Abstract

Theodore Dreiser is a famous American writer in the twentieth century. His works are close to social life and explore human’s desire for material. Sister Carrie is his first full-length novel, which tells the story of Carrie who is a countryside girl and finally becomes a Broadway star. This thesis attempts to interpret Sister Carrie from the perspective of naturalism and explores how the environmental factors and natural factors affect the fate of the characters by analyzing the desire of the main characters. By studying the naturalism in Sister Carrie, the limitations of naturalism can be criticized. Desire is a kind of natural driving force in the novel. This thesis mainly presents the instinctive desire which drives and determines the behavior of people.

Keywords: Dreiser; Sister Carrie; desire；naturalism

摘要

     西奥多·德莱塞是美国二十世纪著名作家，他的作品贴近社会生活，探讨人类的物质欲望。《嘉莉妹妹》是他的第一部长篇小说，讲述了嘉莉从农村少女成为百老汇明星的经历。本文试图从自然主义角度解读《嘉莉妹妹》，通过分析《嘉莉妹妹》中主要人物的欲望，探析环境因素和自然因素是怎样影响人物命运的。欲望是小说中的一种自然驱动力，本文着重呈现本能欲望对人的行为的驱使和对人的行为的支配。

关键词：德莱塞；《嘉莉妹妹》；欲望；自然主义