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1、A BRIEF ANALYSIS OF SISITER CARRIE 嘉莉妹妹解读June, 2007Xiaogan UniversityAbstractSister Carrie tells the story of a small country girl Carrie who moves to Chicago to realize her “American Dream” and eventually becomes a Broadway star in New York. Despite living a luxurious life, she is lost in sprit. Re
2、ading the novel, we may easily notice Carrie different needs and desires arising gradually and also the betrayal of traditional moral code in the process of pursuing material gain. The paper analyzes the reasons why Carrie has various needs at different stages of life, mainly based on Maslows hierar
3、chy of needs. One is Carries inner desires; the other is the outside force, including temptations of environment, cities, etc. The interaction between them makes Carrie lose herself eventually. It seems to tell people that in modern society material supplies more and more abundantly, but we should n
4、ever pursue it blindly and much importance should be attached to happiness and stability created by spirit. It is essential to ponder the significance and the value of life.Key words: Sister Carrie; desire; lost; hierarchy of needs从马斯洛层次需要理论重新解读嘉莉妹妹摘要嘉莉妹妹讲述一位农村女孩嘉莉不甘贫穷来到芝加哥实现自己的“美国梦”，最终成为纽约百老汇一位著名的演
5、员，享受奢华的物质却陷入精神迷失的故事。阅读这部小说我们很容易注意到嘉莉不断升级的需要及日益增长的欲望，及在追求欲望的过程中对传统道德的违背。本文主要依据马斯洛不同层次需求理论，分析嘉莉在不同时期拥有不同需要的原因，即一方面是嘉莉内在的欲望，另一方面是环境、城市的诱惑等外在因素。这两方面的相互作用最终导致嘉莉陷入精神的迷失。嘉莉妹妹的故事似乎在警示我们，在物质越来越发达的今天，人们不应该盲目追求物质的享受，应该充分认识到精神带给人们的幸福感和满足感, 思索自己人生的意义和价值所在。关键词：嘉莉妹妹；欲望；迷失；层次需求理论Contents1. Introduction1 1.1 About t
6、he author and the novel11.2 About Maslows hierarchy of needs12. Carries material pursuit22.1 The physiological needs: leaving for Chicago2 2.2 The safety needs: becoming Drouets mistress33. Carries spiritual sublimation by degrees4 3.1 The love and belonging needs- awaking step5 3.2 The esteem needs
7、- advanced development5 3.3 The self-actualization needs- ultimate goal64. Significance of the novel75. Conclusion8Notes8Bibliography9Acknowledgements10A Brief Analysis of Sister Carrie Based on Maslows Hierarchy of Needs1. Introduction1.1 About the author and the novelTheodore Dreiser is one of Ame
8、ricas greatest writers, and its greatest naturalist writer as well. With the publication of Sister Carrie in 1900, Dreiser committed his literary force to opening the new ground of American naturalism. The general reaction to Dreiser has always been negative. He has been called a “Crag of basalt”, s
9、olemn and ponderous and the worlds worst great writer, but his influence is evident in the works of Sherwood Anderson, Sinclair Lewis, Ernest Hemingway, and James T.Farrell, among others. One of thirteen children, Dreiser was raised in Terre Haule, Indiana, in misery and bruising poverty. At fifteen
10、 Dreiser fled from home and went to Chicago, where he washed dishes in a cheap restaurant, clerked in a store, and painted advertising signs. He read constantly, like one of his own helpless characters, he dreamed of wealth and social success in the great metropolises. When he was eighteen, a sympat
11、hetic teacher helped him enter the University of Indiana, but Dreiser quitted after a year and returned to Chicago, where he embarked on another sseveral of menial jobs and wandered the city streets at night, storing up impressions of drunks, thieves, prostitutes, and beggars. Dreisers own experienc
12、e in Chicago and New York were the perfect materials for the story of a poor country protagonist who comes to the city to seek whatever she can find. The heroin of the novel is Carrie Meeber, who leaves her rural home to try her fortune in Chicago. She meets Charles Drouet, a traveling salesman on t
13、he train. After arriving in Chicago, she finds a job in a shoe factory, but the poor income and hard work oppress her imagination. She quits the job, lonely and distressed, she becomes Drouets mistress. When Drouet is away on a business trip, Carrie falls in love with George Hurstwood, a married man
14、ager. Hurstwood and Carrie elope to New York, and live together for more than 3 years. In these 3 years, Carrie becomes more and more popular while Hurstwood declines. Carrie walks out on him. Hurstwood becomes a beggar, sinks lower and lower and finally committed suicide. Carrie becomes a popular s
15、tar of musical comedies. However, in her massive success, she still feels lonely and empty. Sister Carrie represents Dreisers belief in representing life honestly in fiction. Dreiser accomplished this through accurate details, especially in his descriptions of the urban settings in which many of his
16、 stories take places. In his naturalistic portrayals, Dreiser sees his characters as victims of social and economic forces and of date.1.2 About Maslows hierarchy of needsNeed, simply can be defined as personal wants. Maslow believes that Humans are wanting beings, who seek to fulfill a variety of n
17、eeds. In his hierarchy of needs, there are five kinds, with each one being more important than the preceding one. These are briefly physiological, safety, love, esteem, and self-actualization needs. (1)The physiological needs it is the most pre-potent of all needs, including food and water, shelter
18、and sleep. If all the needs are unsatisfied, and humans are dominated by the physiological needs, all other needs may become simply non-existent or be pushed into the background. (2)The safety needs -It will emerge the safety needs when the physiological needs are relatively well gratified. Humans n
