Carrie, A Lost Soul

The paper is an analysis of Sister Carrie through the theory of Conspicuous Consumption. It aims at sizing up and criticizing Carrie with the purpose of helping find out the origin and true meaning of happiness in life.Sister Carrie tells a story of girl that manages to come out of poverty and becomes rich. Carrie gets rid of the days when she desperately wants to buy things but has no money. Finally she enters the world of upper class where she is embraced by money and attention. She used to fight for a better life, and then she gives up with different guys come into her life. At the end of the novel she sits on the chair feeling borned and lonely. The things she always looks forward to haven't brought her happiness and sense of achievement. She lost herself. The ending of the story is a inevitable result of Carrie's character and choices. She envys rich people and desires everything that she dosen't have while others do. She is so impulsive that desires lead her astray. After getting in hand eveything she wants, she becomes heartless and forgetful.There ia a consumption model called Conspicuous Consumption in the western world of 19th century. It differs from normal consumption by its purpose. Conspicuous consumption is out of honorific value rather than out of demand. A woman's apparel and things she uses are a signal of her husband's social status. Feeling good and making others feel inferior are the motive of conspicuous consumption. Apparently Carrie is one of the people who do that. At the beginning she makes money for a piece of bread to eat and for a place to live, but after meeting Drouet her inner desire for good things is activated. She doesn't need luxury things but she wants to have them to show that she is as good as others. Carrie's understanding of money is very superficial. She doesn't regard money as something that can only be exchanged with hard work but as something that she deserves since others have it. This paper gradually reveals Carrie's lost heart under the garment of beauty and innocence. She fulfills her desires and her dreams but she sees no happiness, since she gets on the wrong track and can't find herself.