On Social Tragedy In Dreiser’s Sister Carrie

Theodore Dreiser was one of the greatest writers in the history of the20th century American literature. His novels broke the genteel tradition of previous literary works, honestly reflecting the social evils in modern American society such as poverty, unemployment and sharp disparity between the rich and the poor, and presenting the readers a materialistic and money-oriented world. Sister Carrie is one of his masterpieces, which has stirred extensive controversy since its publication, and it was even rejected by many publishers for its honest depiction. In this novel, Dreiser created a series of tragic figures, intending to express his pessimistic view toward American society through tragedy of the characters in the novel.In addition to introduction and conclusion, this thesis consists of three chapters.Chapter1mainly introduces the theoretical basis for Dreiser’s creation of Sister Carrie and the influences of these theories on Dreiser’s pessimistic view in the novel. This chapter includes three sections. Section1discusses the influence of Realism on Dreiser. Realism presents life as it is and requires real characters, real scenes and real incidents. Dreiser creates Sister Carrie according to this principle of Realism. Based on the true story of Dreiser’s sister Emma and personal experiences during his growth and work, the novel honestly reflects the tragedy of American life in the late19th and early20th century and tries to seek the cause and nature of the tragedy. Section2discusses the influence of social Darwinism on Dreiser. Herbert Spencer first applied Darwinism to human society, held that natural selection played an important role in the evolution and development of human beings, and thus put forward the theory of survival of the fittest. Dreiser uses this theory to explain that such kind of dramatic fall and rise in capitalist society is merely the effect of the law of jungle. Section3discusses the influence of Naturalism on Dreiser. Naturalism is a physiological or mechanical determinism, attaching great importance on heredity and environment. It holds that human behavior is completely governed by environmental forces and hereditary factors such as instinct and desire, therefore human couldn’t control their own fate, and this fact itself is a tragedy. In the novel, the tragic fate of Carrie and Hurstwood is exactly the inevitable result under the double effects of external environmental forces and their pursuit of desire.Chapter2mainly introduces the manifestations of social factors in America at that time in Sister Carrie. The author analyzes the social environment in the novel respectively from the following perspectives:the influence of American industrialization and urbanization, the prevalence of consumerism and the disillusionment of American dream. Due to the influence of industrialization and urbanization, a great number of cities appeared and developed fast, which attracted large amount of country people to come into city, and the sharp disparity between the rich and the poor increased class conflicts in society; meanwhile, with the fast development of economy, consumerism became popular and people’s values also changed dramatically, thus American society gradually became materialistic and money-oriented, and the originally inspiring American dream also lost its initial connotation. Since too much emphasis was put on the significance of material wealth in life, the original American dream of many people was thus shattered. The thesis points out that it is exactly the existence of these negative social factors that to a large extent determine the tragic fate of the characters in the novel.Chapter3analyzes the tragedy of the two main characters in the novel. Carrie’s tragic fate is analyzed from three aspects:her insatiable desire, her loss of identity and the insignificance of her life, while the tragedy of Hurstwood is mainly due to the following reasons:his desire for power and control, his denial of loss and inadaptation to new environment. His desire causes him to lose his moderately rich and comfortable life, while his inadaptation makes him the victim of the law of survival of the fittest and finally causes him the tragic end of suicide.The last part of the thesis is conclusion. The thesis points out that through detailed and penetrating portrayal of the characters, Dreiser faithfully presented the tragic fate of people in the industrialized American society and expressed his pessimistic view of the capitalistic American society. Dreiser’s concern about the helplessness in life and the living predicament of American people at the time is universal, and his concern can be applied to both todav’s American society and the entire human race. Reading this American novel carefully can guide the readers to reconsider some major topics about society and humanistic values, so it is still of certain instructive and educational value in modern times.