Abstract

Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) is one of the representatives of America’s naturalist writers. He has created many literary works, especially Sister Carrie, that frankly depict the moral corruption and degeneration of American society. Sister Carrie, which is an important landmark in the development of literary modernism, contributes a lot to the maturity of Naturalism. In this book, Dreiser adopts the theories of Darwinism and Determinism as the scientific basis to illustrate the story. Naturalists believe that man’s fate is controlled by environment and heredity and he has no free will. This thesis attempts to discuss the naturalistic features in Sister Carrie mainly from two aspects: environmental factors and hereditary factors. The purpose of this paper was to acquire a deeper idea of naturalism. 

Key words: Theodore Dreiser; naturalism; environment; heredity, limitation

Contents

Abstract

摘  要

1-Introduction-1

1.1-Brief Introduction of Sister Carrie-1

1.2-Naturalism-2

1.2.1-The Definition of Naturalism-2

1.2.2-The Influence of Darwinism-2

1.3-Reviewing the Researches on Sister Carrie-3

2-The Environmental Factors on Carrie's Fate-5

2.1 The Living Environment-5

2.2 The Social Environment-6

3-The Hereditary Factors on Carrie' Fate-9

3.1 Beauty—The Key to Success-9

3.2 Carrie’s Endowed Talent-9

3.3 Carrie’s Insatiable Desire for Pleasure-10

4 The Limitation of Naturalism-- Pessimistic Determinism-11

5 Conclusion-11

References-13