Sister Carrie
Theodore Dreiser
------2013031119 王俊潘
Outline :
1. The background and naturalism 2. The author 3. Introduce of the main characters 4. The whole story 5. Personal comments
He had also returned to writing novels, two of which, The Bulwark (1946) and The Stoic (1947), were among his various works published posthumously(死后). As insensitive in his treatment of the English language as he was of many women in his life, he seems destined to survive as a major American writer.
He was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, USA. Raised in poverty and in a German-speaking environment, he was a Catholic, he left home for Chicago at age 16. After a period of odd jobs and a year at the University of Indiana, he became a Midwestern newspaper reporter and, in New York after 1894, a magazine feature writer. In 1892, married Sara White , but their marriage wasn’t happy, even They have been separated since 1909, they never officially divorced. In 1910, he quit job and became a professional writer. In 1945, joined in the United States Communist party , and on December he passed away .Sister Carrie (1900), his first and still highly regarded novel, was withheld from general distribution because of its supposed amorality, and its commercial failure plunged him into financial distress and mental breakdown. He later re-established himself as a magazine editor and self-published a second, successful edition of Sister Carrie (1907).
It was the first novel of Theodore Dreiser and was published in 1900. a typical work of Naturalism.
Naturalism:
Naturalism is a literary trend prevailing in the second half of the 19th century in Europe. Especially France and Germany. In literature, it can be defined as a technique of objective view of man or a mood with frankness and accuracy. According to naturalists writes. Man is shaped by heredity and environment over which they cannot control. They tend to show "true-to-life＇description without selection. They show man’s struggle for survival.
利欲熏心
堕落，邪恶
confronts.
Theodore Dreiser The Soul of the 19th Century American Literature
In the history of American literary naturalism, Theodore Dreiser is one of the most outstanding novelists in the early twentieth century. Coming from the bottom oቤተ መጻሕፍቲ ባይዱ the society, Dreiser is the first one to describe the real American citizen life. He is called pioneer of American contemporary fiction and is thought to be the great master of American realism. In Dreiser’s novels, he discards “the genteel tradition”, which was very popular at the time. On the contrary, he dares to depict the life as it is and discover the dark side of the social life, bravely attacking the traditional moral standard of America. The characters in his novels mostly come from the bottom of the society, and during their degeneration driven by their selfish interests and vanities. They are also deeply influenced by the privileges and limitations of the social class. That leads to their misfortunes at last.
George Hurstwood: Carrie’s second lover. Actruly he is a playboy, though he is success but he has an unhappy marriage. He hate the changeless life and wants to find exciting things in life.
The success of the novel Jennie Gerhardt (1911) 《珍妮姑娘》 allowed him to write full time, and The Financier 《金融家》 (1912) and The Titan (1914) 《巨人》 followed. These novels were ungainly in style but ground-breaking in their naturalism and critique of American capitalist society. The withdrawal from distribution, on moral grounds, of his autobiographical novel, The Genius (1915), ignited激起 a national anti-censorshipn campaign supported by most of the leading literary figures of the day. His next decade, marked by an energetic output of plays, stories, memoirs, and travel books, culminated in An American Tragedy (1925), a major popular success despite its bleak view of American values. He publicly supported left-wing causes through the 1930s and 1940s, and propounded Socialist ideas in his late works, joining the Communist Party shortly before his death.
Carrie: the heroine of the novel, she is a kind and innocent girl comes from the countryside of Chicago. She is timid but curious about the outside world.
Dramas:《得心应手》 The Hand of the Potter 1918 《自然 和超自然的戏剧》 Plays of the Natural and Supernatural 1916 Political Set :《黎明》 Dawn 1931 《美国值得拯救》 America Is Worth Saving 1941 《西奥多· 德莱塞政论集》 Theodore Dreiser: Political Writings, ed. by Jude Davies 2011 Other works:《印第安纳节日》 A Hoosier Holiday 1916 《一个四十岁的旅客》 A Traveler at Forty 1913 《咚锵锵》 Hey Rub-a-Dub-Dub: A Book of the Mystery and Wonder and Terror of Life 1920 《关于我自己》 A Book About Myself 1922 《大都会的色彩》 The Color of a Great City 1923 《德莱塞访苏印象记》 Dreiser Looks at Russia 1928 《我的城市》 My City 1929 《悲剧的美国》 Tragic America 1931