Comments on the image of Sister Carrie

【Abstract】Thedore Oreiser was one of Americas greatest writers and one of his famous masterpieces is Sister Carrie. the heroin of the novel was a country girl who struggled for success and finally became a movie star. Analysis on the image of Carrie is of practical significance to the country girls swarming into the city nowdays in our country.

【Key words】Comments； image； Sister Carrie

1. A Brief Introduction about the Author

The novel Sister Carrie was written by Thedore Oreiser， who was one of Americas greatest writers and is regarded as an outstanding representative of the American naturalism.

He was born in Terre Haute， Indiana in 1871. Being the ninth child of a family， he experienced considerable poverty when he was a child. At the age of 15， he was forced to leave home to make a living by his own. He once attended university for quite a brief time， and after that he worked as a reporter. Finally he moved to New York where he made up his mind to begin his career as a novelist. In 1900， he wrote his first novel Sister Carrie.

2. A General Introduction of the Novel Sister Carrie

Dissatisfied with life in her rural home， “Sister Carrie” takes the train to Chicago， where her older sister agreed to take her in. On the train， Carrie meets Charles Drouet， a traveling salesman， who is attracted by her beauty.

Carrie had to find a job to support herself. However， the only jobs she could possibly get were factory workers with low wages， poor working conditions， and long working hours. She could not buy the beautiful clothes that she longed for after paying the rent. She could not bear hard work and she believed that she was different from the common women worker.she tried to catch every opportunity to get out of poverty. In order to continue to stay in the city， she chose to be Drouets lover. When she met Drouets friend， Hurstwood， she then abandoned Droue and became Hurstwoods lover， because he represented much more social wealth and a higher position. Hurstwood， a once successful and decent man， finally died of poverty. At last，Carrie realized her ambition of being a film star.

3. A brief discussion about Sister Carrie

Carries struggle for success was inevitably accompanied by her slow moral decline. At first， she is a innocent timid and pretty girl and is determined to leave the her poor country home and yearn for life in city. At that time she does dream beautiful dreams about all the favorable imaginations of city， where she first perceives as a paradise. But the moment she arrived， she found that it is a totally different matter. The colorfulness and luxuriousness of the city just have nothing to do with her at all. However she kept a positive attitude and tries at first to strive for a better life on her own， but very soon she found the money she can get is far from fulling her strong material desires.

She was completely loyal to her material worship So it is not difficult to explain later her role of being the mistress of Charles H. Drouet and then George W. Hurstwood. Step by step， she became more and more sophisticated. She was used by men and used them in turn to become a successful Broadway actress.

Personally I really dont like Sister Carrie and I am even a little afraid of this kind of person， who is by all means to achieve ones goal even at cost of others family and even life. I just wonder why she has such strong fantasy for money. Does there exist love that she has towards Drouet or Hurstwood， or it does once exists but very soon is weakened and overwhelmed by her greedy material worship？ What if she does get what she always yearns for？ Does she feel really happy？

The image of Sister Carrie is also of great significance in our country nowadays， especially in the trend of increasing urbanization.Girls from the countryside swarms into the city in the pursuit of wealth. To those girls like Carrie pursuing dreams ， one should make money by ones own hard work and seek for the perfection of ones personality. we should faithfully believe that as long as one work diligently and wholeheartedly， it will be rewarding .

References：

[1]Theodore Dreiser.Sister Carrie[M].Bei Jing：Foreign Language Teaching and Studing Press 1981：136.

[2]蒋道超.德莱塞研究[M].上海：上海外语教育出版社，2002： 125.

[3]魏京京.对嘉莉妹妹心理欲望的解析[J].安徽文学，2006，12： 44-45.

作者简介：张楠，女，安徽亳州人，硕士研究生，研究方向：英美文化。