从实用主义角度解析《嘉莉妹妹》

An Analysis of Sister Carrie From the Angle of Pragmatism

摘要

西奥多·德莱塞的第一部小说《嘉莉妹妹》讲述了主人公——嘉洛林·米贝历经坎坷磨难实现了她的美国梦的故事。自小说问世以来，文学界对其评价褒贬不一。有人认为让嘉莉这样的女性获得成功不符合传统道德观，有人则认为小说只是在还原当时的社会。本文从实用主义角度出发，借助当时美国实用主义的形成和发展的历史背景，具体分析小说中人物的行为和心理状态的变化，探索在实用主义引导下主人公的不同结局，得出实用主义存在一定合理性，但也会导致社会不幸的结论。

关键词：《嘉莉妹妹》；实用主义；美国梦； 

Abstract

Sister Carrie is Theodore Dreiser’s first novel in which he tells a story of a woman named Caroline Meeber who has achieved her American dream after traversing several ups and downs. Since its publication,reviews of this novel in the literary circle have been varied at home and abroad.Some hold that to let a woman like Carrie succeed doesn’t conform to the conventional morality. Others argue that the novel indeed demonstrates the actual American society of that time. This paper, from the angle of pragmatism, with the background of the formation and development in American pragmatism, concretely analyzes the behavioral and mental changes of the main characters, explores the different fates of them, and thus concludes that pragmatism has its rationality but may lead to the misfortune of the society.

Key Words: Sister Carrie; pragmatism; American dream;