英语本科毕业论文-Pursuit and Disillusionment of Sister Carries American Dream).doc

Pursuit and Disillusionment of Sister CarriesAmerican DreamA ThesisSubmitted for obtaining the B.A. Degree from Foreign Languages Department, Hubei University of Chinese MedicineBy Hu ZhenSupervisedBy A/Prof. Liu Ya June 2, 201120 SignatureThe thesis Pursuit and Disillusionment of Sister Carries American Dream by Hu Zhen was reviewed and approved by A/Prof. Liu Ya on June 2, 2011.Supervisor:_(Signature)AcknowledgementsThe paper was completed in June 2011, and many people have helped with it. Here I would particularly like to acknowledge my respectable supervisor, A/Prof. Liu Ya, for the valuable advice that she has given to me in the writing of this paper. In addition to what she has taught in her class on how to prepare and write the paper. I also want to acknowledge the teachers in Foreign Language and Literature Department of Hubei University of Chinese Medicine who have provided me with rich information and great encouragement. Besides, my roommates should be acknowledged too for their kind and generous help.Abstract: The American Dream develops into a kind of national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success in the late of 19th century and the early 20th century. Thats also the main reason for Sister Carrie to pursue the wealth, status and love. Carrie, like thousands of other American young people, comes to the city to seek her dream from a small village. Of course, to some degree, the American Dream indeed is a sort of motive to urge people to make some progress. However, the American Dream has became a kind of dream that only a small part of people can come true in the late of 19th century and the early 20th century because of the restriction of various reasons. On the surface, the dream looks so beautiful that everyone wants to chase it. But in fact, it just likes a mirage that will disillusion in the end. Sister Carrie, a pure village girl became two mens lover, and then became a famous actress of Broadway under the drive of desire that pursuit of material. However, the fulfillment of material and the emptiness of spiritual had made a apparent contrast in the end of the novel. This kind of contrast just reveals the fantasy of the American Dream. Different from previous research, this paper mainly tries to probe into the causes of Sister Carries tragic destiny from the process of pursuit of American Dream. Through the pursuit and disillusionment of the American Dream to draw the conclusion that the tragedy of Carrie is doomed. the American Dream looks beautiful, but in fact it is not reliable, just like the foam of soup. It only gives people an illusion. So Carries tragedy is inevitable under the social background of that time.Key words: American Dream tragedy expectation desire disillusionment摘要：美国梦在十九世纪末二十世纪初发展成横扫美国的一种思潮，美国梦是一种承诺，一种可以自由地追寻财富和成功的承诺。美国梦也是嘉莉妹妹追求财富、地位、爱情的主要原因。嘉莉，像成千上万的年轻人一样,从乡村来到大城市去追寻自己的梦想. 当然，从一定程度上来说，美国梦的确是促使人们取得某些进步的一种动力。然而，在十九世纪末二十世纪初，由于各种原因的限制，美国梦变成了一种只有极少一部分人能够实现的梦想。从表面上来看，美国梦看起来是如此的美好以致所有的人都想去追寻属于自己的美国梦，但事实上，它就像海市蜃楼一样最终都会消失殆尽.嘉莉妹妹，在物质欲望的驱使下，从一个纯真的乡村少女变成了两个男人的情人，最后成为了百老汇有名的演员。然而，在小说的结尾，物质财富的丰富与精神上的匮乏形成了鲜明的对比。这种对比恰恰揭示了美国梦的虚幻本质。本文主要通过分析嘉莉妹妹美国梦的追寻与幻灭过程来探究嘉莉悲剧命运的原因，从而得出结论：嘉莉妹妹的梦想破灭的悲剧是注定的。美国梦看起来很美，其实就像肥皂泡一样不可信。它仅仅给人以幻觉，因此嘉莉妹妹的悲剧在当时的社会大背景下是不可避免。关键词：美国梦 悲剧 期望 欲望 幻灭 Table of ContentsAcknowledgements -iAbstract in English -iiAbstract in Chinese -iii1.0 Introduction-6 2.0 Literature Review-63.0 Brief introduction of Dreiser and his Sister Carrie-83.1 Brief introduction of Dreiser-83.1.1 Dreisers reputation and his works-83.1.2 The influence of Dreisers life experience on his novel writing-83.2 Brief introduction of Sister Carrie-94.0 Carries pursuit of American Dream-104.1 Brief introduction of the American Dream-104.1.1 The origin and development of the American Dream-104.1.2 The influence of American Dream on the whole society-114.2 Carries dream of pursuing wealth and status-114.3 Carries dream of pursuing love-125.0 The disillusionment of Carries American Dream-135.1 The disillusionment of the dream of wealth and high social status-135.2 The disillusionment of the dream of love-146.0 The causes of Carries tragedy-156.1The external causes of Carries tragedy-156.1.1 The social background -156.1.2 The family factors-166.1.3 The life experience-166.2 The internal causes of Carries tragedy-176.2.1 Carries endless Desires for a better life-176.2.2 CarrieFull of illusion and limited capability-187.0 Conclusion-198.0 Bibliography-20 Pursuit and Disillusionment of Sister CarriesAmerican Dream1.0 IntroductionThe American Dream, sometimes in the phrase “Chasing the American Dream”, originates from the Puritan belief in ”building a city upon the hill”. Later on, it develops into a kind of national ethos of the United States in which freedom includes a promise of the possibility of prosperity and success. In the American Dream, first expressed by James Truslow Adams in 1931, “life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement” (James Truslow Adams, 1931, p.214-215) regardless of social class or circumstances of birth. The idea of the American Dream is rooted in the United States Declaration of Independence which proclaims that “all men are created equal” and that