善与恶嘉莉妹妹性格特征与反思.doc

Good and Evil Described by Theodore An Analysis of Carries Character in Sister Carrie内容提要这篇论文将对西奥多德莱塞的第一部代表作嘉莉妹妹的社会批判意义做一简要阐述。它讲述的是一个由农村到城市的女孩成为演员的故事。直到终点，她才有了思考，对物质产生近乎的依赖，物欲文化堵塞了心灵渠道，腐蚀了人们美好、淳朴的感情，由此形成了精神荒漠，迷失了自我。本文主旨将主要分析嘉莉的性格、影响她的内外因素和她独立意识的成长。首先讨论社会的现状，工业革命后，商品的不断发展，促使物质不断满足人们的需要；引发人们物质欲的不断膨胀。第二,周围人们的影响，由于消费文化的影响；周围人们对消费这个观念有了新的认识和见解。消费意味着对物质财富的拥有和奢华消费方式，商品不仅仅表明对生活的基本需要，更是一种身份和社会地位的象征。人们更加注重自身对生活的享受。第三，女性的社会地位，在工业革命后，人们的生活带来了巨大的影响；女性可以走出家门工作，但是因为薪水低廉，经济没有办法独立。女性的地位在家庭中还是局限于母亲和仆人。然而婚姻通常作为女性获得更高地位和财富的重要手段，但是男性追求女性仅是因为得到个人满足。女性的地位取决于和她们相处男性的地位。第四，嘉莉本身的生活习惯、思维方式和为人处事。嘉莉妹妹中金钱起着举足轻重的作用，对嘉莉这样一个贫穷而又充满欲望的农村女孩来说，钱是她得到渴望生活中一切东西的手段。嘉莉体会到城市文明的薄情和残酷。人们仅仅满足于物质生活的享受，而没有精神追求，形成极端不健全的人格。结论：人们渴望生活中一切美好的事物，追求高标准、高品位的生活，永远都不会错。但不是生活的目的，人性中还有许多美德值得我们去追求。关键词：物质欲，消费观念，社会地位，精神生活 AbstractThis thesis will make a brief interpretation to social criticism of Theodore Dreisers first masterpiece Sister Carrie. It tells a story of a girl, Carrie, who was reduced from an innocent city immigrant to a commodity, and finally to an actress by the city environment which was permeated with an atmosphere of ceaseless commercialization. Until the end, she wake up to reality and began to self-exam her life. She just has a good feeling but is not good at reasoning. In the pursuit of these, she goes astray.The thesis will mainly analyze Carries character, external and internal factors affecting her and the growth of her independent consciousness. First, it will talk about the reality of the society, after Industrial Revolution, with the development of commodity, more and more material meet the needs of people, which cause the endlessly expand of material requisite.Second, the impact of the people around them. Due to the impact of consumer culture, people around have a new concept of consumer knowledge and insights. Consumption means the ownership of material wealth and luxury consumption. Goods are not only the basic needs of life, but also a symbol of identity and social status. People pay more attention to their enjoyment of life.Third, the social status of women. The industrial revolution had a tremendous impact on peoples lives; women can work outside the home, but because the pay is low, there is no way of economic independence. The position of women in the home is still confined to mother and servants. However, marital status is usually higher as a woman and an important means of wealth. Because men only seek women to get personal satisfaction, the status of women depends on the status of men and their coexistence.Fourth, Carries own habits, ways of thinking and doing things. Money plays an important role in Carries life. To such a poor and rural girl, the money is her desire to get everything in life means. Carrie felt the fickle and cruel of urban civilization. People are just satisfied with the enjoyment of material life, but not the spirit of pursuit, which forms the extreme sound personality.Conclusion: People want all the good things in life, and the pursuit of high standards and high quality of life is always right, but it is not the purpose of life; There are still many virtues worth pursuing in human nature. Key words: Material want, Consumer attitudes, Social status, Spiritual life Table of Contents内容提要4Abstract5I. Introduction71.1 An Introduction to American Naturalism121.2 An Introduction to Theodore Dreiser71.3 An Introduction to Sister Carrie12II. Literature Review9III. Causes for the Shaping of Carries Destiny113.1 External causes113.1.1 The social reality113.1.2 The Contrast Between the Poor and the Rich123.1.3 The influence of Drouet and Hurstwood133.1.4 Consumerism and the Primacy of Things143.2 Internal causes153.2.1 Her American Dream153.2.2 Her understanding of life163.2.3 Her growing independent consciousness17IV. Conclusion19Bibliography21I. Introduction1.1 An Introduction to American Naturalism When it comes to American Naturalism, we have to start with American Realism, which is a movement or a trend that dominated American literature from the 1860s to 1910s. It is the result of social, political, economic and cultural changes, often concerned with social and psychological problems, revealing the frustration of character in an environment of sordidness and depravity. Gradually, authors tone in writing becomes less serious and less sympathetic but more ironic and more pessimistic, which