Abstract:

Sister Carrie is a famous American realist novelist of Theodore Dreiser. Sister Carrie wrote a rural girl came to Chicago to find happiness. To get rid of poverty, she sold her virginity and cohabited with a salesman and hotel manager. At last, because of her beauty, she became an actor. This article reveals that the heroes in the novel tried to change the reality and get happiness. But eventually their experiences became all sorts of tragedy. By analyzing the three main characters’ experiences and desires in Sister Carrie, aims to dig up the causes of their failure. Besides the external causes, this paper also analyzes the internal reasons for their failure of desires. They looked money and desire as happiness. Of course, they are the factors of the failure of their desires. The ills of capitalism are the root cause of their tragedy. This paper summarizes the root cause of the failure of their desires is that they could not get rid of capitalism.

Key words: Sister Carrie; desire; happiness; capitalism

摘要：

嘉莉妹妹是美国著名现实主义小说家西奥多.德莱赛的作品。小说描写了农村姑娘嘉莉来到大城市芝加哥寻找幸福，为摆脱贫困，出卖自己的贞操，先后与推销员和酒店经理同居，后又凭美貌与歌喉成为演员的故事。本文通过对《嘉莉妹妹》中三位主人公的经历以及欲望的分析总结出引起欲望失败的原因除了外部因素，还分析了导致他们悲剧命运的内因。他们将幸福等同于欲望与金钱是造成他们欲望失败的重要因素，而资本主义的弊端是造成他们悲剧的根源。本文得出总结他们欲望失败的根源是无法摆脱资本主义。

关键词：《嘉莉妹妹》；欲望；幸福；资本主义

1. Introduction
1.1 Introduction to Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Dreiser is the pioneer in American modernist fiction and one of the most outstanding realistic writers. He was in a poor family and had a very hard childhood. Later he went to Chicago alone to make a living without graduating from high school. In 1889, he entered Indiana University and dropped again one year later. In 1892, he became a reporter. In 1990, Dreiser published his first novel Sister Carrie but the novel was accused of being destructive and was banned for a long time. However, it caused attention of many influential writers. In 1911, he published Jennie, which was regarded as Sister Carrie’s companion. The heroine Jennie did lots of things against the ethical norms, such as having babies without being married and becoming men’s mistress. So it still aroused great controversy. His novel Trilogy of Desire in 1912 and Financiers and Giant in 1914 had a huge impact on American society, which established Dreiser’s position in American literature. In 1915, he returned to his hometown and collected many materials as preparation for the creation of his most famous novel genius. In 1925, he published American Tragedy, which was based on the true criminal cases. This work marked new achievements of Dreiser's realism, which made him famous in the world.