Sister Carrie 嘉莉妹妹

文学期末One of my favorite American novel is “Sister Carrie”. I read its Chinese version when I was in middle school. The author of the book is Theodore Dreiser, a famous realistic writer in American literature history. Realism follows the rule of nature “survival of the fittest”. “Sister Carrie” is a representative of realism, which describes a poor countryside girl’s life change after her arrival to Chicago.Carrie was born in a poor family, but she has a dream of happy life. She came to Chicago to get jobs to change her life. Carrie’s sister who has been in Chicago for years does not show much welcome to her sister, which makes Carrie feel lonely and unhappy. Carrie’s life was hard with low wages. After a period of time, she can no longer put up with such king of life. She cohabited with a salesman named Drouet, a young playboy who first meets Carrie in the train to Chicago. Drouet offered Carrie a easier life than before. However, Carrie was soon attracted by his friend, a manger of a hotel named Hurstwood.Hurstwood was also attracted by Carrie, and he cheated Carrie about his marriage. Carrie becomes his lover. However, truth will come to light soon or later. Their relationship is discovered by Hurstwood”s wife and Droute. Hurstwood went to New York with Carrie after the theft of a huge sum of money.。

《嘉莉妹妹》英语读后感-1500字《嘉莉妹妹》英语读后感-1500字Vivid Heroine——On Sister CarrieCarrie was such an ordinary rural girl at the beginning of the story. Sitting on the seat of a bus, she couldn’t help feeling exciting at the sight of the metropolis’ spectacle. She was impressed deeply by large crowd on the avenue, the spacious square or tall buildings.Far more different from other heroines, Carrie was not a plain pure angel like Snow-white, nor was she brave enough to be a heroine of revolutionist or even a reformer, nor was she so clever as to be a successful career woman who start from scratch.What attracted her most, after her entering this huge metropolis was the incredible fineries, fashion shoes, smart handbags displaying in the shop windows, the jewellerys shining brightly behind the glass. She dreamed that one day, she could wear all of these, jogging gracefully into the most luxurious hotel with focused sights of admiration.And this was not merely a dream. Because she had large eyes which can earn others’ sympathy, even love. She had wonderful figure which can win others’ hearts. However, anything she got, anywhere she reached, had not come from her ambition. Things happened, and then she accepted. That’s what she had just done — just to accept willingly from the bottom of her heart. She was not at all an evil woman who would give anything for the fortune or fame. However, she would give uo something for a better life when her instinct defeated her intellect.That was Carrie, a girl had her own desire, a human beingjust like many others in the realistic world.There’s one sentence written in chapter VIII:” When this jangle of free-will instinct shall have been adjusted, when perfect understanding has given the former the power to replace the latter entirely, man will no longer vary.” However, how many people can go that further.And I want to quote another sentence to wind up my essay: “In Carrie — as in how many of our wordings do they not? — instinct and reason, desire and understanding, were at war for the mastery.”。

《嘉莉妹妹》人物对比作者：孙千惠来源：《文教资料》2017年第01期摘要：《嘉莉妹妹》是美国近代著名作家西奥多·德莱塞创作的第一部长篇小说，其在美国文学史上意义深远。

小说主人公嘉莉妹妹的描写反映了作者写作的多重视角，同时人物性格和命运的研究也具有历史价值和现实意义。

关键词：德莱塞新女性消费主义自然主义美国梦德莱塞（Dreiser）是美国自然主义文学作家的代表，被列为一战后美国仅有的三大小说家之一[1]。

他一生创作了多部各类型文学作品，为当时美国文坛解放和发展指引了新方向。

《嘉莉妹妹》（Sister Carrie）是德莱塞的第一部长篇小说，备受国内外读者的关注。

1.文献回顾国外最初重点研究德莱塞的社会背景和生活经历。

Robert H.Elias认为德莱塞童年和青年生活对其小说中表达的价值观念有重要的影响[2]。

随后学者利用各种研究手法解读文本，如Leonard Cassuto根据拉康的心理学理论分析小说[3]。

一些作家传记和相关批评著作也成为新研究成果，如Lingeman出版的《西奥多·德莱塞：美国的旅行》[4]。

《嘉莉妹妹》中文译本出版后，我国大多数学者比较认可其地位和价值，起初研究集中在作品介绍和小说主题上。

20世纪后学者主要从消费文化、美国梦、女性主义等角度揭露梦想破灭的现实，如王玉莲[5]、李彤[6]，或从道德伦理角度展现小说中伦理现象并对比价值取向，如黄开红[7]。

