Lost in Substance

Why did you choose this particular book? Typical reasons might be:

     Actually I’m not so fond of the writer of Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser. As the representative of naturalism, Dreiser regards the pursuit of material life as the most important motivation. He attempts to persuade readers to take to the image of Sister Carrie, though she is opposite to our moral standard at all. However, this novel disclosures the darkness and ugliness of temporal American society. In fact, there exists the same phenomenon in our modern society. It has critical realistic sense.

 

                       Lost in Substance                                                                 

 Abstract:   

In the novel of Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser depicts a story of a lady’s rise from a poor country girl to a Broadway star. Dreiser deeply disclosures the weakness and ugliness of human beings such as the heroine Carrie, with the desires driven by the force of individual and society.                                                 

This essay will view from the angle of Carrie’s psychology and the American social situation during the centurial alternation, then analyzes the individual and social motivations behind Carrie’s desires. The thesis divides Carrie’s desires into two kinds, one is substance and the other is spirit. As a tragic character Carrie, we should seek for the reasons of the tragedy, the physical and environment forces, fate and chances which decided that she would be a victim.

At last, we can get a conclusion that Carrie’s moral result is produced by the increasing distance between the poor and the rich in America, her typical road is paved by American society.

Key Words: Sister Carrie, desires, consumerism

 

 

 

 

                           

 

Sister carrie

1. 1.     brief introduction of Theodore Dreiser

   Theodore Dreiser was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on August 27, 1871, the twelfth of thirteen children. His gentle and devoted mother was illiterate; his German immigrant father was severe and distant. From the former he seems to have absorbed a quality of compassionate wonder; from the latter he seems to have inherited moral earnestness and the capacity to persist in the face to failure, disappointment, and despair. Dreiser’s childhood was decidedly unhappy. The large family moved from house to house in Indiana dogged by poverty, insecurity, and internal division. Dreiser as a youth was as ungainly, confused, shy, and full of vague yearnings as most of his fictional protagonists, male and femal. In this as in many other ways, Dreiser’s novels are direct projections of his inner life as well as careful transcriptions of his expriences.

    His first novel, Sister Carrie (1900), tells the story of a woman who flees her country life for the city (Chicago) and there lives a life far from a Victorian ideal. His second novel, Jennie Gerhardt, was published in 1911. Many of Dreiser’s subsequent novels dealt with social inequality. His first commercial success was An American Tragedy (1925), which was made into a film in 1931 and again in 1951. Though primarily known as a novelist, Dreiser published his first collection of short stories, Free and Other Stories in 1918.

    In his lifetime Dreiser was controversial as a man and as a writer. He was accused, with some justice by conventional standards, of being immoral in his personal behavior, a poor thinker, and a dangerous political radical; his style was said to be ponderous and his narrative sense weak. As time passes, however, Dreiser has been recognized as a profound and prescient critic of debased American values and as a powerful novelist.

 

 

 

2. Plot

Dissatisfied with life in her rural Wisconsin home, 18-year-old Caroline Meeber “Sister Carrie”,  takes the train to Chicago, where her older sister Minnie, and her husband Sven Hanson, have agreed to take her in. On the train, Carrie meets Charles Drouet, a traveling salesman, who is attracted to her because of her simple beauty and unspoiled manner. They exchange contact information, but upon discovering the “steady round of toil”.

Carrie soon embarks on a quest for work to pay rent to her sister and her husband, and takes a job running a machine in a shoe factory. One day, after an illness that costs her job, she encounters Drouet, who encourages her to dine with him. That night, she writes a good-bye note to Minnie and moves in a much larger apartment with Drouet.

