嘉莉妹妹与美国梦

1、嘉莉妹妹与美国梦 Sister Carrie and American Dream Abstract Theodore Dreiser, an American writer, shows the readers an actual American society, which is maintained by money in his novels. On the other hand, Dreiser also offers a mode about struggle through his stories for the poor. He wants to inspire the po

2、or to struggle for better material lives, which shows the activeness of Dreisers novels. In this article, the author gives a brief introduction of Dreisers life, introduces American dream, and expound that the process of American dream and the American dream with a deep Root in America .by analyzy t

3、he two main characters in Sister Carrie. The article explains that in the money-oriented America, man wants to better himself instinctively or is driven by the environment to realize the American dream, yet the results are tragic. From the analysis the author illustrates futility of the American dre

4、am. It is concluded that Sister Carrie lighten the futility of the American dream. As well as encourage for the poor to struggle wealth and rank in society. Key Words: Sister Carrie, the American ream, Theodore Dreiser 内 容 摘 要 美国作家西奥多·德莱塞通过一系列作品向读者展示了一个充满赤裸裸金钱关系的美国社 会。德莱塞也通过小说故事为生活在社会底层的广大贫苦人民提

5、供了奋斗的模式，带有一定的积 极性。本文通过简要介绍作者生平，介绍美国梦，阐述了美国梦的进程和美国梦在美国的根深蒂 固。以及对嘉莉妹妹中两位主人公的分析，说明在美国这个金钱至上的社会里，人在本能和 社会环境的驱使下不可避免要向上爬，追求物质上的满足，去实现心中的美国梦，但是结局都是 悲剧式的，从而揭示了美国梦的虚无。 关键词：嘉莉妹妹；美国梦；西奥多·德莱塞 Contents Introduction . 1 1 The High prestige of Theodore Dreiser . 3 2 Analysis of the American Dream . 5 2.1 The

6、 process of American Dream . 6 2.2 The American Dream with a Deep Root in America . 7 2.2.1 A Brief review of the American Dream . 8 2.2.2 The Origin and Evolution of American Dream . 11 3. Analysis on Sister Carrie and American Dream . 17 3.1 The Summary of Sister Carrie . 19 3.2 Analysis of the Ch

7、aracter of Carrie . 23 3.3 Analysis of the Character of Hurstwood . 24 3.4 Analysis on Carrie and Hurstwood Associated with the American Dream . 25 Conclusion . 26 Notes . 27 Bibliography . 29 Acknowledgments . Introduction Theodore Dreiser, the twelfth of 13 children, was born in Terre Haute, India

8、na, in 1871. His father, a devout German immigrant, lost everything when his large wool mill burned down. By this time, his parents were poor nomadic preachers. Their nomadic lifestyle meant that Dreiser did not have any companions outside his family. While traveling, his mother taught him to avoid

9、degrading and destructive experiences. His parents were failures because of their strong morals and their constant preaching, he rebelled. Dreiser had no friends, money, social status, or sex life, which for most Americans, were included in "The American dream." For Dreiser and his most fa

10、mous characters, Carrie Meeber and Clyde Griffiths, living the American dreamthe evasive pinnacle of success - became an obsession. Dreiser was a poor student at the succession of school he attended. However, he received encouragement from a high school teacher who offered to pay his tuition in the

11、university of Indiana. This experience was not a beneficial one for Dreiser. He was acutely conscious of differences between himself and wealthier better-looking classmates, he flunked out of. Instead of preaching, he instantly abandoned his unsuccessful family for the promise of riches and women in

12、 industrial Chicago. After living in abject poverty for years, he worked as a journalist for both Chicago Globe and St. Louiss Globe-Democrat, which gave him a glimpse of high society. His journalist 1 life provided him endless source of writing. It was at this time that Dreiser got contact with the

13、 higher society with the rich and the power. There, he married Sara White. Within months, the two separated permanently, and Dreiser became a nomad. While wandering, he studied the writings of Balzac, Darwin, Freud, Hawthorne, Huxley, Poe, and Spenser, from which he created two philosophical theorie

14、s: social Darwinism governs society, and mans greatest appetite is sexual. Dreiser followed his philosophy; he typically had several affairs at once. Such kind of opinion can obviously be drawn in Dreisers novels. In New York, Dreiser started Sister Carrie, a brilliant naturalistic piece. The book w

15、as sold only 500 copies; it was so "scandalous" that its owned publishers censored its printing in 1900. Dreiser was nearly suicidal for this failure. In Sister Carrie, Dreiser showed a real money-related America to the audience. Nobody dared to report the true social problems in their own

16、 works at that time for they were afraid that their works wouldnt be accepted by most readers. Sinclair Lewis, the first American Nobel Prize winner for literature in 1930, praised Dreiser during his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, “Dreiser, more than any other man, is marching alone. Usually unappre