到目前为止国内学者对德莱塞和该小说的研究论文总量较多，但文献评述不超过10篇，比较知名的是学者蒋道超的关于德莱塞的研究述评[8]，同时对比分析类文章也相对较少，可见国内研究视角相对局限，缺乏创新和研究深度。

本文将通过嘉莉妹妹与其他典型人物对比，从多视角分析人物性格和命运成因。

2.人物对比——再现多重写作视角这部小说内容丰富，主要围绕嘉莉妹妹、杜洛埃、赫斯渥等人物关系和命运展开，本文将重点通过女主人公与其他人物对比分析，挖掘人物性格命运，揭示德莱塞写作的多重视角，展现其思想内涵。

A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SISITER CARRIE《嘉莉妹妹》解读June, 2007Xiaogan UniversityAbstractSister Carrie tells the story of a small country girl Carrie who moves to Chicago to realize her “American Dream”and eventually becomes a Broadway star in New York. Despite living a luxurious life, she is lost in sprit. Reading the novel, we may easily notice Carrie’different needs and desires arising gradually and also the betrayal of traditional moral code in the process of pursuing material gain. The paper analyzes the reasons why Carrie has various needs at different stages of life, mainly based on Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. One is Carrie’s inner desires; the other is the outside force, including temptations of environment, cities, etc. The interaction between them makes Carrie lose herself eventually. It seems to tell people that in modern society material supplies more and more abundantly, but we should never pursue it blindly and much importance should be attached to happiness and stability created by spirit. It is essential to ponder the significance and the value of life.Key words: Sister Carrie; desire; lost; hierarchy of needs从马斯洛层次需要理论重新解读《嘉莉妹妹》摘要《嘉莉妹妹》讲述一位农村女孩嘉莉不甘贫穷来到芝加哥实现自己的“美国梦”，最终成为纽约百老汇一位著名的演员，享受奢华的物质却陷入精神迷失的故事。

