Consumer Culture And Theodore Dreiser's Early Writing

American literature in the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth had quite sophisticated background. With the rich endowments by nature, and other advantages, the economy of the US had developed enormously quickly so that it became one of the richest countries in the world. The international status of it had risen as well. Consequently, the great writers began to appear in the age. The obvious evidence is that from 1930 to 1954, six American writers won the Novel Prize for literature. They were all greatly indebted to the affluence of the country in economy, politics and culture in the transitional period. For most of them were born or grew up in that period and were greatly influenced by the generation before them. The generation of writers in the transitional period gave birth to the flowering of American modern fiction represented by two trends: realism and naturalism. Theodore Dreiser was regarded as "a great American fiction writer "( Helfand, M. S. Foreword in Ziff, L. 1985), but he was not fairly treated in the beginning. It was exceptionally uneasy to write novels " which represent all the specific subjects of his period, and change the wholerevolutionary realities of most American people's life"(ditto). I choose consumer culture as a perspective in studying two of Dreiser's novels: Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt. In the introductory part there is an examination of the critical history on Dreiser and his writing. I also tell about the cause of the research. Part one of the thesis offers a review of consumer culture and modern consumer culture. People can give as many definitions to consumer culture as to the term culture; however, I choose to understand consumer culture as a dynamic term, which diversifies in accordance with the time and age, the social system, and the place it belongs to. It includes the value system, tendency, habits and fashion and even the aesthetics revealed in the consuming behavior of a community.The author discussed in my thesis lived in an age when modern American consumer culture was becoming prevalent, especially in urban areas. As accepted by scholars, "The American society was turning from a producing type to a consuming one"(蒋道超 2000: 91). The status of consumption was highlighted in commerce. The modern consumer culture in the society was featured by the intensification of the function of consumption as a sign of social status. The more, the better one consumed, the higher status one held. Conspicuous consumption became a fashion in this country. In addition, a distinction is made between consumer culture and consumerism in this part. The second part is the major part. The paper first expounds Dreiser's using contrastive themes and characters in Sister Carrie to reveal different attitudes toward the modern consumer culture in the transitional period. One is the theme of hope connected with Carrie, who experiences hardship in hunting jobs, and also depends on two men as their mistress and she becomes a famous actress in Broadway theaters of New York. The other is the theme of despair of Hurstwood. He is the breadwinner of a well-to-do family. But because he is not satisfied with his wife and children's keeping-up-with-Joneses, he breaks up with them and flees for New York with Carrie illicitly. He is not active as before and he gradually loses the ability to support the necessities. Then he becomes a beggar and commits suicide in the end of the novel. Thus the novel is very forceful with the contrast. In Jennie Gerhardt, there are parallel themes and characters. Jennie is also a poor job-hunter who goes through some misfortunes in the cities. She is kept as mistress of two men: the senator Brander and Lester, a rich businessman's son. In the novel, all of them are pursuing better statusin the consumer society in spite that they may break the moral rules or sacrifice happiness. We think that the writer was trying to defend the characters' behavior when he used naturalistic philosoph...