generates American Naturalism. So American Naturalism is a more deliberate kind of realism, usually involves a view of human beings as passive victims of natural forces and social environment. As a literary movement, naturalism was initiated in France and it came to be led by Emile Zola. Like the realists, the naturalists in American strove for objectivity and were interested in the commonplace in contemporary life, with a passion for scientific accuracy and an overwhelming accumulation of factual detail (To Ming/A history of American literature/P164). At the same time, they were more conscious of their philosophical foundations, which draw upon scientific or socioeconomic determinisms (such as Darwinism) for its view of humanity. Here is a desire to assert ones human identity, to define oneself against the social and natural forces one confronts. Hortons comment on American literary naturalism was “Through gloomy, pessimistic, and often bitter, American naturalists could not accept the deterministic attitude of the complete helplessness of man and the view of an amoral and predatory universe and adopt a thoroughgoing scientific attitude in the portrayal of the American scene”(Chang Yaoxin/A Survey of American Literature/P142). It was applied to express the belief that humans react to things they cannot control, such as the biological need for sex and self-preservation, internal stresses, and environmental forces (To Ming/A history of American literature/P 164). Moreover, American Naturalism prepares the way for the writing of the 1920s “lost generation” and T. S. Eliot.1.2 An Introduction to Theodore Dreiser Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945), known as one of American greatest writers and the leader of American Naturalism, is remembered for his stinging criticism of the genteel tradition and of what Howells described as the “smiling aspects of life” typifying America. In his fictions, Dreiser is apt to deal with the new social problems that have come into being in a rapidly industrializing America and with his characters driven by selfish motives and influenced by the privileges and limitations of social class(Song Guoshuang/嘉莉妹妹中的对照手法/P 1). As he was influenced by Emile Zola, he depicted the life as it was and discovered the dark side and harsher realities of the social life, bravely attacking the traditional moral standard of America, which impresses the reader very much and that is why his Sister Carrie could be chosen as the basis of the thesis. And the thesis will mainly focus on the analysis of Carries character and the shaping of Carries destiny. As we all know, Sister Carries publication was not a hit; on the contrary, it was rejected because of violating genteel tradition and refuted of his vague attitude towards Carrie. As a result, plus his left-oriented views, he has been a controversial figure in American literary history. Besides Sister Carrie, his major works include Jennie Gerhardt, Trilogy of Desire, The Genius, An American Tragedy and The Bulwark. 1.3 An Introduction to Sister Carrie Sister Carrie tells a story of a young womans “Cinderella” life in Chicago in the late 19th century. Carrie, unwilling to live in a narrow, poor and boring country, left for Chicago. She is eager to enjoy various pleasures in the life. Especially, she is ambitious to gain material wealth. However, the job she finds at first is too hard for her, and the wages are so low that she has to walk to work and has no warm clothes to protect herself against the cold winter. To make matters worse, after her sickness, she loses her job. The difficulty in finding a job, the cruel reality and the temptation of material life make her lost. She ends up a mistress of a salesman, Drouet. Meanwhile, a hotel manager, Hurstwood, is fascinated with her. Having accidentally stolen the hotels money, he tricks Carrie into getting on the escaping train with him. Initially, their life is quite steady, but they have a hard life after Hurstwood experiences many setbacks in doing business. Owing to Hurstwoods unemployment, Carrie has to search for a job. She makes it and leaves him before long. She luckily rises to stardom while Hurstwood is still jobless and turns into a beggar, then commiting suicide in the end. Carrie succeeds in becoming a member of the upper-class, yet she discovers that she is very