Abstract

In the early 20th century, Theodore Dreiser was widely regarded as one of the greatest writers of the United States. He was the first writer that abandoned popular "elegant" culture tradition, through realistic style description of the city life, he represents us a real of American society under the influence of the capitalist system. He was the pioneer of modern novels and the master of realism.

In Dreiser’s writing, after ripping away the "American dream", we see the dark side twisted moral of the society. Most of characters in his works come from the bottom of society, who are not only limited by social class and environment, but also re swallowed by the desire to wealth and status, resulting in their own falling into decadence fate of tragedy.

This paper uses Theodore Dreiser’s first novel Sister Carrie as the research object, through the process of Carrie’s pursuit of the American dream, analyzing American social background and ideology behind her pursuit, and analyzes the internal motivation and external causes that contribute to the success of the heroine.

This paper on the one side, is to reveal the real life of the American society in the 19th century, especially the bottom of the people, represented by Carrie, in order to realize the so-called "American dream", they chase blindly and pursue a distorted dream, only to seek material life.  Under the effect of the social background and self-initiative driven, Carrie goes to a different fate. 

On the other side, this paper aims to state that people's pursuit is the combination of integration of internal and external impact, initiative can promote the realization of the dream, while the social background and ideological tend to determine the nature of the pursuit, the initiative of the individual had to be limited by the environment.

Key Words: Carrie’s desire; pursuit of American dream; ideology 

Contents

摘要

Abstract

1. Introduction-3

1.1The Introduction of Theodore Dreiser-3

1.2 The Introduction of Carrie Sister-7

1.3 The Introduction of American Dream-8

1.4 Thesis-10

2. On Sister Carrie’s Pursuit of “American Dream”-11

2.1 Carrie’s Dream-11

2.2 Inner Drive of Her Pursuit-15

2.2.1 Carrie’s Character-15

2.2.1.1 Her Initiative-15

2.2.1.2 Her Adaptability-15

2.2.1.3 Her Desire of Materialism-16

2.2.2 Carrie’s Advantages-17

2.3. External Drive of Her Pursuit-18

3. The Ideology Revealed in Carrie’s Pursuit-21

3.1 Consumerism-21

3.2 Feminism-22

4. Conclusions-23

References-25

Acknowledgments-26