LITERATURE REVIEW—AN ANALYSIS OF DREISER’S SISTER CARRIE《嘉莉妹妹》文学评论An 18-year-old girl without money or connections ventures forth from her small town in search of a better life in Theodore Dreiser's revolutionary first novel. The chronicle of Carrie Meeber's rise from obscurity to fame--and the effects of her progress on the men who use her and are used in turn--aroused a storm of controversy and debate upon its debut in 1900. The author's nonjudgmental portrait of a heroine who violates the contemporary moral code outraged some critics. A century later, Dreiser's characters continue to fascinate readers. The protagonist Carrie is still a controversial character. Many critics regard Carrie as a “fallen woman”, and there are also some critics regard her a s a “new woman”.Many people hold such an opinion that Sister Carrie is a tragedy, in which carrie is described as an immoral woman and she had an empty life though she succeeded as a famous player at the end of the novel. They conclude that “it is impossible to possess true happiness in a money-oriented capitalism society.”①(Li qi-shan 45).Jiang yu-qin says that “the city changed Carrie,a once innocent country girl into a seemingly successful empty life.”②(Jiang yu-qin 135)In her abstract she points out that Carrie represents the women who “experience desiring,chasing,struggling,falling and disillusioning.” Carrie was successful eventually from material aspect, but still unhappy spiritually.We can find such a paragraph in Peng dan-kui’s “Theodore and his Sister Carrie ”, “She(Carrie) has two persons to help her,but instead of getting better, she goes from bad to worse. Actually there is no one who can be the saviour for Carrie in the society. And she comes to realize it is impossible to be a success by working hard honestly…….Carrie is just one of the many victims of the city’s influence and of the capitalist society.”③(Peng dan-kui 75)From this passage, we can conclude that Mr. Peng takes Carrie as a traditional woman victim in a corrupted society. In other words, he denies that Carrie has her own motivates as an independent person.There are also many critics about the character carrie abroad.For example, in Sister Carrie and the Hidden Longing for Love: Sublimation or Subterfuge?Leon F. Seltzer says, “The thesis of this study is Carrie’s longing is shown by Dreiser(though never clearly understood by him )to be a longling for love and emotional relatedness. Such a longing, however, can never know fulfillment because, on one level, carrie is depicted as deficient in the capacity to love and, on far more essential level, her creator ( a man at once sterile and promiscuous, who….)was incapable of appreciating either the nature orpossibiities of human intimacy.”④(Leon F. Seltzer 192)We notice that seltzer descried carrie as a woman without the capability of love. Here he also attacked dreiser.From so many critics, we can see there are really many people they don’t appreciate Carrie. They think she is degenerate, immoral,cold-blooded, and without a lofty soul.But like everything has two sides, lots of other people have different viewpoints. They don’t take carrie so simply, so traditionally. They argue that carrie, from some aspects, stands for “new woman”, which we can see in Wu hong-yun’s Sister Carrie under the unconventional discourse of feminism. First she declares that “Carrie is not a victim ” of the captilist world, on the contrary, she is a victor, be cause “she (Carrie) proves her ability and realizes her value through her own efforts in the capitalist fatherhood society.”⑤(Wu hong-yun 36) Then Mrs. Wu put forward the idea “Carrie is not a immoral woman”, and she admires Carrie highly with the words like “spirit independently”, “rational and witty”, “hard working”, “a new woman” from the feminist angle. She even justifies Carrie’s desire for material gains. She insists that carrie shows a quality of “modern females”.It’s not superisingly that we can find almost the same words in Wang gang-hua’s article. He even puts Carrie to a new higher level. Here is a paragraph from his Carrie’s desires and motives : “in short, carrie shaped her own perfect image through the reflection in mirror , the discernment and the confirmation of the surrounding people. This kind of self-shaping cultivated carrie’s own consciousness, that is, she regards herself as an independent subject, and keeps an independent position in social activities. Thereafter, carrie gradully stepped into being active from passive.”⑥(Wang gang-hua 92) If we surf on the internet, we can find lots of critics about Sister Carrie. Clare Virginia Eby says in his Cultural and Historical Contexts for Sister Carrie, “Dreiser's evolutionary treatment of ethics in Sister Carrie ultimately verges toward the revolutionary, in that he tries to get readers to suspend judgment on actions that would typically be condemned as immoral, such as Carrie's premarital sex and Hurstwood's theft….. Dreiser discourages readers from viewing Carrie as immoral, instead drawing attention to the obsolescence of traditional moral standards. The ending of the novel is especially significant in this regard, for Dreiser breaks with long-standing literary tradition that "fallen women" must be fully punished, preferably by a grisly death. Carrie, to the contrary, may be unfulfilled or lonely at the novel's end, but she is very much alive and eminently successful in the eyes of the world.”⑦He added, “Carrie is not simply rebelling against her husband(Hurtswood) but more significantly against the role that women were traditionally supposed to follow. As historian Barbara Welter describes the nineteenth century ideal for the white middle class, the "True Woman" was expected to be pious, pure, domestic, and submissive. However a competing model for femininity emerged in the U.S. around the 1880s. The "New Woman" typically had a career and was economically independent. Frequently New Women aligned themselves with members of their own sex rather than in conventional marriages. Carrie follows this pattern …… Yet the typical New Woman was be tter educated and frequently more politically inclined than Carrie, and so we might best thinkof Dreiser's heroine as a transitional figure, moving from the Victorian model of True Woman toward the recognizably modern New Woman.”