17、ciated, often hated, has cleared the trail from Victorian and Howellsian timidity and gentility in American fiction to honesty and boldness and passion of life. Without his pioneering, I doubt if any of us could, unless we liked to be sent 2 to jail, seek to express life and beauty and terror.” 1 Mo

18、st works before 1900 were served for beautifying Capitalism and religion, which were two main topics for literature at that time. After publishing Sister Carrie, Dreiser resigned from New Yorks music journal, Every Week. He then worked for an eclectic group of magazines, including three womens magaz

19、ines, until 1910, when his in-office love affair went public. During the next six years, he gained recognition for his writing and published Jennie Gerhardt and the "Trilogy of Desire”, stories based on transportation mogul Charles T. Jerkess life. The series won him numerous acclaims. After ei

20、ght abysmal novels, Dreiser published his best selling novel An American Tragedy. The novel, later adapted to Broadway and the screen, netted him hundreds of thousands of dollars. Soon, he turned to the glittering promises of communism to escape his feelings of inadequacy. When his wife died, he mar

21、ried his cousin, Helen Richardson, his "companion" of five years. He died in Hollywood, California on December 28, 1945. 1 The High prestige of Theodore Dreiser Theodore Dreiser was born on August 27, 1871 in Terre Haute, Indiana. Part of a large German-American family, and the ninth of te

22、n children, his childhood was marked by poverty. His father, John Paul, had previously been 3 a cotton mill manager, but a series of unfortunate accidents caused his fortunes to dwindle. In 1864 the cotton mill burned down, and during the reconstruction John Paul was hit in the head with a beam. He

23、never fully recovered and as a result become deeply religious. He further was soon cheated by his business partners. The family was forced to move from one Indiana town to another in order to survive. Theodore Dreiser later resented his father for the family¹ s poverty. At the age of fifteen Dr

24、eiser moved to Chicago and held jobs washing dishes, clerking a hardware store, and tracing freight cars. Dreiser fortunately was able to escape when a former teacher offered to send him to Indiana University at Bloomington for a year. He soon became interested in journalism, but returned to Chicago

25、 and worked as a bill collector, real estate clerk and laundry-truck driver. Dreiser first entered the newspaper world by dispensing toys for the needy at Christmas for the Chicago Herald. He subsequently got hired as a cub reporter with the Chicago Globe and later went to St. Louis as a feature wri

26、ter for the Globe-Democrat. Things took a turn for the worse when Dreiser accidentally reviewed a theater performance in absentia even though it turned out the show was never performed. He left St. Louis and moved to Pittsburgh, working with the Dispatch. With a secure job again, Dreiser married Sar

27、a; White after meeting her at the Chicago World¹ s Fair. The couple 4 moved to New York where he received a job as a magazine editor. At the suggestion of his editor friend Arthur Henry, Dreiser began writing his first novel, the result of which was Sister Carrie. Dreiser continued his career b

28、y publishing The Financier (1912) and The Titan (1914), both of which began his trilogy about the rise of a tycoon. Fame arrived with his An American Tragedy (1925), a story based on newspaper accounts of a sensational murder case. This novel was turned into a Broadway drama and later sold to Hollyw

29、ood. With his new success, Dreiser took a trip to Russia but came away unimpressed. He chronicled his observations in Dreiser Looks at Russia (1928). Dreiser became a communist in later years, causing his to focus his attention of writing political treatises such as America is Worth Saving (1941). U

30、nable to write well towards the end of his life, he moved to Hollywood in 1939 and supported himself by the sale of film rights of his earlier works. He died there in 1945 at the age of seventy-four 2 Analysis of the American Dream When American dream began, during that period, the American war marh

31、ed a change, in the words of lionel Trilling, in the quality of American life, a deterioration, in fact, of American moral values .The worth of the American dream, the idealized, romantic liew of man and his life in the New 5 World, began to lose its hold on the imagination of the people Beneath The

32、 glittering surface of prosperity there lay suffering and unhappiness, Disillusionment and frustration were widely felt. What had been expected to be a "Golden Age" turned out to be a "Gilded" one. 2.1 The process of American Dream The history of the American dream began with the

33、 “May flower” in 1620. The puritans from England, who wanted to escape from the political, economic and religious persecution of the Old World, dreamed of building up a New World. Thats the beginning of the American dream. America, a place where everyone had a fair change at making it big; America,

34、the land of the free and the home of the brave, set your sail and travel to the New World of wonder and where your wildest dreams come true. In the United States Declaration of Independence the founding father stated: “eld certain truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they

35、are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” This sentiment was considered the foundation of the American dream. Everybody tried to struggle for freedom and welfare. After the independence of the U.S, there was a grea

36、t man Benjamin Franklin, one of the drafters of the Declaration of Independence, became both a spokesman and a model for the national character of later generations of Americans. He was 6 the representative of the American dream for his autobiography. Benjamin Franklin is often referred to as the Fi

