摘要

德莱赛笔下的嘉莉妹妹是当时美国社会一部分人群的缩影。本文旨在通过研究小说中嘉莉妹妹的悲剧来探讨当时美国社会存在的种种问题。文章首先对于美国梦的根源与发展作出详细具体的介绍，然后通过分析嘉莉妹妹美国梦从形成、追逐到破灭的过程来进一步揭露嘉莉妹妹悲剧的内部和外部原因，并由此深刻地批判德莱赛笔下的那个真实、残酷、金钱至上的美国社会和像泡沫一样虚幻的美国梦，由此引发读者对于美国梦的认识与思考。

关键词：美国梦，嘉莉妹妹，悲剧，美国社会    

Abstract

Sister Carrie in Theodore Dreiser’s novel is the epitome of part of the American people at that time. This thesis intends to discuss various problems in American society at that time through studying Sister Carrie’s tragedy. It introduces the American dream to readers by reviewing its definition, deep root, origin and evolution, and then explores the internal and external causes of Sister Carrie’s tragedy through analyzing the formation, sublimation and disillusion of Sister Carrie’s American dream. It also gives a further criticism to that real, cold, dark, materialist and money-oriented world from the view of Theodore Dreiser and the futility of the American dream. It aims to deepen the reader’s understanding of the American dream.

Key words: the American dream, struggle, Sister Carrie   

1. Introduction
Theodore Dreiser, one of America’s foremost novelists, was an outstanding representative of naturalism and realism in American literature. He was the first writer who criticized the futility of the American Dream in his novel so drastically. “Artists should express what he or she sees truly and unabashedly, this is the ethics and the art.”(Jiang 2003: 5) His creative works represent the highest achievements of American realism. Dreiser was also remembered as the pioneer of American modern novels and was considered as one of the three great writers in American apart from Ernest Hemingway and William Faulkner. It was Dreiser who broke through the “gentle tradition” and gives stinging criticism to what Howells described as the “smiling aspects” of life typifying America.
Dreiser’s genius was recognized and applauded by H.L. Mencken, but the general reaction to Dreiser has always been negative. Sister Carrie came out in 1990, followed by Jennie Gerhardt and two volumes of his “Trilogy of Desire”, The Financer (1912) and The Titan (1914), the third, The Stoic, being published posthumously. His other works include The Genius (1915), an autobiographical work, An American Tragedy (1925), and The Bulwark (1946). And An American Tragedy is considered to be his greatest work.