⑧From these two paragraphs, we can know clearly about Eby’s understanding of Carrie.Too many critics about Carrie exist from 1900 when dreiser finished the novel till now, and I can’t cite them one by one. Here I just classified them into two groups. From the totally different views, we can see that different people does hold different opinions. To me, I also have my own understanding of Carrie.First, I really can’t agree Carrie is a “fallen woman”.Those who criticized that she is greedy for material gains and she loses her sense of morality when she pursues her desire, to me, they failed to understand the novel deeply and they failed to treat carrie equally as well. It’s quite true that carrie had sexual relations with two men, which maybe the most unbearable thing for those who said Carrie is “immoral”, but when we read the novel, actually we can say that Carrie’s intention was to have a good husband.First she met Drouet who attracted her with his beautiful clothes and fine manners which represented he belongs to a high class. That is very nature, as I say. Carrie came from a poor peasant family and she wanted to search a better life in Chigago. When she met such a young man who was “ an experienced traveller, a brisk man of the world”⑨(Dreiser 9) and was so courteous to her. “It disposed her pleasantly toward all he might do.”⑩(10)After Carrie arrived the Hanson’s, she found things disappointing. She did efforts to search a job, but she failed at last. Drived by the desire for survival, she eventually accepted drouet. Here we should notice that though the main reason Carrie accepted Drouet is he had the money to support her, but on the other hand, Carrie did have some good feelings on him. Besides, Drouet promised to marry her. So at the beginning, the story went like lots of other love stories. Poor young beautiful girl comes to a big city and wants a “better life”, then she meets a rich man who makes she believe that they love each other, inevitably she wishes a wedding with the man. That happens a lot now. but in the fact, the man didn’t have a plan to marry her.And later, Carrie found another man who seemed worth her love. Hurtswood stands for a calss higher than Drouet’s. He was more attractive and he knew women’s heart better. Carrie once hesitated, but Drouet really couldn’t touch her heart any longer. Drouet himself was not a guy who really wanted to get married. So Carrie didn’t resist when Hurstwood lied to her and brought her to New York. That happened on a base that Carrie thought Hurstwood would marry her and gave her a happy life. That’s human’s instinct. Carrie’s instinct is to survive and to live better. That’s all. She didn’t have any intrigues like Mrs.Hurstwood. We still can say she is pure. She was just drived by the circumstances. So sexual relations with two men didn’t make carrie a “fallen woman”.Secondly, I do n’t agree completely that Carrie is a “new woman”.When Carrie met the living crisis in New York, at the beginning, she still believed that Hurstwood could made all things right. But later, she found Hurstwood was fallingrapidly. She tried to encourage Hurstwood to find a job to support the family, but he failed. He couldn’t find his place in the bigger city New York at all. But Carrie didn’t want to wait and die. She got a job in a theatre,not so easily, then she left him. Here we can often see many critics said carrie is “stone-hearted”. To me, Carrie’s behavior may be a bit cruel, but still can be forgave. Think what an enviroment she lives in! she needs to live! I also explain her action as a result of her instinct.Next, Carrie made herself successful on the stage by a small chance. She got money and fame gradually. But these can’t make her a “new woman”, because her success has much contingency. Her self-consciousness hadn’t be aroused untill she met Ames, a young engineer. His influence causes Carrie to become disillusioned with her success as an actress in comedy and makes her desire to perform more dramatic works. He introduced some writers to Carrie, and also gave some astonishing views about the surrounding people, which made Carrie think he was a special man. From that, Carrie started to think about lots of other things deeply. I say, Carrie at this moment is still not a“new woman”. She doesn’t has her own understanding of the world. She still can’t think and action as an independent woman.To sum up, I don’t think Carrie is “immoral”. When she is drived by her instinct to find a way to live, she has nothing to blame for. As Jerome Loving said, “For him(dreiser), man-all of humankind—was still halfway between animal instinct and ideal of human morality,and so alack of morality was to be expected.”⑾(Jerome Loving 92 The last titan:a life of theodore dreiser)To some extent, I agree with Eby’s opinion that Carrie is “a transitional figure, moving from the Victorian model of True Woman toward therecognizably modern New Woman”.Notes:⑦⑧Clare Virginia Eby:// /collections/rbm/dreiser/scculhist.htmlBibliography:(1)李其珊.《嘉莉妹妹》中的对比和象征艺术[J]玉林师范学院学报（哲学社会科学）2004(2)姜玉琴. 城市:一个承载事业、绞杀灵魂的谬体-从德莱塞的《嘉丽妹妹》到尤凤伟的《泥鳅》[J]外国文学研究2004(3)彭丹逵. 德莱塞和他的《嘉莉妹妹》[J]嘉兴大学学报1995(4)Leon F. Seltzer. Sister Carrie and the Hidden Longing for Love: Sublimation orSubterfuge?--- Twentieth Century Literature, V ol. 22, No. 2 (May, 1976) , pp. 192-209(5)王刚华. 嘉莉妹妹的欲望和驱动力[J]外国文学研究2002(6)Clare Virginia Eby .Cultural and Historical Contexts for Sister Carrie:// /collections/rbm/dreiser/scculhist.html(7)Dreiser,Theodore. Sister Carrie. Pennsylvania:University of Pennsylvania Press 1981(8)Loving,Jerome. The last titan:a life of theodore dreiser.California :University of California Press 1997(9)Pizer ,Donald. New Essays on Sister Carrie. New York:Cambridge University Press1991(10)Yoshinobu, Hakutani . Sister Carrie and the Problem of Literary NaturalismTwentieth Century Literature, V ol. 13, No. 1 (Apr., 1967) , pp. 3-17绝密文件，核心资料，拒绝盗版支持正版，从我做起，一切是在为了方便大家！。