By the time Drouet introduces Carrie to George Hurstwood, the manager of Fitzgerald. Hurstwood becomes infatuated with Carrie’s youth and beauty, and before long they start an affair, communicating and meeting secretly. One day, the affair is uncovered. After a night of drinking, Hurstwood stumbles upon a large amount of cash in Fitzgerald and Moy’s offices. Under the pretext of Drouet’s sudden illness, he lures Carrie onto a train and escapes with her to Canada. Hurstwood mollifies Carrie by agreeing to marry her, and the couple move to New York City. After only a few years, Hurstwood soon discovers that his savings are running out. With a serious of things, Carrie leaves him; in her farewell note, she encloses twenty dollars.

Hurstwood ultimately becomes a beggar. Reduced to standing in line for bread and charity, he commits suicide in a flophouse. Meanwhile, Carrie achieves stardom, but finds that money and fame do not satisfy her longings or bring her happiness and that nothing will.

 

 

1. 2.     Main Character Analysis

Charles H. Drouet, a buoyant traveling salesman Carrie meets on the train to Chicago. For Carrie, Drouet plays many roles in her life. The first man she met after she left the contryside, and the first man who guided her to the mysterious and prosperity city.

George W. Hurstwood, a well-to-do, sophisticated man who manages Fitzgerald and Moy’s resort.

Sister Carrie, Carrie is a pure and pretty girl with little ambitions. She is young, bright, timid and ignorant. She is not educated well and possesses no excellent ability of observation and analysis. Self-interest is strongly kept in her mind. It is, nevertheless, her guiding characteristic. For Carrie, countryside is entirely not a swell place to stay. She is dissatisfied with what she had. It seemes incongruous that she would live in countryside for long, marry a farmer and have children who will be farmers, too. Warm with the fancies of youth, she ventured to the mysterious city and attempted to realise her Amercian dream. She met Drouet on the train and was attracted by him and what he said about Chicago. She thought, she had met the true feeling while it was only a luring. And when Drouet praised her elegant appearance and the image of modern lady from the big city, Carrie raised the idea of being a part of Chicago. Then she went to find jobs, like many little girls who have beautiful dreams but couldn’t go into the society really.

Carrie is a nervous and sensitive. When she first passed along the stores; she was much affected by the remarkable displays of trinkets , dress goods ,stationery , and jewelry. She could not help feeling the beauty and stunning of this vigorous and prosperous city. She also felt inferior because of her own position and status in the high class society. A flame of envy lighted in her heart. She realized in a dim way how much the city held –wealth , fashion , ease meanwhile, indifferent, cruel and realistic. Women here enjoyed what she longed for, adornment, dress and a decent lover.  She dreamed beautiful clothes , hats ,delicious food and leisure life. Nevertheless, it was just a dream–only due to her poverty. She was so nervous and sensitive that She was afraid of the scoff from others for her poor education, clumsy expression and indecent behavior. She eagered to change her poor life, and wanted to achieve others’ respect.

Carrie is also a passive and vain character. Poor and pure as she is, she seems to be trapped in the bottom of society, but two men make her get rid of the difficult position. When Carrie leaves home at the age of 18 and takes train to Chicago, she soon becomes interested in Drouet seated behind her and talks to her due to his fine clothing and humorous and talktive image. And when she was forced by poor living and job condition, she is so moved by the way he treats her so that she agrees to move into a rented apartment for her. From then on, Carrie radically bids farewell to her virginity. With the beautiful dress and trinkets, Carrie is quickly becoming graceful and elegant, an entire city lady. It seems the happy ending is coming. Nevertheless, the story is destined. Carrie never falls in love with Drouet, at least, in the true sense. The reason why she agrees to be Drouet’s mistress, is not only her poverty and poor situation, but also Drouet’s income and the identification of citizen. Thus, when Carrie met Hurstwood who is far more refines and elegant than Drouet, Carrie was so excited because she found an ideal man for her. Hurstwood’s elegance, decence, and wealth fires her heart and got her love immediately. She believes that Mr. Hurstwood will bring her the life of the high class society and a large number of money for her make-up. Finally she leaves Drouet and is passively seduced by Hustwood. She seeks for happiness, especially material happiness. Though there are changes in her life, she realizes that money, reputation and beautiful clothes cannot bring happiness to her and the individual satisfaction is only a dream. As the novel described: Carrie soon found that a little money brought her nothing. The world of wealth and distinction was quite as far as ever. She could feel that there ware no warm, sympathetic friendships. All of them seem to be seeking their own interests and amusement, regardless of the possible sad consequence to others.

