Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (1900), a study of the characters

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Carrie is a paradoxical character. One the one hand she is the embodiment of naivety, innocence and ingenuity. But on the other side she is wiser and more cautious than any character of Sister Carrie book. All along the story we see her growing and winning in maturity as she faced events in her life. She learns how to adapt and adjust herself in every situation. She is influenced by the capitalist society. At the beginning and until the last pages of the book, we notice that she cares a lot about her image, about being well dressed and about rubbing shoulder with the great and the good. That's also why she wants to become an actress, to become famous and admired by others. For me Sister Carrie is also a manipulative character. She uses her physical beauty in order to manipulate men, Drouet and then Hurstwood. She only lives to be satisfied and she lets her old lover, Hurstwood dying, without providing any help to him. Her conception of the world starts to change when she met Ames, this young man who seems far aways from the individualist and material conceptions of the capitalist society of that time.

Because Carrie admires him, she started to be influenced by him, and she detached herself from her old conceptions and self centered opinions, and she realized the defects of the capitalist system. Indeed at the end of the book she says addressing her friend Lola : « «Oh Dear (...) That's all you think of. Aren't you sorry for the people who haven't anything tonight?» . She suddenly takes conscience that capitalism works at the cost of poor workers, but too late to save Hurstwood. By taking conscience that the world is unfair and material she gets out of the system. She suddenly becomes alone without any goals and projects. She is out of the «course of beauty» . And she knows that she can't be happy anymore facing those realities.

Extraits

[...] And at the end of the book, we can notice that Mrs Hurstwood obtained everything that she wanted for her daughter «Mrs Hurstwood nestled comfortably in her corner and smiled. It was so nice to be the mother-in-law of a rich young man- one whose financial state had borne her personal inspection»[14]. Julia Hurstwood is a sad woman who didn't love his husband and only lives in a world of brightness and appearances Daughter Jessica Hurstwood and Son George Hurstwood, Jr. Both are selfish and self centered as their mother. [...]

[...] She lives in that luxury and superficial society of that time and is only interested to reflect a good image of her family. That's why they need to do what's fancy and fashionable in that time as when she asked «Georges»( . ) want you to get us a season ticket to the races[12]». Mrs Hurstwood doesn't really asked for the approval of her husband, she makes demands and wants him to give her what she asked for. Mrs Hurstwood is in fact an unhappy woman. [...]

[...] Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie (1900), a study of the characters 1. Carrie Meeber (later Carrie Medenda) Carrie is a paradoxical character. One the one hand she is the embodiment of naivety, innocence and ingenuity. But on the other side she is wiser and more cautious than any character of Sister Carrie book. All along the story we see her growing and winning in maturity as she faced events in her life. She learns how to adapt and adjust herself in every situation. [...]

[...] At the same time he surrounded himself with the upper class of the society and only frequent fancy places. He makes a point of honor to become friends with rich and powerful position people. Drouet is the kind superficial and self centered character who has a real high opinion of himself. The reader immediately takes conscience of his nature when he met Carry for the first time. Indeed, he gives her a business card with the name of his company and said proudly to convince her about his prosper situation «This is the house I travel He analysis the situation without any deep reflexion, and with a self centered position. [...]

[...] She showed New York to her and initiated her to the pleasure of the city. But Mrs Vance is also really concerned about her appearance and highly takes advantages of her husband prosper situation. She also lives in the luxe without considering the indecency of it, as her remark shows : don't know why people shouldn't spend when they have it»[17]. But she was a good support for Carrie and truly likes her without any jealousy. But we can see that this relation is a bit superficial because when she saw the bad appearance of Hurstwood, she never came back to see Carrie. [...]