Weakness of Humanity----An Analysis on the Tragedy of Sister CarrieAbstract: Sister Carrie is written by the naturalist writer----Dreiser. Throuht analyzing the intricate relationship among the characters and the various means they use for their goals. It reveals the characters weakness of humanity and a series of tragedies caused by these weaknesses.Key words: Sister Carrie; American Dream; physical enjoyment; weakness; tragedy人性的弱点-----《嘉莉妹妹》的悲剧解读摘要：《嘉莉妹妹》是美国自然主义作家德莱塞的作品，通过分析人物之间错综复杂的关系以及他们为达目的的各种手段，揭露了人物人性中的弱点，以及由这些弱点而导致的一系列悲剧。

关键词：《嘉莉妹妹》、美国梦、物质享受、弱点、悲剧1.BackgroundIn the late 19th century, capitalism was rapidly developed in America, the great gap between the rich and the poor; contradiction between employers and employees; the corruption of moral and humanity, increasingly drew people’s attention. However, the bottom of the society were eager to catch the so-called “American Dreams”-----those who pursure their goals in life through hard work and free choice, and never gave up their hope for success, so they struggled and fighted in order to make their dreams come to realize. And at that time, consumption was regarded as a symbol of people’s social position. Those who could afford to buy the most exspensive and luxurious things implied their high social status. To reach that respectable life, lots of poor people moved from rural to urban, or even frome other countries to the U.S.A., to fulfill their dreams for good fortune. The essence of American culture emphasizes personal value, the core of it is individualism, people of America think highly of it, and firmly believe that one can come to success through hard work and persistence. And “businessmen were the heros at that age, the power of consumption influence and balance people’s degree and reputation”[3]. Therefore, each of them have a dream, a dream that can lead them to glorious future. Of course, not everybody can achieve that goal, the road to success is not that easy. And to realize their dreams,different people have different approaches. Some did make big fortune through their own diligence, while others, by some immoral ways. The American system at that time, however, produced many bad things, like vanity, desire and selfishness, etc. So, we may say, the moment the American society created wealth as well as stimulated people’s endless desire. The corruption of morality and the incresion of desire are the most popular thing in America and in fact, the public in America stress achievements, respect heros, and this kind of mentality has a profound influence on them because individual accomplishment is one of the most highly appraised views of value, the American people have strong sense of success, and nearly all of them want to be successful. They firmly believe that a single person’s value is exactly equal to the achievement he makes in business.2. Information about the author and his workSister Carrie was published in 1900, a period when industrialization appeared. At that time, the American social system was changing: both the development of cities and the prosperity of markets brought new chances to people, and they had implicit trust in the concept thast money makes the world go around. Being a newspaper reporter, Theodore Dreiser had lots of knowledge of this chang and experienced it himself. Later he wrote the book Sister Carrie and based this first novel on the life of his sister Emma, who ran away to Toronto, Canada in 1883, with a married man who had stolen money from his employer. In his book Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser depicted a story about a girl----Carrie Meeber, who tried to make her own living from villiage to Chicago. She first met Drouet, a playboy that helped her a lot in life and gave her material enjoyment. And later, Hurstwood, a genteel manager, also tempted her to be his mistress. To quickly climb up to the upper class and to satisfied that kind of life style, Sister Carrie accepted the two rich men’s requirements, even though it is immoral, as long as whichever way can help her to her aim, she took it for granted. And later, Sister Carrie became a famous actress in New York, while Hurstwood, died. “Theodore Dreiser showed his own point of view about morality to the world, but such ending was definitely not accepted by the masses.”[4] So the book was initially refused by many publishers, because of its immorality. Harper Brothers, the first publisher to see the book, rejected it by saying it was not: “sufficiently delicate to depict without offense to the reader the continud illicit relations of the heroine.”Although finally Doubleday and Company published the book in order to fulfill their contract, but Frank Doubleday refused to promote the book. However, it is no doubt that this book fully reflects American reality life, it is a success. Generally speaking, the success of Sister Carrie has a great relationship with Theodore Dreiser’s own life. Dreiser was the ninth of 10 surviving children in a family whose perennial poverty forced frequent moves between small Indiana towns and Chicago in search of a lower cost of living. When