “Everyone英语四级真题试卷’s action is the direct reaction of a ries of internal rushes and external attraction. Environment no longer limits desire, but it express desire fully, and finally proves that desire itlf can never be satisfied.”(Emory Elliott 443)
Carrie’s constantly upgrading desires and her unsatiable attitude are en throughout the book, which had been shown by the author in Carrie’s psychological movements. Most of
her desires are material, while at the end she turned to spiritual pursuit.
