Pursuit and Disillusionment of American Dream On Sister Carries Tragedy.doc

Pursuit and Disillusionment of American Dream-On Sister Carries Tragedy美国梦的追求与幻灭 -试析嘉莉妹妹的悲剧Abstract: The present paper concerns itself with a study of Sister Carries tragedy. Since the publication Sister Carrie, there have been many critics who commented on this work, and its main character Sister Carrie is a controversial character. Dreiser was criticized by many critics and readers because he didnt make any comment on Carries degeneration. Different from previous research, this paper aims to analyze the pursuit and disillusionment of American Dream of Sister Carrie and the causes of her tragedy. There are five parts in this paper, which paper starts with a brief introduction to Theodore Dreisers life experience and his work, with the situation of American society and the history of American Dream mentioned, too. Then in the second and third parts, the paper discusses the pursuit and disillusion of Carries American Dream. The causes of Carries tragedy are analyzed in the fourth part. In the end, the paper draws the conclusion: the American Dream looks beautiful, but in fact it is not reliable, just like the foam of soap. It only gives people an illusion. So Carries tragedy is inevitable. And indications for future research in the area of Sister Carries tragedy have been mentioned, too. Key words: American Dream; expectation; desire; reality; disillusionment; tragedy摘要：本文主要是研究嘉莉妹妹的悲剧。嘉莉妹妹这部小说自出版以来，批评者不乏其人，其主人公嘉莉妹妹也一直是个颇具争议的人物。由于作者未对她的堕落行为做出任何评价，也因此受到批评家和读者的指责。不同于以往的研究，本文试图分析嘉莉妹妹对美国梦的追求与幻灭，首先介绍了美国梦的历史及由来。在第二、三部分，分别讨论了嘉莉妹妹美国梦的追求与幻灭。导致嘉莉妹妹悲剧的原因在第四部分进行了分析。最后得出以下结论：美国梦看起来很美，其实就像肥皂泡一样不可信，它仅仅给人以幻觉，因此嘉莉妹妹的悲剧不可避免。并且为进一步研究嘉莉妹妹的悲剧指明了方向。关键词：美国梦;期望;欲望;现实;幻灭;悲剧 ContentsI. Introduction1A. Dreisers Reputation and His Works.1B. The Influence of Dreisers Life Experience on His Novel Writing1C. American Dream and American Society.2II. Carries Pursuit of American Dream.4 A. Carries Expectation of the Future4 B. Carries Pursuit of Wealth and Position.4 C. Carries Pursuit of Love.5III. The Disillusionment of Carries American Dream7 A. The Disillusionment of Wealth and High Social Position.7 B. The Disillusionment of Love .8IV. The Causes of Carries Tragedy.10 A. The External Causes of Carries Tragedy.101. The Living Environment.102. The Life Experience.103. The Social Background.11 B. The Internal Causes of Carriers Tragedy.121. Carries Endless Desires for a Better Life.122. Carries Defect Character and Limited Capability.16 V. Conclusion.18 Work Cited.18. IntroductionA. Dreisers Reputation and His WorksTheodore Herman Albert Dreiser, an American great writer, is an outstanding representative of naturalism and one of Americas foremost novelists. He was the first writer who criticized the futility of the American Dream in his novel so drastically. Although he had never won the Nobel Prize, Dreiser had an enormous influence on American literature during the first quarter of century. He is the only writer who is worth being talked about in the same breath with the European masters. Dreisers genius was recognized and applauded by H.L.Mencken, but the general reaction to Dreiser has always been negative .He has been called a “Crag of basalt”, “solemn and ponderous” and “the worlds worst greatest writer”, but his influence is evident on some famous writers such as Hemingway, James T. Farrell, and others. Sister Carrie came out in 1900, followed by Jennie Gerhardt and two volumes of his Cowperwood Trilogy, The Financier, The Titan, and The Stonic. The Stonic was published posthumously. His other works include The Genius and The Bulwark. Dreiser was left-oriented in his views. He visited Russian and wrote Dreiser Looks at Russia and Tragic America to express his faiths, Tragic America became his best novel. B. The Influence of Dreisers Life Experience on His Novel WritingTheodore Dreiser, the twelfth of 13children, was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, in 1871. His father, a devout German immigrant, lost everything when his large wool mill was burned down. By this time, his parents were poor and nomadic preachers. Their nomadic lifestyle meant that Dreiser did not have any companions outside his family. While traveling, his mother taught him to avoid degrading and destructive experiences. Certainly his parents were failures because of their strong morals and their constant preaching, and he rebelled. Dreiser had no friends, money, social status, or sex life, which he craved. For the most Americans, these were collectively called “The American Dream.” The effects of Dreisers work are still rippling through American fictions. At fifteen Dreiser fled from home and went to Chicago, which is described in his novel and also the city Sister Carrie went to. He washed dishes in cheap