The tragedy of Carrie is that she equals material and reputation to happiness , thus separates the imaginary society from the real society. It seemed that her passionate desire had came true eventually. However,at the end of the novel,she is still sitting in the rocking-chair dreaming her own happiness.The main reason for her fate is the strong desire for a better life.

 

3. Comment

   Theodore Dreiser lived during the alternation of 19th and 20th century when the doctrines of the consumptionism and hedonism were widely accepted. As capitalist industry developed rapidly, on the one hand, commodity economy provided people an enormous material enjoyment in life, on the other hand destroyed the natural living conditions and eroded people’s spiritual and emotional life. The whole society in that time was stuffed with fanatical material persuit and sick money worship. The personal spiritual system as well as the whole social spiritual system were broken down.

Sister Carrie is just an epitome of the deforming society and individuals. This is a tragedy about a girl’s pursuit of better life and her lost in pursuit of it. As a gril from a low paid family in a little countryside, pure and pretty, timid and simple, Carrie boarded the train for Chicago in order to seek for her dream. However, when the train to Chicago arrives, her train of desires does never stop. She never satisfies with current situation, and never stops pursuing a better goal, that is, she is totally lost in substance. There are many reasons shaping her desires.

First of all, the effect of American social situation.

 There was a profound change in American society between the late 19th and early 20th century. It was the convert of the ideology and awareness since the political stability after the civil war. With the rapid development of economy, industrialization and urbanization reaching an unprecedented level, the commodity presented diversity. In order to get a further economic development, American had to maximize the groups of consumers. Therefore, a bad culture of competing with each other and enlarging the circle of extravagant consumers rised. The moral standard of this culture was the ability to build estates, to buy expensive clothes, and man were proud of possessing attracting and beautiful women. Therefore, people should follow the drives of the trend, “As consumers who will treat enjoyment as their own duty, and treat enjoyment and satisfaction as a career.”

   Many people regard Carrie as a”dangerous beauty”. They impute Hurstwood’s death to Carrie, if she was not so cold blooded, if she was not so vain, and if she could enjoy present life… Hurstwood could not change from a gentleman to a begger. However, under this kind of environment, Carrie naturally aspired to possess materials, especially those new clothes and beautiful jewelry. She expected to use these items to improve her value and social status. thus she was firmly convinced that pursuit of material satisfaction was very important when she saw the glittering array in the store. After she arrived Chicago, the various commodities, accessories, clothing, shoes, stationery, jewelry, etc. in the window, caught Carrie’s eyes. She viewed all of these with envy because her shabby clothes and small suitcase just showed her humble position. she was tortured by the consciousness of her identity—outsider, and frustrated by the fact that she couldn’t possess what she wanted. Although her pretty face and elegant figure conquered many men, those well-dressed beautiful wives looked down upon her. She was subconsciously aware that the city provided women with all the things—wealth, fashion and comfort, which made them look much more attractive. At the same time, she came to learn that people judged people with their appearance unconsciously. It was undoubtedly a consumer-center society. The clothes were a sort of social language, expressing the status and wealth of people. So consuming conception greatly embodied in Carrie’s endless desires.

   There’s no denying that the dress sometimes is not only something protecting us from cold, but also a symbol, by which people could tell which social group others belong to. As a rural girl who came from remote areas alone, Carrie was inevitably judged by people around her about her social status and social class. People in the citizen never made friends with the poor and humble contryside girl, however beautiful the girl was. They wouldn’t show their respect to a girl from the bottom of the society, whatever good quality she had, either. But her simple dress implied her low social status, thus she decided to change her destiny.

