摘　要

19 世纪末, 随着社会矛盾的加剧和科学的发展, 在欧洲和美国本国乡土文学的共同作用下，自然主义开始在美国小说创作中流行并逐渐引起人们的关注, 涌现出诸多优秀的自然主义作家,他们也创作出了不少流芳百世的优秀作品，其中德莱塞的《嘉莉妹妹》 是美国自然主义小说的代表和巅峰之作。文章首先分析《嘉莉妹妹》这部著作的背景，接着探讨自然主义的定义及美国梦在作品中的体现，另外本文以自然主义的观点, 对《嘉莉妹妹》 这部作品的主要人物形象进行分析, 旨在说明自然主义在《嘉莉妹妹》 中是如何表现的, 尤其是在小说女主人公嘉莉身上的体现。

关键词：嘉莉妹妹；自然主义；道德；美国梦；本能
 
Abstract

At the end of the nineteenth century, with the intensification of social contradictions and the development of science, under the influence of Europe and American native literature together, naturalism became popular in American novel writing and gradually cause for concern. The emergence of many outstanding naturalist writers brings a lot of outstanding works of the immortal. In which，Sister Carrie is representative of the naturalistic works and the pinnacle. The paper first analyzed the background of Sister Carrie, then explored the definition of naturalism and embodied the American dream in the works. With naturalistic point of view, the paper analyzed main characters in Sister Carrie and describes the performance of naturalism in Sister Carrie, especially in the embodiment of the novel heroine Carrie.

Key words: Sister Carrie; Naturalism; Moral; The American dream; Instinct

1    Introduction
After the reform and opening in China, some of the southern coastal cities became rich first because of the open policy. They attracted a large number of migrant labors from backward areas. They had very high expectations to the city like Carrie did. They expected the new life and been full of fantasy, but the result was not as their imaginations. Most of them even if got some material success but still felt sad and retuned to their hometown finally. This paper will be based on the phenomenon, combined with modern social problems and the concept of naturalism in Sister Carrie, to analyze the tragedy of the American dream in the novel.