restaurant, clerked in a store, and painted advertising signs. He dreamed of wealth and social success in the great metropolis. He embarked on series of menial jobs and wandered the city streets at night, storing up impressions of drunks, thieves, prostitutes, and beggars. Finally, he got a job on a newspaper and began a career. Eventually he went to New York City. He read widely the evolutionary theorizing of some philosophers as Thomas Huxley and Herbert Spencer, and as the last remnant of Dreisers religious faith drained away, he was left with the deterministic belief that man was merely a mechanism moved by chemical and physical forces beyond his control. In 1899, he began writing Sister Carrie. Sister Carrie did more to change writing styles of modern American fiction than any others. Dreisers own experience in Chicago and New York were the perfect material for the story of a poor country protagonist-Sister Carrie who comes to the city to seek whatever she can find. C. American Dream and American SocietyIn the first quarter of the twentieth century, the disparity between the rich and the poor became more serious. In that period, America developed very fast and created great material wealth owing to the industrializing progress. Though it was in an era of prosperity, it was impossible for every one who is in America to become wealthy. America practiced capitalism, and thus the prosperity only benefited the capitalists, while the working class still lived a poor life. As a result, the rich collected more and more money, and lived a luxurious life. On the contrary, the poor could not improve their living conditions. Thus, the gap between the rich and the poor became greater and greater. This made people become easy to receive all kinds of debased values, most of which encouraged people to earn money without considering morals or consequences. Especially the poor, driven by the lacking of food or clothes, were easy to become envious of upper classs luxurious lives. Thus, they dreamed of earning more money and entering the upper class, but the upper class never accepted them and just treated them as their objects to toy with. The prosperous America is just a heaven for the rich but a hell for the poor.Whats more, there are series of debased values in the American society. The most important one is the American Dream. American Dream, existing in America for a long time, used to be a positive value to inspire people to develop their lives. In the twentieth century, the American Dream had become a pure pursuit of better materialistic lives and higher social positions, regardless of morals and consequence, which brought great hazards to the American society. Many people hold this value as belief, and used all kinds of schemes to chase wealth and high social position, neglecting the kindness, honesty, loyalty and even love. Driven by this value, most people lost the shining merits of humanity. Moreover, money worship became more and more serious in that society and money became more and more important in American peoples opinion. The capitalists collected enormous amount of money, and controlled most important departments of the country. The upper class lived a luxurious life, for they had much money. As a result, the poor had such an idea that when they got enough money, they could improve not only their material lives, but also their social positions. With money, they could enter the upper class, and even gain some power. Last, egoism was overflowing. Encouraged by this sort of thinking, American people became more and more zealous in chasing material wealth and social positions, which could satisfy their own desire for pleasure. In order to fulfill their ambition, they neglected other peoples feelings and even risked ruining other peoples lives. Carries Pursuit of American DreamA. Carries Expectation of The FutureCarrie Meeber was a poor countryside girl of eighteen, impoverished not only physically, but also spiritually. Having just reached adulthood, Carrie was full of the lofty dreams of youth. Since never having had many beautiful things in her life, she moved to the city of Chicago hoping to get a better economic situation. Carrie hoped that this adventure would fill her spiritual need for excitement. Being young, she was susceptible to the attitudes of society, equating material happiness with self-fulfillment. Liked many of other poor people of that time, Carrie desired to accumulate as many signs of higher social status as she could. One of the prominent signs of the upper class was being owner of a vast fortune. Carrie thought that once she had acquired enough earthly possessions, she would live a happy and fulfilled life. Yet since Carrie did not seem to have known what true happiness was upon reaching Chicago, her search for contentment in