   Secondly, the influences of individuals

   Carrie is sensitive and self-based, but she is arrogant as well. she hates the citizens who scoff her often, meanwhile, she eagers to be a member of them. Her desires are stimulated by a group of people.

   The first one who inflences Carrie is Drouet. In fact, Drouet himself is a good advertisement –“fastened with large, gold plate buttons, set with the common yellow agates, known as ‘cat’s-eyes’…” (Dreiser, Sister Carrie 3). He liked flirting with some fashionable and beautiful women in the street and remarking upon their appearance. His blandishments and humor evoked Carrie’s desire to live a luxury life in Chicago and come into the first-class society. By seeing the fashion decorated with valuable materials and uncountable money, Carrie obscurely felt that she was in the center of the wealth. In such a metropolis as Chicago, Carrie was gradually lost, physically and then mentally.One of Carrie’s characteristics was the good ability of comprehension, which made her find rules of beauty from the repeated praise, and imitate secretly.

   Another woman who had great influence on Carrie was her neighbor Mrs Haier. Mrs Haier often spoke highly of wealth and status, which made great contribute to Carrie’s knowledge of wealth rank.

   Sister Carrie’s neighbor Mrs. Vance also brought tremendous change for her life after she arrived in New York. Mrs. Vance walked on Broadway with Carrie, and helped Carrie broaden her horizons. There were not only women who would like to show off their charm and beauty, but also men who admired beauty. Carrie found some handsome men and well-dressed ladies stared at Mrs. Vance cunningly, though she was adored by some gentleman who wore fit coat and top hat and held silver cane in their hand. But she felt that she was not a member of this street. Compared with Mrs. Vance,  Carrie found herself far from Mrs. Vance in whatever aspect. This deeply hurted her pride. So Carrie decided she would never came here once more unless dressed.  This clearly implicated Carrie’s mental state: she aspired to wear beautiful clothes and show off in publicity. Therefore, through this stroll Carrie deeply realized the importance of clothes and ornaments.

   Besides the above relevant factors, Sister Carrie’s desire has much to do with her own vanity and indulgence. At the beginning of the novel, Dreiser had pointed out the character of Carrie: “she had learnt to feel sorry for herself. Soon she understood the creature comfort. She dreamed a meteoric rise without any background.”

   The main reason why she felt the factory was hard to bear is that she had used to life at a slower pace in the country. She never wanted to herself in such drab factories. In her imagination, salary should be generous, environment should be elegant. Accordingly it can be assumed that she would resign voluntarily even though she may not caught a cold or been sick.

   These desires drove her to buy new products, to consume new products, to satisfy her vanity and enjoy value of ascension from luxury goods. But this happiness is temporary. For new luxury would emerge when she got the goods before, she would be drove by a new desire. More luxury would bring more desires. This weird cycle illustrated the characters of modern consumption—inappeasable and endless. No wonder that Carrie will never be conternt with her present situation, and she will never fulfill her desires.

 

 

 

 

4. Conclusion:

    Although this novel is intended to disclosure the corruption and money worship of the American society, it also has realistic significance. In our modern society, it is glutted with various evil desires, fanatical material persuit and sick money worship. As the increasing distance between the poor and the rich in China, an unhealthy culture and trend prevail. There are a large number of people existing the psychology of comparing with others. They aspire to have more beautiful clothes, more gorgeous estates and more money than any other in the world. These people have their own dream—making money. They also have their own god—money. They worship money and status, and insist that luxury  lifestyle and enjoyment is the carrer and duty of their life. As for the poor, there is a contridictory, that is, they hate and envy people in the high class society, but eager to be a member of them as well. They want to have beautiful clothing, commodious houses and higher social status. Nevertheless, the rich and the poor are both lost in substance. They over pursue the enjoyment of materials and desert the garden of the spirit.

    All in all, shortening the distance between the rich and the poor is the urgent affair for all over the world.