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1、The Embodiment of Consumerism in Sister Carrie摘 要 西奥多德莱塞是美国著名的作家之一。他的第一部长篇小说为嘉莉妹妹(1900)，通过农村姑娘嘉莉到芝加哥谋生而成为名演员的故事，揭露了资本主义社会繁荣外衣掩盖下的生存斗争，刻意地描写了人们在欲望和消费上的越界，以犀利的笔锋描绘了道德败坏。因而大多数批评家认为嘉莉妹妹宣扬的是道德败坏和人性堕落。这部小说因被指控“有破坏性”而长期禁止发行，但一些散发出去的赠阅本却引起了许多重要作家的注意。本文把嘉莉妹妹放到19世纪末二十世纪初美国的消费文化语境中来研究，从消费主义角度来探讨和分析作者在作品中所描绘的生动
2、场景。消费文化放在当时的背景来讲，它就意味着对物质财富的拥有和奢华的消费方式，商品不仅意味着满足人们的生活的基本需要，它已经成为身份和地位的象征，人们更加注重自身的享受，甚至是将享受当作自己所必须承担的一种责任。德莱塞的嘉莉妹妹通过大量的细节性描写，诸如人们对服饰，金钱，豪宅的欲望，尤其是通过对嘉莉妹妹消费欲望的塑造，我们可以看出嘉莉妹妹正是这种新兴消费文化的典型代表，并且深陷其中，作者通通过其作品大量写实性的情节向我们展示了一幅19世纪末20世纪初美国消费文化的真实景象。关键词：美国社会；消费主义；嘉莉妹妹；消费欲望 Abstract Theodore Dreiser is the most
3、 famous American writer of naturalistism in America. His first novel, Sister Carrie, deliberately describes transgression on human desires and consumption, and social immorality with a sharp style.This paper put Sister Carrie in the early twentieth century of the context of consumer culture in Ameri
4、ca, we explore and analyze a lively scene the author depicted in his works from the view of consumerism. On the background of consumer culture, it means that the owners of material wealth and luxury consumption style. Goods not only refers to the basic needs of peoples lives, it also has become a sy
5、mbol of identity and status. People pay more attention to their own enjoyment, and even consier this enjoyment as a responsibility they bear. In Dreisers Sister Carrie, we can see Sister Carrie is a typical representative one of consumer culture by a lot of the details of the description, such as pe
6、oples clothing, money, desire luxury, especially through the consumption culture of Sister Carrie desire to shape. The authors show us large numbers of realistic works of the circumstances in the late 19th century and early 20th century through the true picture of the U.S. consumer culture. Key word
7、s: American society; consumptionism; Sister Carrie; Consuming desires1. Introduction1.1 Auther Theodore Dreiser and His Literary AchievementsKnown to be significant as a founding influence on the latter American naturalist school, Theodore Dreiser was one of Americas greatest naturalist writers. He
8、was the leading figure in a national literary movement that replaced the observance of Victorian notions of propriety with the unflinching presentation of real-life subject matter. To a certain extent. His novels explored the new social problems that had arisen in a rapidly industrializing America .
