Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (1900), questions to consider

Résumé du document

Dreiser childhood was not made of joy. He is one of the ten children of Säräh Schanab and Johann Dreiser. His father knew good prosperity by becoming a successful wool dealer. But in 1869 fire destroyed all the mill and let Johan injured. It started as a economic pain for the family and the long months without finding any job for the father. Dreiser spent his childhood moving from one town to another and didn't have the chance to be well educated. He moved to Chicago and had many low paid jobs. But then had the opportunity to study in college and become a reporter and finally a writer. There are many similarities between Sister Carrie and Dreiser life. Hurstwood's fall from prosperity to the street can be compared to his father's life.

They experienced the same professional situation that broke their life. And they both never recovered. Carrie's intent to find a job as well as her first month with respect to experiencing manufacturing jobs, were also common experience between the author and his character. The fall of Hurstwood correspond with his father whereas Dreiser himself is more likely to be like Carrie. Indeed they both experienced hard times to finally know better moments.

Carrie's story was shocking for the public because it stages as the hero of the book the rise in importance and celebrity of a «fallen» girl. Indeed, Carrie was a mistress of two men without being married. It also stages the difficult social reality of that time, a social reality that readers don't want to see. It also presents the upper class of the society as selfish and superficial people that don't pay any attention to the poor. I guess Dreiser referred to Carrie as «sister» as an ironic dimension to named her as a none. During the all book she tries to convince Drout and Hurstwood to marry her whereas she is already lost. She both asks for respecting her moral principles while at the same time she doesn't respect them at all. Indeed, she accepted the money of both that two men and manipulated them.

Extraits

[...] Was he different from others seeking day labor and begging for food in the long depression of the 1890s? Do people become homeless today for the same reasons? I think, the root of Hurstwood's decline is his bad relationship with his family. No one cares about him anymore at home and he doesn't care about anyone either. He progressively became estranged from his wife and she started to feel resentment for him. Indeed, she decided to punish him for that by blackmailing him. At the same time, Hurstwood met Carrie and was fascinated by her. [...]

[...] The moral doesn't allow women to be financially independent. The fame rewards Carrie for what she is, as a person. She is suddenly not considered for her male company, but for her talent. Fame is the result of what she had always wanted. But at the same time, Carrie is not satisfied about this situation. Thanks to Ames she realized the vacuity of the world and the misery that exists. She doesn't understand the purpose to have money anymore while others don't have anything. [...]

[...] Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (1900), questions to consider 1. Does this novel have anything to do with Theodore Dreiser's own life? Why would he refer to Carrie as Why was this novel so shocking when it first appeared? Dreiser childhood was not made of joy. He is one of the ten children of Säräh Schanab and Johann Dreiser. His father knew good prosperity by becoming a successful wool dealer. But in 1869 fire destroyed all the mill and let Johan injured. [...]

[...] She is just going to walk in the world without interests How do you feel about Carrie's pattern of abandoning those who had helped her—her family back in Columbus, her sister in Chicago's Van Buren Street, the salesman who dressed, housed, and schooled her, the once magnificent resort manager who had treated her courteously, refined her manners, and elevated her taste? Did she leave them all without a backward glance? Was she being disloyal? Do you condemn her? I personally think that Carrie is always unsatisfied. It seems from the beginning that she didn't find happiness in her life. It's always the same story, at the beginning, she is enthusiast, and then when things are not going the way she had thought she abandoned people until she becomes independent. [...]

[...] Indeed we have the example of dozens of people after the economic crisis of 2007-2008 who suddenly were on the dole. Industries on the margin have to make savings and to dismiss people Characters in this novel—Carrie, Drouet, Hurstwood and his family, Mrs. Vance, Lola, and Ames—are intensely conscious of class. What were the subtle markers of class boundaries that they noted so keenly? Why did Carrie—and Dreiser as narrator—pay so much attention to how people dressed, where they lived, ate, and shopped? [...]