Deconstruction And Irony Of “Goodness”

Theodore Dreiser is a significant figure in 20^th-century American literature studies,while his first novel Sister Carrie was severely encumbered during publication.When published,it received extensive injuries for its ambiguity on moral issues.Nevertheless,moral discussion still remains a key issue in Dreiser’s later fictions.Jennie in Jennie Gerhardt and Roberta in An American Tragedy commit the same sin and are both troubled by the image of“the good girl”.At the same time,Clyde,Lester and Hurstwood are also plagued by the“goodness”in their conscience.The ultimate question of what goodness is recurs in Dreiser’s fictions.In fact,goodness is not rigidly defined by standard,as the narrators imply.The three novels mentioned above present how subjective the judgements may be of one’s moral standing.Attitudes of characters towards each other switch in different situations,which means that the standard of goodness is changeable and goodness is a reputable and narratable term.Characters in Dreiser’s novels are created to be stained with their own flaws,but also granted with the will to achieve goodness,which enlivens them with human affections.To find goodness in its acme,one should turn to the spiritual world as it can only exist there instead of in real life.However,beneath the noble fantasy,for those who do not reach the standard,there are struggles,heartbreaks and torment.For Dreiser,those undercurrents are also part of human morals and are more worthwhile to narrate.Thereafter,he not only shatters the illusions of goodness,but also attempts to criticize its legitimacy.It is the standards of goodness that prevent people from recognizing the real goodness around them.Through his fictions,Dreiser presents his de-construction and irony of goodness,and those messages are much more detectable in manuscript versions of the two novels.Dreiser’s critique about morality is targeted at the idealization of goodness in American realism.In the end of the century,realism pays more attention to the educational purpose of literature and stays reluctant to depict social and moral darkness.However,for Dreiser,this convention of morality has already hindered literature from observing and interpreting reality in a faithful way.As an American naturalist,Dreiser also shares with his comrades the hope to write about truth instead of ideal,by challenging the literary conventions on morality.In his philosophical deliberation about goodness and his aesthetic understandings about composition of fiction,Dreiser’s plea for truthfulness find its reflection.Fictions should represent the real life,and more importantly,it should incorporate something critical of the reality.This innate power to rewrite truth critically is the impulse of literary transformation.Based on textual analysis of the republished manuscript versions of Sister Carrie and Jennie Gerhardt,together with other novels by Dreiser,this thesis juxtaposes Dreiser’s novels,literary criticisms,non-fictional works and journal articles and discusses his definition and critique of goodness,in the hope to enrich the ethic background in Dreiser studies.Meanwhile,it resettles Dreiser’s work and philosophy under the background of literary transformation,broadening the discussion on morality and its representation in the stream of American realism and naturalism.