美国文学论文

Contrastive Analysis of Characters in

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Sister Carrie

Abstract: The novel's deep impression on the reader is largely due to the success of the

characterization. This paper analyzes the characters, Maggie and Carrie Meeber in Steven

Crane's Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie, as well as explores

the tortuous destiny of the characters and difficulties encountered by social values, so as to

elaborate the impact of the social values contained in the novel on the characters.

Key words: Maggie; Sister Carrie; character; social values

Introduction

At the end of the 19th century, American naturalist Stephen Crane and Theodore Dreiser

accepted the Darwinian theory of evolution and wrote two works of naturalism, Maggie: A Girl of

the Streets and Sister Carrie. Through the portrayal of the characters of Maggie and Carrie, both

two works reflect the human’s survival dilemma. Instead of making free choice, people are

impacted by environment and heredity to a great extent. Maggie and Sister Carrie are the case in

point. They throw themselves into the struggle against destiny, but fail to get out of the domination

of fate. In addition, at that time,the United States was in the process of changing from a traditional

agricultural country to a modern industrialized country, and from capitalism to monopoly

capitalism. Social transformation not only brings wealth to people, but brings about the change of

values. These two works are the epitome of the change of social values.

I. Character image--- Maggie

Innocent slum girl Maggie was born in a poor and violent family where she never got love

and warmth. As she entered adulthood, Maggie wanted to change her destitute fate. But, there was

no alternation but to become a vassal of man. The bar man, Peter took a fancy to Maggie for her

beauty. While shortly after their cohabitation, she was abandoned by Peter. Backing home, her

mother detested her, insisting that she brought disgrace on family. She was driven into a corner

and became a street girl. In the disillusionment of love, the indifference of family and the ridicules

of others, Maggie chose to end her short life. If Maggie could purify her soul, overcome her vanity, perhaps she would not go to perish. Maggie is one of the myriad of people struggling in the

quagmire of the poverty. They wander in the shadow of bustling cities in the United States where

none to consider and intervene. It follows that Crane explores the character of Maggie from the

realistic material environment and her spiritual instinct rebellion.

II. Character image--- Carrie

Sister Carrie's struggle reflected the changes in social values more clearly. Carrie, the holder

of the American Dream, is the representative of a young generation of Americans who came from

the country to the bustling city of Chicago to start her dream life. She was only 18 at then, smart

but ignorant, full of fantasy for the future. At the beginning of Sister Carrie, Dreiser has pointed

out to us the ultimate fate of the heroine under the influence of the huge environment. “When a

girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving hands and

becomes better, or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse...”

After arriving in Chicago, Carrie lived in her sister's house and struggled to find work every day,

but the cruelty of reality and meager salary poured a bucket of cold water into her heart, and she

immediately fell into the quagmire of poverty. Carrie was aware of the great gap: on the one hand

is the dainties of the great, on the other hand is the tear of the poor. She didn’t keep her innocence,

but soon blend into the metropolis. In Carrie's heart, the idea of the city has been slowly changing,

inclined to materialism and mammonism.

Conclusion

The two novels are also embodiment of the contemporary American spiritual crisis. Maggie

is a girl in the slum, and Carrie is the star of Broadway, the two lives are very different whereas

they have something in common: endless desire resulting their misery. Maggie eventually died.

Peter didn’t bring her any wealth, and she didn’t escape poverty; Carrie only left money, no

relatives, no love. Desire drives them to work round the clock like machines. They are feathers,

drifting in the materialistic society with passion for money. The Puritanical spirit, that one can

attain success though his own efforts, was lost in Maggie and Carrie. This is also the tragedy of

modern people. There is no faith in people’s inner world so that they act like the hollow man in