they are “endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights” including “Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Thats also the main reason for Sister Carrie to pursue the wealth, status and love. Carrie, like thousands of other American young people, comes to the city to pursue her dream. Of course, to some degree, the American Dream indeed is a sort of motive to urge people to make some progress. However, the American Dream has become a kind of dream that only a small part of people can come true in the late of 19th century and the early 20th century because of the restriction of various reasons. To most common people, the American Dream only exists as a dream. On the surface, the dream looks beautiful so that everyone wants to chase it. But in fact, it just likes a mirage that it will disillusion in the end.Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreisers first novel. It mainly talked about the story of Carrie, a young girl of a small country village took a train to Chicago for getting a better life. She hoped that this adventure would make a big change in her life. She met a traveling salesman named Drouet on the train. When she got to Chicago and witnessed her sisters miserable life in this big city. And she realized that she must find a job to support herself. At last, she found a job in a shoe factory. But when her white-collar-like job turned out to be a woman labor in the gloomy and smelly shoe work house, she fell into pieces and got sick after several weeks of hard work. The appearance of Drouet made Carrie decide to cohabitate with him in order to get a better life. When Carrie realized that her dream of marrying with Drouet would never come true, she turned to Hurstwood, she found that Hurstwood was more wealth and gentle than Drouet. Under the drive of desire, she thought Hurstwood was more suitable to her. The love based on the money would not have a good result. Her dream of wealth and love from Hurstwood disillusioned in the end. The bankruptcy of Hurstwood forced Carrie to find job and Carrie managed to move up in her career on Broadway.However, Carrie achieved stardom, but found that money and fame could not satisfy her longings or bring her happiness. She became unhappy although she got a lot of wealth ,fame and social state at last. The fulfillment of material and the emptiness of spiritual had made a apparent contrast in the end of the novel. At the end of the book Carrie was seen sitting in her rocking-chair, still rocking. The deceive nature of American Dream indicates that Carries tragedy is doomed. The tragedy of Carrie was a vivid reflection of the tragedy of the whole society. 2.0 Literature ReviewSister Carrie is a novel about the tragedy of American Dream. Concerning the study of the American Dream and Sister Carrie, ideas of scholars in different organizations are collected here.Li Tong (Department of Foreign Languages, Guangxi University of Technology), in her thesis American DreamA Car of Desire Is Driving to the Abysm, she had deeply analyzed Sister Carrie and Hurstwoods the respective pursuit of the American Dream under the drive of the desire. The desire of Carrie is the pursuit of wealth, beautiful clothes, social states and so on. That is to say, Sister Carries desire is to get a better life, which is blameless that everyone wants to have a better life. But the means to get a better life is very important. And the tragedy of Carrie is her means is wrong. She shouldnt ignore the social morality to satisfy her endless material desire. The desire of Hurstwood is the pursuit of love. Introduced as the manager of Fitzgerald and Moys, he is a dashing man who has achieved success. His friend Drouet introduces Carrie to him. Hurstwood falls madly in love with her and starts to think of getting her to run away with him. He falls in love with Carrie and slowly sacrifices his family, home and job for her. He eventually steals ten thousand dollars from his employers and runs away with Carrie, ending up in New York with her. When his business in New York falls, he becomes an idler. Carrie eventually leaves him and he turns into a homeless man who commits suicide at the end. The two main characters American Dream like a car is driving to the abysm and disillusion at the end. In Li Tongs point of view, the strong desire is the main factor to lead the tragedy of Carrie and Hurstwood. American Dream can not become the motives of making people to try their best to achieve the success forever under the whole social background in the late 19th and the early 20th century. American Dream is the murderer of the tragedy of the whole society.Zhu Heng (Department of Foreign Languages, Anhui Business College of Vocational Technology), he searches the ambition psychology and the self-realization of Sister Carrie in his thesis Sister Carries “Ambition Psychology” and Her “Self Realization”. Carrie, the heroine of the novel, never stops her dream of entering the upper society and finally gets her dream realized. This thesis is trying to use Marlows Needs-Hierarchy Theory to analyze Carries different requirement in different stages of her life. The basis of Abraham Marlows Hierarchy of Needs Theory is that people are motivated by needs