37、rst American and he is given this title with good reason and it proves him more as an American hero, especially a hero for American youngsters. In the monopoly period, modern values have transformed the American dreams pure ideals into a scheme for materialistic power and further, the world of high

38、society lacks sense of morals and consequence. The disparity between rich and poor being serious, hedonism and money worship being overflowed, people would stop at nothing to get what they wanted. Benjamin Franklins way to wealth had been out of date. The American dream has become the pursuit of mat

39、erial prosperity that people work more hours to get bigger cars, fancier homes the fruits of prosperity for their families-but less time to enjoy their prosperity. In Dreisers times, the content of the American dream was to pursue for more money and higher rank in society and it brought great hazard

40、s to the American society. 1111111111114 2.2 The American Dream with a Deep Root in America In such period, man as merely an animal driven by greed and lust, American dream consisted in their life, and became more and more popullar. Life is predatory, a" a wisp in the wind of social force, &quo

41、t;is a mere pawn in the general scheme of things, with no power whatever to assert his will. No one is 7 ethically free; everything is determined by a complex of internal chemisms and by the forces of social pressure. 2.2.1 A Brief review of the American Dream The American dream is the typical cultu

42、ral phenomenon as well as the dominanmelody of the American literature, representing a kind of American spirit. Throughout American history, it can be found that the American dream has been deeply rooted in the inner hearts of the American people, appearing as an important theme in American literatu

43、reas well as the central ideology in ordinary Americans' minds. Although up till now, there is no fixed definition or exact expression to explain such a term, we can still find some traces correlated to its meaning in many scholars' works. In his monograph published in 1931, The Epic of Amer

44、ica, James Truslow Adams has already clearly sketched the contours of the main content of the American dream when he first used such a phrase. Adams held that the American dream refers to that dream of land in which life should be better and richer, with opportunity for each according to ability or

45、achievement. It is not a dream of motor cars and high wages merely, but a dream of social order in which each man and each woman shall be able to attain the fullest stature of which they are innately capable, and be recognized by others whatever they are, regardless of the fortuitous circumstances o

46、f birth or position. Just as Adams 8 said, "the American dream exists with the history of America."2 Later on, the term has been explained in various situations. Tang Sooping has once held that “The American dream describes an attitude of hope and faith that looks forward to the fulfillmen

47、t of human wishes and desires" 5 The American dream, or "the ideal of opportunity of advancement for all in a career or society regardless of ones origin” 6, is promised in "the Declaration of Independence" as "life, and the pursuit of happiness". Whatever it refers to,

48、 the American dream can be understood but broad sense and narrow sense. In broad sense, the American dream refers to "the democracy, equality and freedom" as a national ideal. In narrow sense, the American dream is defined as the dream that one obtains success through his effort. Having a

49、close look at it, we can understand that the American dream has two basic aspects of the dream: one is the spiritual freedom and the other material success. Such a dream is a most grand vision of a New World, of unbounded opportunities, of a potential Garden of Eden whose lack of limitations stagger

50、s into imagination. Undoubtedly, the American dream, as a significant cultural subject, was deeply rooted in American history, extending important impact upon the values of the ordinary Americans. The following lyric sung by the engineer in the musical Miss Saignon does reflect what the American dre

51、am has referred to at a popular level. Whats that I smell in the air? 9 The American dream Sweet as a new millionaire The American dream Pre-packed ready-to-wear The American dream Bus-boys can buy the hotel The American dream Wall Street is ready to sell The American dream Come to make a life from

52、thin air The American dream Come and get more than your share The American dream For ordinary Americans, the American dream refers to the success story, the dream of climbing the social ladder from rags to riches, the life from log cabin to the White House, the dream of young man to become a million

53、aire. W. Lloyd Warner regards the myth of success the "the most powerful of American collective representations," 4 , which is not a fantasy to be easily dismissed but a dream that provides the motivating force for much of what Americans do in their daily life. 10 When the history was writ

54、ten by scholars of different times, it has been bestowed specified social connotations and the traits of the times. As a specified production of merican culture, the American dream was unexceptionally bestowed new connotations by Americans. Hence, in order to comprehend the abundant connotation of t

55、he American dream, we should have the certain knowledge about its origin, and its evolution in modern society. It is the American history and the American people that have bestowed the unique connotation on the American dream. 2.2.2 The Origin and Evolution of American Dream For thousands of years,

56、the continent of America has been isolated from the outside world until an Italian named Christopher Columbus discovered America in 1492. From then on, Spaniards, French, and British people came to America in succession. For what purpose did these early immigrants take the risk of losing their lives to settle down on the deserted American continent? They did so for two dreams: one was the dream of pursuing freedom, the other gaining fortune. In 1620, b