9、Dreiser was bom in a large and poor family. So his education was irregular, but with the help of a sympathetic high school teacher, he spent two years at the University of IndianaAfter working as a journalist on several mid-western newspapers，in 1894 he went to New York, where he began a career in p
10、ublishing. In the summer of 1899 when at age of twenty-eight, he began his first novel，Sister CarrieIn writing form, his works were full of long sentences, and he paied a great attention to details. Due to its important descriptive technique in literature, the realism literature always created some
11、unexpected effectiveness.Qu Qiubai said that Theodore Dreiser was a genius, like white Venus in the boundless radiation. It was thus clear that, he was an outstanding writer, and his works were popular with others. Sister Carrie was in the treasure trove of American literature a bright pearl.1.2 The
12、 Story of Sister CarrieThe book described a story a rural girl Carrie went to Chicago because of pursuing metropolitan material life. She had gone through the hardships of job hunting, diseases and unemployment. In order to survive, she becamed a salesmans mistress, later eloped to New York with a h
13、otel manager. An accidental opportunity, he crowded into the upper society, it seemed that she had realized her desire, but at the end of the story, she still dreamed her own happiness in the rocking chair.In Sister Carrie, actually, Carrie was just like a sail in the sea that wanted to reach the sh
14、ore but was forced to float because of the great wind around her. Carrie was depicted a role who ran into the morass of desire, and human, like animals and insects, were driven by the desireWith extensive descriptions of department stores and working conditions in factory, conspicuous consumption an
15、d grinding poverty, and individual desire and class conflict, Theodore Dreier presented a world of American capitalism toward the end of the nineteenth century1.3 Social and Cultural Background of BookAs a writer coming from the bottom of the society, Theodore Dreiser always had the sympathy to the
16、weak and the poor. Jiang Jian (1986:32) argued that in his views, nothing was absolute and people were easy to get lost under various forces of the environment. American women had been effected by consumerism, and they began to challenge traditional moral Standard when Dreiser began to write Sister
17、Carrie. The characters in his novels mostly came from the bottom of the society, and their ideas and habits were deeply influenced by the privileges and limitations of the social class. At the same time, the vigorous growth of consumer ideology performed vividly in Sister Carrie. Combining the consu
18、merism in detail, Dreiser kept paying attention to humanity, and tried to reflect the truth of life and the thought of people in his time. He imagined the society as a blind machine and was out of control, and people accepted such a operation. To Dreiser, he was pretty willing to tell people his own
19、 feeling and thought about life.1.4 The Layout of the ThesisIn this thesis，the novel Sister Carrie is going to be placed in the context of consumer culture，and massive efforts will be made on the studies of consumer culture. The emphasis would be placed on two aspects of the novel：the content and th
20、e artistic techniquesWe will discuss the embodiment of consumerism in Sister Carrie. This thesis consists of four chapters.Chapter 1 is an introduction to this thesis which covers 4 sections. Section one talks about auther Theodore Dreiser and his literary achievements. Section two focuses on the th
21、e story of Sister Carrie. Section three talks about social and cultural background of book. Section three introduces the overview of the thesis.Chapter 2 explores consumerism and American literature. Section one mainly introduce the rise of consumerism in American society. First, introduction. Secon
22、d, explains the influences of consumerism upon American literature.Chapter 3 describes consumerism in Sister Carrie. Section one is concerned with Sister Carries American dream. Section two, Sister Carries life process. Section three points out consumerism as the cultural background of American trag
23、edy. Section three explors Analysis of consuming facts from the angle life and llust.Chapter 4 is the conclusion of this thesis. Section one explores the social comment. Section two presents limitations. Section three makes a conclusion of the embodiment of consumerism in Sister Carrie.In a word, th
24、e knowledge of article analyses, especially the influence of consumerism will contribute to our understanding about Sister Carrie.2. Consumerism and American Literature2.1 The Rise of Consumerism in American SocietyIn real economic terms, consumerism is a public consumption mode,which emerge with mo
25、dernization, especially the industrialization, the urbanization and the development of the company, in order to satisfy the desire passes the point of supplying all the basic essentials of life. From the social level, consumerism is a kind of expression of cultural attitudes, values and way of life,
26、 which gradually forms with mass consumption mode permeating the social fields. It has the distinctive features of materialism, it has the distinctive features of materialism, and consumption is the core, so commodity is regarded as the main form of self-expression, the main basis of identity, and a
27、 symbol of high quality of happy life.2.1.1 IntroductionFrom the civil war to the end of the 19th century, the Gilded Age in American history, was a process of industrialization, urbanization and the development of economy, and America had became the worlds center of the Second Industry Revolution,
28、realizing the transitions from agricultural country to industrial country, freedom capitalism to monopoly capitalism.Economic development and technical progress was the material basis of consumerism in the bud. In this period, America experienced great changes in social life and social culture, at t
29、he same time, peoples living standards had improved.Social change was the ideological basis of consumerism in the bud. Liberalism stimulated millions of Americans to dream to suceed through personal struggle.The development of the economy and the accumulation of wealth had become the possibility and
