ABSTRACT

Carrie was the heroine of the novel, Sister Carrie, which was written by the American novelist Theodore Dreiser. She came to Chicago alone with a fantastic dream. This thesis analyzes Carrie’s characteristics by researching her inner world---her wonderful illusion before she entered the city, disappointment at the reality in Chicago, her degeneration of falling into bosom of two men successively for survival and her final success of becoming a famous dancer of Broadway. Meanwhile, this paper also analyzes the causes of Carrie’s contradictory characteristics by the consuming culture, the new feminism, living environment and the lack of right guidance.

Keywords:  Analysis of Characteristics  Sister Carrie  Causes  Social Culture

摘  要

嘉莉是美国作家德莱塞小说《嘉莉妹妹》中的女主角，带着美好的梦想只身来到芝加哥。本文通过对嘉莉进城前的美好幻想、对现实的彻底失望及相继投身于两个男人的怀抱、到最终成为百老汇著名舞蹈家的心路历程，分析了嘉莉的多变性格及原因。并从消费性社会、新女性主义、生活环境及嘉莉的成长和正确指导的缺失来分析造成她这矛盾且多变性格的原因。

关键词：性格分析  嘉莉妹妹  原因  社会文化

Chapter One    Introduction
                              
1.1 Introduction to the Author
Theodore Dreiser grew up in a poor family with a large number of family members. His father was a German Catholic immigrant, his mother was of Pennsylvania Mennonite farm background. Dreiser experienced so much in the industrial and urban world of America in the late nineteenth century. American society hosted the poor immigrant who struggled for food and shelter in the vast sprawl of an emerging metropolis. He had been a dishwasher, stove cleaner, freight car tracer, warehouse clerk, driver and until finally, in early 1892, he broke into newspaper industry and worked as a reporter for the Chicago Globe. In the 1890s, he managed to push his way to the top of the highly competitive popular journalism world and first as editor of Every Month. Dreiser finished the draft of Sister Carrie in 1900. Dreiser revealed the poor’s hard life in 1900s in America and the social values were distorted in that age. Sister Carrie’s blue warned these girls who are pursuing their dreams that they should choose right ways.