lonely and empty. II. Literature Review Sister Carrie is the first novel of Theodore Dreiser who realistically describes how an innocent girl became a cold, ambitious money-driven person. She is first a mistress and then achieves her American Dream by being an actress. Dreiser held high expectation of his first novel but Sister Carrie experienced the severest critical attack after it was published. It is criticized for its jumbled structure, for its awkward expressions, and mostly for its bad content, namely, its focus on the characters beastliness rather than humanity, on the poor rather than on the rich, and on its heroes and heroins endless desire(Song Guoshuang/嘉莉妹妹中的对照手法/P5). So, at that time, the public didnt like this book mainly for two reasons. On the one hand, it described a sexual impropriety which resulted in the final success of the heroin instead of failure. On the other hand, the public was unwilling to accept the side of life that Dreiser described graphically. Whats more, it was also widely condemned for the authors refusal to present a moral judgment on his fallen and immoral heroin-Carrie, even writing it with pity, passion and respect to some extent (Liu Yuju/嘉莉妹妹中的女权主义/P 10). Fortunately, there were some critics who argued that Sister Carrie was an excellent book. The first American Noble Prize winner, Sinclair Lewis, spoke in his acceptance speech like this “Dresiser more than any other man, marching alone, usually unappreciated, often hated, has cleared the trail from Victorian. timidity and gentility in American fiction to honesty and boldness and passion of life. Dreisers great first novel, Sister Carrie, gives us the first fresh air since Mark Twain and Whitman”(Rebinstein Annette T/American Literature Roots and Flowers/P86). American famous critic, Alfred Kazin, argued that “It is a challenge to the illegal and immoral society and it accomplishes its task in literary history, gives a down-to-earth expression to the new moral in 1890s and unconsciously liberates this moral outlook”(Long Wenpei/德莱赛评论集/P 54). American novelist James T Farrel once said:“With his first novel, Dreiser shows that he is much superior to his contemporaries. No other Americans have had such a strong moral influence on his fellow men and no other novelists have done so much liberate American literature as him since this century. His Sister Carrie is a social prophecy. It is “a prophecy of a certain type of character in literature” (Song Guoshuang/嘉莉妹妹中的对照手法/P5). Meanwhile, Sherwood Anderson wrote in The Feet of Dreiser that he “making a path for us”, which meant Dreiser was a trailblazer in challenging the conventional beliefs and genteel codes of American life, thus opening a way for later writers (Liu Yuju/嘉莉妹妹中的女权主义/P 9). In England, Sister Carrie was also received favorably by critics. Whatever its shortcomings, it is a touchstone in American literature; it is the beginning of Dreisers long and difficult fight for freedom of artistic expression; it is a major and unprecedented novel, certainly a landmark in the literature of the United States and a significant factor in the change of the moral attitude (P. Michel /Theodore Dreiser-Sister Carrie/P11).In China, there are also diverse opinions about Sister Carrie. Some maintain that Sister Carrie is a controversial book, at the same time, they shore up that the moral tendency of Carrie is influenced greatly by the social environment and they hold the view that Sister Carrie is meaningful and naturalistic in reflecting the social problems of that very period. Although there are still many different opinions about Sister Carrie, but now most people at home and abroad begin turning to new aspects to study the book, for example, ecological ethics, city immigrant, feministic criticism, and so on. And with the development of the society, Sister Carrie draws more and more attention from critics. They begin to realize its profound connotations in thought and society and start to analyze the novel from different perspectives, such as structuralism, psychoanalysis and so on. With the second surge of women liberation movement in the 60s of the 20th century, many feminists further expand their territory in literary field. They regarded Sister Carrie as a valuable book. They think Carrie is a new female figure (Liu Yuju/嘉莉妹妹中的女权主义/P 9). III. Causes for the Shaping