that remain unsatisfied, and that certain lower factors haveto be satisfied in order for higher needs to be recognized as unfulfilled. Marlow identified generalcategories of needs (survival, physiological, love, safety, and esteem)which have to befulfilled in order for someone to act in an unselfish manner. These needs were referred to as deficiency needs. While we are motivated tofulfill these needs, weprogress toward growth and, eventually, self-actualization. It is a healthy, normal part of life to attempt to satisfy these needs.Marlows Needs-Hierarchy Theory includes five parts: physiological needs, safety needs, social needs, esteem needs and self-actualization. And the degree of each needs is higher than the former ones. That is to say, only when a persons physiological needs are satisfied, he will have the desire to pursue the safety needs. And the rest will be deduced by analogy. In this way, we can understand Carries increasing “ambitious psychology” in deeper aspects. When Carrie has a much better life than in her hometown or her sisters home under the help of Drouet, she dreams a much more luxurious life after acquaint Hurstwood. She begins to pursue her spiritual being when her material desire are satisfied with. After a long period of struggle, Carrie finally gets her “self realization” step by step. She becomes a famous actress on Broadway. The author, Zhu Heng, analyzes Carries desire from the of psychology according to Marlows Needs-Hierarchy Theory.Huang Kaihong, an associate professor of English at the School of Foreign Languages andCulturesSouthwest University of Science and Technology (Mianyang 621010, China). His majoracademic interest is American literature and culture. In her thesis 0n “American Dream” in the Transitional Society: Sister Carries Moral Tendency, she holds the opinion that American Dream is the main cause of Carries moral corruption. “American Dream” has been one of the most ideal dreams throughout the world. It originated from the Puritan belief in “building a city upon the hil1.” Later on, it developed into a kind of secular idea: everyone can succeed from rags to riches with his or her own intelligence and hard work. In American history, it has attracted millions of people to seek their dreams from all over the world and really a lot of dreams have come true. However, when American history entered the transitional period, which was around the year 1900, the means of realizing “American Dream” deviated from its original track. So there appeared a phenomenon that deal dream will come true only you have to do something immora1. The paper, based on ethical literary criticism, analyzes some main details concerning the heroines behavior and critical thinking to point out that the moral tendency of Sister Carrie is influenced greatly by the social environment. And making the conclusion that the novel Sister Carrie is meaningful and naturalistic in reflecting the social problems of that very period. American Dream is not a motive any more, but a activator of the moral corruption of people. Since the publication of Sister Carrie, there have been many critics who commented on this work, and its main character Sister Carrie is a controversial character. Dreiser is criticized by many critics and readers because he doesnt make any comment on Carries degeneration. At the same time, there are a lot of scholars analyze the causes of Carries tragedy. Different from previous researches, this paper aims to analyze the pursuit and disillusionment of Sister Carries American Dream from the external and internal aspects.3.0 Brief introduction of Dreiser and his Sister Carrie3.1 Brief Introduction of Dreiser3.1.1 Dreisers Reputation and His WorksTheodore Dreiser, a great American writer, is an outstanding representative of naturalism and one of Americas foremost novelists. He was the first writer who criticized the futility of the American Dream in his novel so drastically. Although he had never won the Nobel Prize, Dreiser had an enormous influence on American literature during the first quarter of century. He is the only writer who is worth being talked about in the same breath with the European master. Dreisers genius was recognized and applauded by H. L. Mencken, but the general reaction to Dreiser has always been negative. He has been called a “crag of basalt”, “solemn and ponderous” and “the worlds worst greatest writer”, but his influence is evident on some famous writers such as Hemingway, James T. Farrell, and others. Sister Carrie came out in 1990, followed by Jennie Gerhardt and two volumes of his Cowperwood trilogy, The Financer (1912) and The Titan (1914), the third, The Stoic, being published posthumously. His other works include The Genius (1915), an autobiographical work, An American Tragedy (1925), and The Bulwark (1946). And An American Tragedy is considered to be his greatest work. 3.1.2 The Influence of Dreisers Life Experience on His Novel WritingTheodore Dreiser, was born in Indiana, in 1871, the ninth child of German-speaking parents. His father, a devout German immigrant, lost everything when his large wool mill was burned down. For several failures of the business, his father totally gave up the intention of make a big fortune. His childho