On The House Image In Dreiser's Novels

Theodore Dreiser is an outstanding American writer in the late 19 th and early20 th century.He created many books which has left valuable cultural heritage for later generations.These works depict all aspects of American urban life.Basing on the perspective of ‘housing',this article will present a study of Dreiser's work to show how colorful Dreiser's description of housing is and to understand Dreiser's dedication to the writing of city.We can realize the change of Dreiser's thoughts,especially on the area of family ethics and the modernity of family space.In addition to the introduction and conclusion,this paper is divided into four chapters.The first three chapters analyzed Dreiser's works from the perspective of desire imagery,social imagery and spiritual imagery of housing.The first chapter described the desire imagery of housing for people who first moving into cities,mainly focusing on Sister Carrie,American Tragedy and Genius.Carrie,Clyde and Eugene move from country to city and they are deeply attracted by the sublime sights.Housing is not only the place where events occur,but also the materialized expression of desire in consumer society.The second chapter analyzes the social image of housing in the context of consumption.The Financier,The Titan and The Stoic all tell the entire life of the financier Cowperwood who regards housing as a symbol of social status,and takes housing as a stepping stone to the upper class.The third chapter is the spiritual image of the housing.It mainly studies how Dreiser solves the spiritual confusion by the consciousness of "home" and the spirit.Dreiser try to returning to nature and firm spiritual beliefs to solve family problems such as family disintegration,alienation of family relationships,and so on.The fourth chapter starts with the life and creative experience of Dreiser to explore his consumption ethics and his solicitude of space.In a word,Dreiser truly shows the changes of family ethics in the transition period through his depiction of housing,expresses the anxiety about the desire and the living state of globalization for which implying the profound modern value concerns.