of Carries DestinyAs we all know, ones destiny is bound to be decided by ones character, apart from the social reality. Even we can say that ones destiny depends to a large extent on ones character. The thesis will analyze causes for the shaping of Carries destiny by external causes, mainly involving the social reality, and internal causes with respect to Carries character. And the train of thought of analysis is as follows.3.1 External causes 3.1.1 The social reality In the late of 19th century, cities and industrial city civilization dominated by men. The social reality was mixed with deterioration of natural environment, worship of money and commodity and oppression of women. And the city environment was permeated with an atmosphere of ceaseless commercialization, spiritual vacuum and belief crisis.So from the background, on the whole, American women were still subordinate to men at that time, which was evidenced by Carrie older sister, Minnie. “She is now a thin, though rugged, woman of twenty-seven, with ideas of life colored by her husbands, and fast hardening into narrower conceptions of pleasure and duty than had ever been hers in a thoroughly circumscribed youth”(Dreiser Theodore/Sister Carrie/P 23). She is busy doing chores and looking after child so that family constitutes her whole life. And on the one hand, subordinating to what kind of man decides womans economic and social status. The situation of middle-class women without worrying the clothing and food is in a state of anxiety, let alone Carrie, an isolated, single and helpless young woman far away from hometown and family. On the other hand, the unfair educated opportunity, the inferiority of family status and the control of social order and individual by higher stratum make Carrie cant get a foothold and survive in the city. Whats more, metropolises, with their glittering theaters, imposing hotel and sumptuous restaurants, together with the wealthy in their fashionable apparel, represent the walled and gilded city to which Carrie seeks entrance. Living in the entrancing city, a materialist in the core, she cannot escape the consistent seduction from the superhuman tempter. As a result, the strong desire for social identity and the safety feeling only satisfied by possessing material make Carrie get into two illegal relationships with two men. Thus, she absolutely becomes the victim of the cruel society. There is one point can graphically reflect womens status the trend of women seeking jobs. When we are going to talk about the trend of women seeking jobs, we must also take the social reality into consideration. Because of the subordination to man and under such a limited circumstance, the opportunity of finding an opportune job for woman is slim, especially like Carrie. In fact, we can imagine the scene easily. And there is a clear description from the book. When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse. Of an intermediate balance, under the circumstances, there is no possibility. The city has its cunning wiles, no less than the infinitely smaller and more human tempter.Unrecognized for what they are, their beauty, like music, too often relaxes, then weakens, then perverts the simpler human perceptions. (Dreiser Theodore/Sister Carrie/P 8) Obviously, Carrie belongs to the latter. From the whole book, we know that Carrie makes struggles, but they are all in vain. The strong power of the cruelty and many temptations make Carrie subject to the social reality. Carrie maybe have another kind of life, but fact is fact. So it is safe to say that the current situation is conducive to Carries character shaping. She longs for money and well-being life.3.1.2 The Contrast Between the Poor and the Rich The influence of the dominant values in the money-oriented consumer society, the gap between the poor and the rich become wider and wider.We can find contrasts throughout the novel：Carrie chooses Drouet by contrasting him with Hansons，and later she chooses Hurstwood by contrasting him with DroueBut the most remarkable one is the contrast between the poor and the richThis contrast constitute a dialectical progression. Carrie had experienced the sharp contrast between the poor and the rich even before she got to Chicago. On the train, when she saw so many fresh and magnificent things, She aspired to become beautiful dancers on st