he was 12, Dreiser worked as a news boy and a clerk in a shop; at the age of 15, he moved to Chicago and held jobs washing dishes, clerking a hardware store, and tracing freihgt cars. The next few years, when he was 18, Dreiser’s spotty education in parochial and public schools was capped by a year(1889-1990) at Indiana University. And he began a career as anewspaper reporter in Chicago in 1892 and worked his way to the East Coast. While writing for a Pittsburgh newspaper in 1894, he read works by the scientists T.H.Huxley and John Tyndall and adopted the speculations of the philosopher Herbert Spencer. Through these readidngs and his own experience, Dreiser came to believe that human beings are helpless in the grip of instincts and social forces beyond their control, and he judged human society as an unequal contest between the strong and the weak. Therefore, we may say the Dreiser’s own harsh experience of poverty as a youth and his early yearnings for wealth and success would become dominant themes in his novels, and the misadventures of his brothers and sisters in early adult life gavr him additional material on which to base his characters. As we have discussed above, Theodore Dreiser experienced a vivid life and this rewarded him a lot. He came to know much about the dark side of the American society, came to realize the real relationship among different people. Then, he wanted to reveal the weaknesses of humanity. Here, we will discuss what kinds of weaknesses of humanity, and to analyse some features of them.3. Weakness of Humanity in Sister Carrie3.1 IgnornaceAs we know that if someone’s“lack of knowledge or information about something,”[8]we may call him an ignorant person. Because he has little experience of the world, especially of evil or unpleasant things. Sister Carrie is that kind of person. Without any sense of danger, she tells the truth to a stranger when she is still on the train:”I live at Columbia City. Ihave never been through here, though.” [11]To a stranger like Drouet, who is often a lier, cajoling girls is the tricks he uses all the time. But Sister Carrie does not realize that, even tries to give her sister’s address to him, so “she fumbled her purse which contained the address slip.”[11] The mere reason for her doing so is that she judges Drouet only by the appearance, from his elegant clothes and graceful style of conversation, she believes that Drouet is a gentleman and a rich man, what’s more, he knows so much about the world, especially Chicago. In her own mind, he is a decent and knowledgeable man, and deserves her trust. Actually, what Sister Carrie has done fully explains the fact that she is ignorant, knows nothing about the complicated world and has no sense of protection. For a young and inexperienced girl, it is definitely perilous being so. From this point of view she needs to learn and experience life and observes life, only by doing so can she grow maturely.3.2 VanityApart from ignorance, nearly all of the characters have the essence of vanity in the book Sister Carrie. Farrell once said: “In Sister Carrie, money plays a very important role.”[2]From the moment Sister Carrie flees from the countryside to Chicago, vanity follows her like a shadow. She stresses her own charms, eagerly seeks the material things, holds the principle that good clothes, “dainty slippers and stockings”[11], and of course, money, are the most important things in her life. So there is no doubt that the moment she receives her salary in the shoe factory, she thinksonly to buy beautiful clothes, and she spends a dollar and a quarter from her small savings to buy a new umbrella only because th one Minnie gives her is worn and faded. Even when Drouet takes her to the street, she merely concerns the material things, and she takes it for granted that a person’s social status is high if he dresses elegantly, or at least that kind of people is from the upper calss, that is to say, he is rich, he has the money to derecate himself and to lead a decent life. Sister Carrie believes that life can not be happy without plenty of money and satiated physical enjoyment. So, vaity makes a person forever insatiable. Then ,Charles Drouet, a tipical cunning person, who is used to attracting different women around him by showing his smart new suit,shiny tan shoes and fat purse, a vain man who values people not only by appearance but also by status, because he often craves the best things, even though he is niot a man that likes drinking so much, he usually goes to the Rector’s, gains much satisfaction being in the same place with some celebrities. What’s more, he also likes to go to the Fitzgerald and Moy’s since there is a famkous manager there----Mr.G.W.Hurstwood. Drouet wants to be friends with people from the upper calss, in order to make himself glory and important. However, on the other hand, Charles Drouet is a poor man, he even does not know his own position, stubbornly prusues the so-called satisfaction. To be sure, it is only a sense of vanity.3.3 DesireWhile the most obvious weakness in Sister Carrie’s character is desire, which is a very strong wish for something, such as fame, wealth, power, etc. Donald Pizer is more specific about what Sister Carrie wants: “Of the major forces in her life, it is primarily her desire for objects that furnish a sense of physical and mental well-being----for fine clothing and furniture and attractive apartments and satisfactory food----which determines much of her life.”