The Pursuit Of Androgyny

Theodore Dreiser, an American naturalist writer who enjoys a high status in American literature, published his first novel Sister Carrie in 1900, which is also one of his best works. The story took place in the late 19 th and the early 20 th century—the transitional period, in which phase the way of people living and thinking changed with the rapid development of capitalism and industrialization, especially women‘s mind. Carrie, who lived in this transitional period, can be regarded as a representative of women at that time.The novel tells the story of how a young girl from countryside struggles to become a famous actress in Broadway, vividly depicting Carrie‘s life experience and the development of her gender role. The novel has drawn a lot of critics‘ attention at home and abroad, but most of them explore it from the aspect of naturalism, few of them discuss Carrie‘s gender role from the perspective of androgyny. The concept of androgyny is first put forward and applied in literature by Virginia Woolf in her A Room of One’s Own, which means the combination of masculine and feminine characteristics. From this perspective, the thesis analyzes the protagonist Carrie‘s gender role and explores the development of it. The thesis finds that Carrie‘s gender role first is masculinity predominating over femininity, then develops to femininity predominating over masculinity, and finally she struggles for harmonious androgyny.The thesis consists of five parts: Introduction, Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3, and Conclusion.Introduction offers background information of Theodore Dreiser and his novel Sister Carrie, and research status at home and abroad. The concepts of gender role and androgyny are also briefly explained.Chapter 1 Andro: Masculinity Predominating over Femininity discusses Carrie‘s masculine gender role when she first comes to Chicago. Carrie comes alone to the city from her hometown, full of manly ambition and courage, and she also refuses to become a traditional woman like her sister Minnie.Chapter 2 Gyn: Femininity Predominating over Masculinity explores Carrie‘s feminine gender role after she loses her job. She then tries to enjoy man‘s wealth through marriage, and after marrying Hurstwood, she becomes the ―angel in the house‖. Her feminine beauty is also greatly improved in this period.Chapter 3 Struggling for Harmonious Androgyny elaborates that Carrie rebuilds her masculinity and makes full use of her femininity at the same time, and she possesses both masculine and feminine characteristics. This kind of gender role helps her become successful in her career. But there still exist some obstacles for her to achieve harmonious androgyny in the capitalistic patriarchal society.Conclusion summaries the views of the preceding chapters, and holds that the end of the novel is not the end of Carrie‘s story, but really marks a new beginning in her life. Sister Carrie is still on her way pursuing androgyny.