Abstract：Theodore Dreiser was one of the first outstanding naturalistic writers in the 20th century; he created a new era of American literature. His first novel Sister Carrie was a landmark in the history of American literature of outstanding works. For comments on Sister Carrie, critics often concern tradition and prejudice, which lack innovative thinking. Nowadays, the research on Dreiser and his works are still worth considering. 

Sister Carrie tells a story about an innocent, pure, beautiful country girl Carrie who holds an vision of better life with metropolis and comes to Chicago to make a living, and how she struggles from the bottom of the society to the famous Broadway throne. With the true realism as a distinctive feature, the work revealed that human beings were being materialistic decadent and luxury under the surface of the prosperity of a capitalist society, and also showed Carrie’s survival landscape and her journey of her heart exquisitely. Based on humanism, feminism and social development, this paper focuses on the analysis on the character of the heroine Carrie Sister, probes the innate character of her spiritual pursuit and analyzes the causes of her unhappiness after she becomes success and famous. And the research purpose to analyze the heroine Carrie and the specific idea for modern women to draw a good lesson from Carrie herself are also elaborated in this paper.

Key words: Theodore Dreiser; Carrie Sister; Character Analysis; Spiritual pursuit

摘要：西奥多·德莱塞是20世纪美国第一位杰出的自然主义作家，创造了美国文学的新纪元，他的第一部小说《嘉莉妹妹》是美国文学史上一部具有划时代意义的优秀作品。对于德莱塞的作品评论，其批评者限于传统和偏见，缺乏一定的创新思维。现如今，我们应继续探究和挖掘德莱塞文学作品中蕴含的文化。

《嘉莉妹妹》讲述的是一个天真、纯洁、美丽的乡下少女嘉莉带着对大都市生活的美好憧憬来到芝加哥谋生，并如何从社会底层登上百老汇宝座成名的过程。该作品以真切的现实主义为鲜明的特征，揭露了资本主义社会繁荣的表面底下人们被物质化的颓废和奢靡，也细腻地展现了嘉莉的生存景观和心路历程。本课题将从人性及新女性形象的角度出发，重点通过对德莱塞《嘉莉妹妹》这一小说中主人公嘉莉妹妹的人物性格进行分析，研究嘉莉妹妹的性格特征；对于嘉利妹妹对幸福生活追求的幻灭，从社会发展背景角度，进而研究主人公对精神层面追求的表现，并分析造成她成名后却不幸福的原因。本文将逐一阐述主人公嘉利分析的研究目的，及现代女性从嘉利自身借鉴的一个很好教训的具体表现。

关键字：德莱塞; 嘉莉妹妹; 性格分析; 精神追求