[6] In an article entitled “Dreiser as Hero,”Randolph Bourne concludes: “The insistent theme of Mr. Dreiser’s work is desire, perennial, unquenchable…His hero is really not Sister Carrie, ot the Tinan or the Genius, but that desire within us that pounds in manifold guise against the iron walls of experience”[10]Indeed, we have to think, we have to dream and we have to hold strong desire to achieve our goals, because there is no royal road to great accomplishment. Thus, we have to work hard and try our best to make it instead of taking advantage of others. Only by our own hand can we taste the sweet fruit. However, Sister Carrie does not do that, her aim is: fiem clothing, plenty of money,celebrated reputation, regardless of whichever method she uses. And the strong desire in her hea rt is endless. Firstly, the comparison in life between her sister’s and Drouet’s: “She felt the drag of a lean and norrow life.” [11]While Drouet’s speech and behaviour “built up for her a dim world of fortune.”[11] The first words whispered literally in C arrie’s ear as her train is approaching Chicago come from a flashy salesman, who quickly finds out that she is on her first visit to the city. The initial meeting captures Charles Drouet’s habit of asserting his impotance through boasting: “You want to see Lincoln Park,”he said, “and Michigan Avenue…It’s a second New York, great. So much to see----theatres, crowds, fine houses.”[11] Drouet wishes to impress on Carrie his association with the “great” world of the city and to intimate that he regularlypartakes of the pleasures of Chicago----a city, he suggests, busy imitating New York. The glamorous account makes the attractions seem desirable, which of course affects Sister Carrie. The seeds of desire are so firmly planted in her imagination that Carrie grows suddenly conscious of her appearance. As a matter of fact, at the very beginning, she can not bear to live so poor life, thus she goes to Chicago, the big city with many opportunities, to seek her fortune, so it is beyond question that she will take the $20 Drouet fices her. And Sister Carrie’s desire for wealth is one of the major reasons that makes her leave her sister.[1] Secondly, after seeing the beautiful broad lawns and interiors with luxury decorations with Mrs. Hale, Sister Carrie thinks that her room is comparative insignificance. The ability to purchase a big house and a nice car separates those who are considered successful from those who are not.[7] Another desire exits: she can find her happiness in the beautiful places. Thirdly, she meets Hurstwood----a man whose wealth is several hundred times more than Drouet’s, and what’s important, Hurstwood is charming and has good taste, experienced and sophisticated. All of these call help her fulfill her desire of physical enjoyment. Sister Carrie needs more pleasure, she needs people to think highly of her. Thus, to achieve her dream, she accepts Hurstwood’s temptation, being a mistress of him, and gains more happiness, at least, in her own mind, it can be called so. With the aim to draw people’s att ention and to be a more beautiful and elegant woman in the city, she needs eye-catching dresses to wear and a gentleman to be her partner, Hurstwood is a better choise. However, “whether she can success finally or not will depend on her luck”.[9]3.4 selfishnessHere we are going to talk about another weakness in Sister Carrie----selfishness. Firstly, selfishness means “caring only about yourself rather than about other people.”[8] Mr.G.W.Hurstwood is a married man, and he has a daughter named Jessica and George, his son. In people’s eyes, he owns a happy family, because they are rich and graceful, and the most important thing is that Huustwood, the model husband and father, has no affairs. Nevertheless, all of these are the apparent things. Hurstwood, indeed, a very selfish man in that he totally ignores his family, he does not love his wife and never cares about her. “Between himself and his wife ran a river of indifference.” The things he does for the family is completely out of responsibility. Also, he la cks communication with his daughter and son, never knows what they are doing. What he cares about is his own happiness, he cherishes the days he spends with Sister Carrie, because Carrie makes him feel young and blissful again. To him, the relationship with his family is a chain that binds his feet.Then what about Sister Carrie? Is she a selfish person, too? The answer is positive. She betrays Drouet after Hurstwood’s apperance and then discards him for chasing mkoreentertainment and safisfaction. In New York, it happens that she has the chance to be an actress in Casino, later, a most famous performer in the stage. When everybody