摘要

  《嘉莉妹妹》是美国著名现实主义作家德莱塞的早期代表性作品。小说以美国大都市为背景，描述了在资本主义社会中，贫穷家庭女子的悲惨命运。讲述了农村姑娘嘉莉来到大城市芝加哥谋生，为摆脱贫困，出卖自己的贞操，后又凭借美貌与歌喉成为歌星的故事。但在小说最后，拥有一切荣华富贵的嘉莉躺在摇椅中，感到的是无法承受的孤独与痛苦。本文试图从社会与个人两方面剖析嘉莉的悲剧成因。从而揭示了，在资本主义的大背景下，即使物质生活得到了极大的满足，精神生活还是空虚痛苦的，幸福永远遥不可及。

关键词：嘉莉；悲剧；社会；精神；空虚

Abstract

Sister Carrie is the early representative work of the famous American realism writer Theodore Dreiser. In the metropolis of the United States, the fate of the poor family women is tragic under the background of capitalism. Sister Carrie describes the rural girl Carrie, who came to the big city Chicago to make a living. In order to escape poverty, she betrayed her virginity and became the famous singer with her beauty and beautiful voice. She felt lonely and grief in the rocking chair at the end of the novel. This paper attempts to analyze Carrie’s causes of tragedy from the social and personal aspects, which reveals that under the background of capitalism, even if the material needs have been greatly satisfied, spiritual life is still empty and painful, and happiness is always out of reach.

Key words: Carrie; tragedy; society; spirit; empty

1. Introduction
1.1 Theodore Dreiser and Sister Carrie
Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser was born in Terre Haute, Indiana, on August 27, 1871. The famous word author Paul Dresser was his brother. From 1889 to 1890, Theodore had been studying at the University of Indiana, Bloomington. His father was a textile worker in Germany who went to the United States and opened a textile factory after evading military service in 1846. His mother was the daughter of Moravia farmers. Dreiser worked as a clerk in a mercer’s shop and a newsboy at the age of 12. When he was 17 years old, he went to Chicago to make a living. From the 23-year-old, he worked in Chicago Globe, Global Democratic newspaper and Globe-Democrat in St. Louise as a reporter, and worked as an editor at Monthly Magazine in New York.
His first novel Sister Carrie in 1990 talked about a young woman fled the village life toward happy life in Chicago to show the process of gradually growing independence and awakening.