30、 necessity of mass consumption. On the one hand, the new commodities in shopping mall aroused peoples interest, and department stores also symbolized their confidence, because people could achieve their wishes through the pursuit of the consumption. During this period, the Americans admired the way
31、of new life, and it made the consumption idea and consumption patterns change. On the other hand, the development of urbanization and increasing working pressure catered to peoples desire to seek the exciting things. When America entered a new century, a British observer (1892:89) wrote this, Today,
32、 the development of American surprising material impress the visitor. Society encouraged people to pursue personal happiness and enjoy lives, so consumerism was up. From the 19th century to the 20th century, a great change of American society was, the economy couldnt maintain a normal operation unle
33、ss the large-scale production and consumption.2.1.2 Influences of Consumerism upon American LiteratureIn fact, literariness changes with times, in the past was, now here again, so hereafter. This is an internal law of literature development. The writers thought and work processes are inevitably effe
34、cted by social cultural environment. In the context of consumer culture, we can better understand the cultural meaning that contains in the works. Prosperous commodity society changes the life value of American mainstream society. Thrifty consumption is replaced by luxury，most Americans pursue luxur
35、y consumption in order to get more wealth. In the consumer society, consumption is not only for the consumer goods, but also for the value contained in the consumer goods. People will build a new cultural identity pattern through the symbolic value of consumption. Not concern with consumer goods, pe
36、ople want to realize the significance between ego identity and social relations through consumption.When consumerism as a kind of life style comes, may we face a new literature? In the spirit of consumptive life, people face a piece of strange mirror, when you look at it, your appearance seems diffe
37、rent, and you will follow your mirror image to survive. Sometimes literature becomes this mirror. City is the hot bed for consumption growing and spreading,and also is the best stage for literature to performance and expansion. there is a phenomenon, the relationship between literature and consumpti
38、on should be found in cities, so more and more literature concerns with the consumption. Like Dreisers Sister Carrie, it not noly provids a story about spiritual consumption, but also a guide book about life: Well-dressed, elegant environment and being wealthy are persistent pursuit of life, perhaps
39、 these only temporarily display their beauty, the true meaning of life is unreachable.With the commodity era arriving, and the changeable life style, consumption becomes god, and the changes of culture and literature are on the way to the world. The works embody the connotation of consumerism on the
40、 market can be popular, so at this time it is a rare commodity. According to the theory of Keynesian, this is called effective demand . With the stimulation of strong material desires, the phenomenon of super order and super standard is more real than any previous era, and these factors generally mo
41、ve from their the dark corners of hearts to surface layer. In its guidance, the narrative modes in the literature appear great changes: Narrative by the ideology obviously turns to personal little narrative, and the care for fate turns to feel, experience and imagination. The individual experience i
42、n writing plays a decisive role in the daily life.But the literature prefer caring about the personal spirit and soul to caring about the market. When the social develop in a certain extent, peoples heart always meet a crisis, and always want to search a place to lay the soul, we can say this is spi
43、ritual garden. Soul cannot always wandered. Literature is able to play this role.Under the influence of consumerism, the desire to live is firstly the commodity possession, which identify personal status and grade. Every narrator never misses any chance to show his broad and profound knowledge in br
44、and. Coming down to symbols, these commodities are not only the decoration and props, every item will mainly represent a great meaning, which is the source of desire, and the final destination of desire. This is the unique landscapeera of consumerism. Secondly, the body becomes another landscape in
45、consumer society. The body is a surface feather of consumer society, and performs in every chapter in the literature. In Sister Carrie, the naked desire for consumption floats on the surface of a paper like luxuriant foam.3. Consumerism in Sister Carrie3.1 The Contrast Between the Poor and the Rich
46、The influence of the dominant values in the money-oriented consumer society, the gap between the poor and the rich become wider and wider.We can find contrasts throughout the novel：Carrie chooses Drouet by contrasting him with Hansons，and later she chooses Hurstwood by contrasting him with DroueBut
47、the most remarkable one is the contrast between the poor and the richThis contrast constitute a dialectical progression. Carrie had experienced the sharp contrast between the poor and the rich even before she got to Chicago. On the train, when she saw so many fresh and magnificent things, She aspire
48、d to become beautiful dancers on stage, not because she liked dancing itself, but more of a chasing its scenery and mysterious side. But the well-clothed lady and their elegant behavior made her feel shame, and she felt herself was not a member of them, realizing the change of affectional atmosphere
49、 at once. When she found a job, she stayed with a group of rude behavior, and this made her feel very depressed. Their hard work all day just wanted to have a house of their ownThey dared not to think of going to the theatre occasionallyAll these were too far away from Carries dream of the city life.Here Dreiser exp
