A Brief Analysis of the Symbols in Sister Carrie_英语论文

摘要

《嘉莉妹妹》是美国文坛杰出的现实主义与自然主义作家西奥多.德莱赛最著名的小说之一，讲述了关于一个年轻的乡下女孩卡洛琳.米蓓尔，怀着对更美好生活的向往，离开贫穷的乡村，来到芝加哥追寻她的美国梦的故事。为了摆脱贫困，她与两个不同的男人产生不正当关系。出于一个很偶然的机会，她最后成为了一个成功的女演员，并且过上了她曾经一直渴望的奢侈生活。但是尽管已经变得有钱又成功，她发现她依旧没有得到真正的幸福。大量运用象征意象是这部小说的一个鲜明特色。本文将以嘉莉的崛起与赫斯特伍德的衰落为线索，分析服饰、剧院、金钱、报纸以及摇椅这五个和人物命运紧密关联的象征意象，进而探讨这些意象是如何突显小说主题和刻画人物形象的，最终展现象征主义手法独特而含蓄的美学价值。

关键词：《嘉莉妹妹》；西奥多.德莱赛；象征主义；人物命运

Abstract

Sister Carrie is one of the most famous novels of Theodore Dreiser, the prominent realist and naturalist writer in American literature. It mainly tells a story about a young country girl, Caroline Meeber, who leaves the poor countryside with a strong desire for a better life and moves to Chicago to pursue her American dream. And in order to get rid of poverty, she becomes involved in illicit affairs with two different men. Almost by accident, she finally becomes a successful actress and lives a luxurious life she has been longing for, but she finds that she still can not achieve true happiness even though she has money and success. The frequent employment of symbols is a distinctive feature in this novel. This thesis uses Carrie’s rise and Hurstwood’s fall as links, analyzes five symbols—clothes, theatre, money, newspaper and rocking-chair, which have close connection with the characters’ fate, and thus explores how these symbols serve to highlight the theme and portray characters and eventually show the unique implicit aesthetic value of symbolism.

Key Words: Sister Carrie, Theodore Dreiser, symbolism, characters’ fate

Contents

1. Introduction1

2. Demonstration3 

2.1 A brief introduction to symbolism3

2.2 Symbols of Carrie’s rise.3

2.2.1 Symbolic meanings of Carrie’s clothing….4

2.2.2 Symbolic meanings of Carrie’s theatre5

2.2.3 Symbolic meanings of Carrie’s rocking-chair.6

2.3 Symbols of Hurstwood’s fall7

2.3.1 Symbolic meanings of Hurstwood’s money8

2.3.2 Symbolic meanings of Hurstwood’s newspaper9

2.3.3 Symbolic meanings of Hurstwood’s rocking-chair10

3. Conclusion11

Works Cited12

Bibliography.13