《嘉莉妹妹》英语读后感

Vivid Heroine

——On Sister Carrie

Carrie was such an ordinary rural girl at the beginning of the story. Sitting on the seat of a bus, she couldn’t help feeling exciting at the sight of the metropolis’ spectacle. She was impressed deeply by large crowd on the avenue, the spacious square or tall buildings.

Far more different from other heroines, Carrie was not a plain pure angel like Snow-white, nor was she brave enough to be a heroine of revolutionist or even a reformer, nor was she so clever as to be a successful career woman who start from scratch.

What attracted her most, after her entering this huge metropolis was the incredible fineries, fashion shoes, smart handbags displaying in the shop windows, the jewellerys shining brightly behind the glass. She dreamed that one day, she could wear all of these, jogging gracefully into the most luxurious hotel with focused sights of admiration.

And this was not merely a dream. Because she had large eyes which can earn others’ sympathy, even love. She had wonderful figure which can win others’ hearts. However, anything she got, anywhere she reached, had not come from her ambition. Things happened, and then she accepted. That’s what she had just done — just to accept willingly from the bottom of her heart. She was not at all an evil woman who would give anything for the fortune or fame. However, she would give uo something for a better life when her instinct defeated her intellect.

That was Carrie, a girl had her own desire, a human being just like many others in the realistic world.

There’s one sentence written in chapter VIII:” When this jangle of free-will instinct shall have been adjusted, when perfect understanding has given the former the power to replace the latter entirely, man will no longer vary.” However, how many people can go that further.

And I want to quote another sentence to wind up my essay:

“In Carrie — as in how many of our wordings do they not? — instinct and reason, desire and understanding, were at war for the mastery.”

 

第二篇：原创英语论文naturalism in Sister Carrie论嘉莉妹妹中的自然主义

Naturalism in Sister Carrie

Abstract: Theodore Dreiser ,the writer of Sister Carrie ,is one of the most outstanding representatives of American naturalism. In this thesis, his first novel Sister Carrie is taken as an example to analyze the features of Dreiser’s naturalism. The thesis referred to three great historical and cultural background of the novel which are Darwinism, Determinism, American Naturalism and Industrial Revolution .And the thesis analyzes three features of naturalism. At last, we pay attention to Dreiser’s exploration ------human desire and revelation of the dark side of human nature

Key Words: Naturalism Darwinism desire environment human nature

Naturalism of Dreiser in Sister Carrie

Introduction

Theodor Dreiser (1871-1945)， an American author, outstanding representative of naturalism, whose novels depict real-life subjects in a harsh light. Many of his works referred to the description of naturalism and weakened his critical spirit. His first novel Sister Carrie published in 1990 revealed the financial disparity and the moral decline of American society and thus regarded as forbidden book. But now the book becomes one of the best-sellers of American literature because of the naturalistic features in it. Then Dreiser is regarded as a pioneer of American naturalism and as a naturalist Dreiser expresses the characteristics of naturalism in most of his works. The themes of Darwinism and Determinism are the common features of Dreiser’s story which also characterize Sister Carrie.

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Dreiser chose to reflect life truthful in his works when other novels deal only with the beautiful aspects of life,. It is not an exaggeration to say that Dreiser's Sister Carrie clears the way for the development of American fiction.

From follow analysis of three aspects and conclusion,we can find out the naturalism of Dreiser in Sister Carrie

1. The historical and cultural background for Sister Carrie

Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie reflects the profound transformations in American life in the late nineteenth century.

1.1 Darwinism and Determinism

In 1859, Darwin’s The Origin of Specie appeared. It soon changed man’s recognition. Before Darwin, human was separated from the animals because of its moral. However, at this time evolutionist considered human as a part of natural things and a member of the animal kingdom. American naturalists accepted “bestiality” and “ human beast” as an explanation of desire.

They attempted to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness presenting characters of low social and economic classes who are determined by their environment and heredity. They dismissed the validity of comforting moral truth. Darwinism is the most important theory, which greatly affects Sister Carrie.

Freud’s theory gives theoretic basis to Dreiser’s description of man’s desire. Freud considers man’s natural instinct as determination. To him man is a part of nature since man is a member of animals. Human mentality and action will forever be determined by instinct. Desire is just a genetic instinct in his opinion.

1.2 American naturalism

Sister Carrie was written and published also at the rise of American naturalism, which means a particular genre of fiction that developed in the late 19th century America, and associated principally with writers such as Jack London , Stephen Crane, Frank Norris and Theodore Dreise.

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At the end of nineteenth century came a generation of writers whose ideas of the working of the universe and whose perception of the society's disorder led them to naturalism. A new and harsher realism, naturalism was introduced to the United States, literary naturalists spoke out against the ideas that literature should present what Howells called for the " smiling aspects of life". Instead, they attempted to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness presenting characters of low social and economic classes who were dominated by their environment or heredity in depicting the extremes of life. American naturalists emphasized that world was amoral that men and women had no free will, that their lives were controlled by heredity and the environment, that religious "truths" were illusory, and that the destiny of humanity was misery in life and ablivion in death.