possessions was misguided. She hoped to fill her spiritual emptiness with fleeting fancies of materialism. She had bought into the capitalistic attitudes of her time, that is to say, the thought of working for wages and spending her money which the tried her best to make on frivolities, such as plays and clothes, which excited Carries mind. She planed to stay with her sister and brother-in-law in the city and find a well-paying job to help her maintain her ideal cosmopolitan lifestyle.B. Carries Pursuit of Wealth and High Social Position.As an old saying goes: “Money: something everybody else has and I must get.” (Dreiser 57) How to get money? Especial like a girl like Carrie, who on the one hand was weak and wouldnt like to do rough work, and on the other hand was not well educated, and had no skill. How can she get money? Fortunately, she finally got a job in a shoe factory. But when her white-collar-like job turned out to be a woman labor in the gloomy and smelly shoe work house, she fell into pieces and got sick after several weeks of hard work. She had no clothes, lost work and was disregarded by her brother-in-law, so she felt so despaired. Then she met Drouet again who was the man she met in the train. He offered to take care of her and she accepted his offer because she didnt like staying in Minnies small and gloomy and badly furnished house. Carrie would have done better if she had not got a job before she had seen more of the city. “One of her order mind would have been content to be cast away upon a desert island with a bundle of money.”(Dreiser 57) So the poor girl thrilled as she walked away from Drouet. She felt ashamed in part because she had been weak enough to take it, but her need was so dire, she was still glad. “In Carrie-as in how many of our wordings do them not? -Instinct and reason, desire and understanding, were at war for mastery. She followed whither craving led, she was as yet more drawn than she drew.”(Dreiser 67) In effect, circumstances have driven her into the hands of Drouet. She left her sisters flat to set up her own house at Drouets insistences. Although it was only a few days when she had been enduring a city life in Chicago. She realized that she didnt like the simple life and in her view, her sister and brother-in-law lived a boring life. Being young and curious woman, she yearned for more than what she had got. With the help of Drouet, Carrie was offered a role in a play, which her plays greatly appreciated by all. From her relationship with Drouet, she managed to gain the experience and social skills to pursue American Dream. Of course, Drouet helped her change her economic status. With Drouets help, she was able to cast off her poor fate, and began to live a rich life. In this way, she got a chance to know Hurstwood, who brought her an even better life. She was a woman that would never stop purchasing. She aimed at a better and better living condition. She was driven by her desire, her endless desire. She always has plans, goals in her mind. Though she hasnt received much education, and was not able to think about life as Drouet and Hurstwood. She would not feel content with her present life and the things that she has got. Once she has own Drouets heart, she saw the shortcoming of him and compared it with Husrtwoods advantages. She, then, won Hurstwoods heart, but later realized that he wouldnt marry her. Because of the financial reasons she remained with Hurstwood, they lived together for three more years in New York. Hurstwood lost all he had and didnt go out to find or keep a job. Hurstwoods financial decline forced Carrie to apply for a job in the theater and she became successful as one of the Broadways stars.C. Carries Pursuit of LoveCarrie, in order to live a better life, wouldnt go back to the poor country. Though she lived with Drouet, marriage was important to her. Thus, it served as a way of making her life morally acceptable. After living with Drouet for some time, she found she didnt love him. She really was not enamored of Drouet. She was cleverer than him, in a dim way. If it had not been for this, she had not been able to measure and judges him in a way. She would have been worse off than she was. She would have adored him, because she was simple. She also believed Drouet would like to marry her. In fact, Drouet would never marry her; he just wanted to take possession of her. As Drouets friend, Husrtwood called in. “She met a man who was cleverer than Drouet in a hundred ways.”(Dreiser 82) Now Carrie has a sufficient amount of wealth to satisfy her physical needs. She beyond the material realm, searched for what she was lacking. Carrie tried to complete her spiritual being in misconstrued ideals of love. Of course, now Carrie was living in a state of luxury. Does she realize that mater