Human Suvival: A Comparative Study Of Jennie Gerhardt And Sister Ccrrie From The Perspective Of Darwinism

There are several academic theories and discoveries that cause shocking influences on the academic circles in the world. Certainly, Darwinism is among them. Newton develops the science of the seventeenth century a step forward with his discovery of the law that governs the universe. While, Darwin changes science of the nineteenth century and shocks the world with his theory of evolution.Many scientists lay foundations for Darwinism: Lamark challenges the theory that the original species are unchangeable. Lyell popularizes the uniformitarianism, the theory of the evolution of the surface of the earth. In the meanwhile, Karl Marks puts forward the conception of development pointing out that all the things are not stable and are during the process of changing. Darwin challenges the western religious belief supported by the origin of species, theory of adaptation, theory of evolution, and he uses samples and fossils as evidence. Darwinism spreads into almost every field of every layer around the world, literature is inevitable. Dreiser is the first outstanding writer and one that can not be neglected in the twentieth century American literature, the forerunner of American modern novel. Compared with his contemporary writers, Dreiser always creates in a unique way, he makes contributions to the American literature transforming from the early Victorian and Howells literature style to the modern literature style. No one could dare to expose the real life, the beauty and the terror. He breaks the constraint of the traditional American literature. Dreiser’s two novels Jennie Gerhardt and Sister Carrie are dealing similar materials but cause severly different reactions among the readers.In recent years, uncountable studies and researches have been done on Dreiser’s works. Majority of them are surrounding the naturalism in Dreiser’s novels. Many ways of analysis have been applied such as historical biography criticism, textual criticism, consumer culture criticism, psychological analysis, feminism, and constructivism. Scholars try to analyze the connotation and artistic characters of Dreiser’s works via various perspectives. Though Sister Carrie and The Tragedy of America are often mentioned and studied. the attention on Jennie Gerhardt is much less. Even less comparative studies are done between Jennie Gerhardt and Sister Carrie. According to Darwin’s theory of adaptation, though women are always labeled as the weak, and in the social life women have to face the suppression and misunderstanding. However, to be weak does not mean that they can not survive. They have their own advantages that men do not have. Women can become more adaptive to the environment sometime, somewhere, somehow. To be weak is to be strong in a sense.This thesis falls into four chapters. Chapter One is an introduction to the author, his life and works, and the theory which is to be applied in the thesis. Then it introduces the previous studies of the two novels studied in this thesis, the only two novels concerning female protagonists written by Dreiser. Then it introduces the Darwinism which is going to be applied in this thesis. First, it introduces the theories that laid foundation for Darwinism. Following that it gives a brief introduction to the principles of Darwinism focusing on the natural selection and the fittest survival. Later, it exposes the application of Darwinism in literary world. Chapter Two is an exploration of the two novels from the perspective of Darwinism, centering on the growth and survival of the two female protagonists. When facing the choices of life, the two protagonists make great efforts to take advantage of what they have and make themselves adapt to the environment. Chapter Three is the sublimation of the analysis. The way how the two female characters survive represents the living of the people in the nineteenth and twentieth century, and their experience of survival is the reflection of the track and experience of survival of the whole human beings. The last chapter is the conclusion, which covers the main findings, implications, limitations of the thesis as well as the suggestions for further studies.