1. 3 Industrial Revolution

Industrial Revolution brought American people a value crisis. The 19th century was the time of industrialization. Serial changes made people feel they were conquering the world and obtaining their treasures. The surprising development made people feel too close to wealth and happiness. Then appeared small amounts of industrial giants and large number of poor people, American value materialistic to the core. Living in such a society with such a value system, the human individual is obsessed with a never end, yet meaningless search for satisfaction of his desire.

2. The typical characteristics of naturalism in Sister Carrie

In Sister Carrie I find out that some of its themes differ from those of other naturalistic works.

2.1 The desire, instinct and the ifluence of environments

Freud’s theory gives theoretic basis to Dreiser’s description of man’s desire. Freud considers man’s natural instinct as determination. To him man is a part of nature since man is a member of animals. Human mentality and action will forever be determined by instinct. Desire is just a genetic instinct in his opinion.

This thesis covers Dreiser’s meaningful ideas--desire. Man’s behavior is

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dominated by instincts (desires, needs and fear) and environments (cities and consumerism) and chances. In the process of evolution, man is not able to control instincts completely. Desire is considered hereditary and instinctive. In this novel most of the central characters are hurried by a desire of personal affirmation, a desire they can neither articulate nor suppress. And Carrie Meeber is the representative. She sufferd from a need that her lives assume the dignity of dramatic form, and they suffer terribly, because they do not really understand it.

Her view to money is “Money, something everybody else has and I must get.” (Theodore Dreiser, 1979, P77) Drouet then becomes her first ladder. When Drouet give her money for the first time, she hesitates. She knows clearly that no deep, sinister soul with ulterior motives could have given her fifteen cents under friendship, since “nature has taught the beasts of the beats of the field to fly when some unheralded dangers threatens” (Theodore Dreiser, 1979, P79) Here in her superego, she has a feeble instinct of self-production. However, deep in her mind, there is a strong desire for better clothes, jewelry, dinning in halls and plays in the theaters. Then preconscious becomes weak. Id gets upper hand. At last, id implies the superego and Carrie chooses to live with Drouet.

When she knows that Drouet’s love is unsteady, the appearance of Hurstwood stimulates her new hope and desire. It is the new hope and desire that compels her actions. “his kind of unfulfilled dreams would beckon and lead her until death and dissolution dissolve their power and would restore her blind to nature’s heart” (Theodore Dreiser, 1979, P353) When Hurstwood can supply the life she dreams of, she stays with him, if not, she leaves.

With the degradation of Hurstwood, Carrie would not endure losing her dreams. When she meets Mrs Vance, Carrie longs for the dainty decorated, beautiful clothes and genteel manners. “What a wonderful thing it was to be rich” (Theodore Dreiser, 1979, P385) is the powerful voice of her heart. Without money,she leaves again.

From the beginning to the end, Carrie is just like a machine controlled by the desires .

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2.2 The influence of the environment

Environment is a tremendous thing often leads people to a wrong direction.

Drouet tells Carrie that Chicago is a wonder, and that she will find lots to see. Even her siste tells her, “You'll want to see the city.” [1]She comes there. She comes to the big web of Chicago in order to pursue a happy life. The prosperous parties, lights, dinners, theatres attract her.

she chooses Drouet.As soon as she sees Hurstwood, she evaluates his worth??his wealth, position and sexuality----by his “rich” plaid vest, mother of pearl buttons and soft black shoes “polished only to a dull shine.” When she meets Mrs Vance, Carrie longs for the dainty decorated, beautiful clothes and genteel manners. “What a wonderful thing it was to be rich” (Theodore Dreiser, 1979, P385) is the powerful voice from the bottom of her heart. She inters another pursuition.

3. Dreiser’s exploration

------human desire and revelation of the dark side of human nature

From the first novel Sister Carrie on, Dreiser set himself to project the American values for what he had found them to be --materialistic to the core. Living in such a society with such a value system, the human individual is obsessed with a never-ending, yet meaningless search for satisfaction of his desires. One of the desires is for money which was a motivating purpose of life in the United States in the late l9th century. For example, in Sister Carrie, there is not one character whose status is not determined economically. Sex is another human desire that Dreiser explored to considerab1e lengths in his novels to reveal the dark side of human nature. In Sister Carrie, Carrie climbs up the social ladder by means of her sexual appeal. Also in the “Trilogy of Desire,”the possession of sexual beauty symbolizes the acquisition of some social status of great magnitude. However, Dreiser never forgot to imply that these human desires in 1ife could hardly be defined. They are there like a powerful "magnetism" governing human existence and reducing human beings to nothing. So like all naturalists he was restrained from finding a solution to the social problems that appeared in his novels and accordingly almost all his works have tragic endings.

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Conclusion

This short thesis can not cover Dreiser's meaningful naturalism. His greatness is in his insight, his sympathy, and his tragic view of life. Dreiser explorated human desire and revelation of the dark side of human nature

References:

[1]Bantam. Sister Carrie [M]. New York: Bantam Classics , 1992. p.61.

[2] Williams, M & L. B. Burden. Psychology for Language Teachers [M]. Beijing: Foreign language Teaching and Research Press/Cambridge University Press, 2000.

[3] Theodore Dreiser . Sister Carrie [M]. Bei Jing : Foreign Language Teaching and Studing Press 1981 : 136.

[1] 蒋道超. 德莱塞研究[M] . 上海: 上海外语教育出版社, 2002 : 125 .

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