flatters her, she thinks that Hurstwood is a burden of her, for that she has to raise him. Sister Carrie would rather buy a pair of new shoes than support him. Judging from this, we may draw a conclusion that both Hurstwood and Sister Carrie are selfish.4 Tragedy caused by weakness4.1 Tragedy of HurstwoodFrom the book Sister Carrie we can see that Hurstwood, a once gentle and elegant manager fo Fitzgerald and Moy’s, has high salary and leads a respectable life, falling to be a nobody at the bottom fo the society completely. Buying foods on credit, asking for jobs shamelessly and at last, being a poor begger in the street of New York. Even though he commits suicide finally, there is no doubt about that. The tragedy of Hurstwood mainly caused by himself. On the one hand, without having strong desire to get Carrie, he would not complain so much about his family, and then lacks commu nication with his daughter and son. Caring little about his wife’s emotion. When he has trouble himself he won’t discuss it with his family. Most of the time, he looks down upon their behaviours but try nok efforts to correct them. Absolutely, being a husband and father, Hurstwood is not competent enough. In the meantime, he has affairs outside. So firstly, he is a selfish man, caring nobody but himself. On the other hand, after all the failures in New York three years later, he still doesn’t have considera tion about his future life because he thinks day and night that he remains has the luck to be rich again by doing business himself. As a rule, his change is the process of a man’s degeneration. He wants to own a wealthy life like the people do in the upper society, but at the same time, he believes that his position is still high and is not willing to earn his living by doing hard work like a worker, for that he will lose face. Meanwhile, he recalls those glory days in Chicago all the time, holds that he is the excellent one and then deserves a better life, being down and out only because he has not found the good chance. It is a pity that owing to these thoughts and actions that Hurstwood digs a hole for himself to jump. A man does have the chance to live a better life through hard work, and where there is a will, there is a good life, a life to happiness. In a word, Hurstwood is a weak man, a man dare not change, in the meantime, he is a desirable person, who always dreams of getting better things while do nothing in reality. In general, his selfishness and desire lead to his own tragedy.4.2 Tragedy of CarrieApart from Hurstwood, Sister Carrie is also a tragic person in this book. The weaknesses in her character lead her to unhappiness step by step. Firstly, her ignorance. Being a green hand in the city, she is too easy to believe others. It is no wonder that she will jump into the trap planed by Drouet. Secondly, her vanity and desire. At the very beginning in Chicago, she can not tolerate herself to go back home because life in Chicago seems attractive and rich, in other words, “her springboard is to seek any chances to find a job in Chicago”,[5] and she needs to stay there at any cost, and she eagerly wants to change her present life, even though she has to pay for her youth and body. However, she is not happy. Although she gets what she has expected to: good fame, wealth, position. There is only one reason, that is, she never satisfy the things she has gained at present, but seeks something illusory, some thing that can never meet her. For Sister Carrie’s desire is endless, from this point of view, her fate is totally deplorable. Thirdly, her selfishness. When lices with her, Drouet meets nearly all her needs, buys her beautiful clothes and takes her out for dinner now and then. But Carrie betrays him only because she meets another rich man, Hurstwood, and they often furtively date behind Drouet. This is one thing. Another is that Carrie abandons Hurstwood when she can earn money herself while Hurstwood becomes depressed. What she cares is whether she can afford the fine clothes and smart shoes, but ignore a life----Hurstwood’s life. So, even though at last Carrie becomes a celebrity in New York City, she can’t fell happy, because she loses a lot----about love, about sympathy, about her deep love for life. Sister Carrie has completely changed from a rural girl with innocence, good-hearted to an indifferent, cold-blooded citizen. She always lives in a fanciful world----a world that leads her to helpless and solitary. This is exactly a tragic life.5 ConclusionTo draw a conclusion, through depicting some weaknesses of humanity, the book Sister Carrie shows us a real life of America in the late 19th cetury, it censures people’s attitude towards money and so-calle d social status. Strongly attacks people’s endless desires under the influence of Americam Dreams. In fact, it’s absolutely correct to seek a high standard life, but that is not our ultimate goal. We should live a meaningful life, have intimate friends and a harmonious family, have our own responsibilities and obligations to ourselves and the society. 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