Pragmatism In Sister Carrie

Theodore Dreiser is an outstanding naturalism writer in American history of literature. He broke the timid and genteel tradition of Victoria and Howells, and opened a door to an honest, daring, and zesty field. He published his first novel Sister Carrie in 1900. The fate of the book is up-and-down: it was forbidden to publish first, then it was published; so that it experienced several up-and-downs.Since its publishing Sister Carrie was controversial. Some said it immoral; others thought it telling the truth. There were mainly two powerful voices in the controversy. One voice belonged to the prominent critic Stuart P. Sherman. He attacked Dreiser's adherence to the naturalistic theories and thought that to write from such a viewpoint on life was to reduce human existence to the level of animal life. Aother voice on the opposite was from H. L. Mencken. He saw Driser as being the latest and the greatest representative of realistic tradition. Before Mencken, Randolph Bourne had said that Dreiser surpassed all other writers in picturing lower middle-class life in America because he approached his subject directly.In Sister Carrie, pragmatism is the core spirit. Dreiser describes a pragmatic society and a group of pragmatists. Dreiser himself believes that pragmatism is reasonable. He believes the final success is most important. In such a pragmatic society, conventional moral has no help to one's development and survival. However, at the same time, Dreiser finds some bad side-effects of pragmatism, that is, although some pragmatists do make success, they are not really happy. This thesis is attempted to analyze the author's view on pragmatism and point out the misfortune caused by it, trying to warn people about its side effects.Chapter I focuses on the pragmatism spirit Sister Carrie reflects, which has a long history in America. Firstly, pragmatism was rooted in the early American pioneering and frontier history: The immigrants and exploiters, who had experienced the hardship, realized that only practical spirit of labor could guarantee their survival. Secondly, pragmatism was culturally rooted in the ethic of Protestantism, which declared that the loyalty to God was showed in one's worldly success. Thirdly, pragmatism was catalyzed by the rapid development of natural science, especially Darwin's biologic evolution theory at the end of...