19、eed to keep his body safe from injury, illness and so on, and safe from misfortunes both now and in a foreseeable future. (3)The love and belonging needs - If both the physiological and the safety needs are fairly well gratified, and then there will emerge the love and belonging needs. Humans will h
20、unger for affectionate relations with people in general, namely, for a place in his group, a desire to marry, have a family and he will strive with great intensity to achieve this goal. (4)The esteem needs - it is soundly based upon real capacity, achievement and respect from others. These needs may
21、 be classified into two subsidiary sets. These are, first, the desire for strength, for achievement, for adequacy, for confidence in the face of the world, and for independence and freedom. Secondly, we have what we may call the desire for reputation or prestige, attention, importance or appreciatio
22、n. Satisfaction of the self-esteem need leads to feelings of self-confidence, worth, strength, capability and adequacy of being useful and necessary in the world. But thwarting of these needs produces feelings of inferiority, of weakness and of helplessness. (5)The self-actualization needs - It is t
23、he need to grow and develop as people, the need to become all that he is capable of being. These basic needs are related to each one and another, but any physiological and safety needs that remain unsatisfied will keep playing an important role, and needs at one level do not have to be completely sa
24、tisfied before needs at the next higher level come into play. This means that the highest goal will monopolize consciousness and will tend to organize the recruitment of the various capacities of the organism. The lower needs are minimized, even forgotten or denied. But when a need is fairly well sa
25、tisfied, the next higher need emerges, in turn to dominate the conscious life and to serve as the center of organization of behavior, since gratified needs are not active motivators. 2. Carries material pursuit 2.1 The physiological needs: leaving for ChicagoBy the end of the Civil War (1861-1865),
26、most of the forces that would typify twentieth century America had begun to emerge. Northern industrialism had triumphed over southern agrarianism. The great age of big city bossism began. Americans ceased to be isolated from the world and from each other. Soon the United States had the most extensi
27、ve railroad system in the world. The tempo of life accelerated as Americans became increasingly mobile. From 1870 to 1890 the total population of the United States doubled. Villages became towns, towns became cities, and cities grew to a size and with a speed that would have astonished the Founding
28、Fathers. The population of Chicago increased twenty times to two million, making it the nations second largest city after New York. The national income quadrupled. It was the beginning of what Mark Twain called “The Gilded Age”. Thousands and thousands of men, women and children native-born and fore
29、ign, flooded to American cities, drawn by hopes for making their fortune. They believed that anyone could grasp an opportunity to attain success through honest and hard work. Just as American naturalists argued: the world was amoral, that men and women had no free will, that their lives were control
30、led by heredity and the environment. Dreiser clothed the social phenomenon of so-called “American Dream” through his character, Carrie. At the beginning of the novel, the heroin, Carrie, keeps pace with the general trend of the time, and moves to Chicago, which is not far away from her hometown. “Sh
31、e was eighteen years of age, bright, timid, and full of the illusions of ignorance and youth.”【1】“And yet she was interested in her charms, quickly to understand the keener pleasers of life, ambitious to gain in material things. A half-equipped little knight she was, venturing to reconnoitre the mys
32、terious city and dreaming wild dreams of some vague, far-off supremacy, which should make it prey and subject-the proper penitent, groveling at a womans slipper.”【2】 In Maslows view, humans are wanting beings, mainly because humans are not satisfied with the status quo and are eager to achieve a hig
33、her realm. Desire is the keenness of living; it is one of the strong emotions which tells people that he is still curious to exist, that he still have an edge on his longings and want to bite into the world. Carrie is driven by the environment and the internal desire to move to Chicago. Strictly spe
34、aking, it is the physiological needs. Carrie wants to change the poor life. She begins to hunt a job to earn money to fulfill her needs. Carrie accepts a job in a shoe factory for four and a half dollars a week. Every week she pays four dollars for her board and lodging. Does the story develop smoot
35、hly like this? The author gave a hint by writing: “When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse.”【3】Carrie tries to live on her own to start her
36、 first step of material pursuit.2.2 The safety needs: becoming Drouets mistressChicago is a charming city indeed. Carrie is surrounded by various temptations.“Carrie passed along the busy aisles, much affected by the remarkable displays of trinkets, dress goods, stationary and jewelry. Each separate
37、 counter was a show place of dazzling interest and attraction. She could not help feeling the claim of each trinket and valuable upon her personally. There was nothing there which she could not have to used-nothing which she did not long to own. The dainty slippers and stockings, the delicately fril
38、led skirts and petticoats, the laces, ribbons, hair-combs, purses, all touch her with individual desire.”【4】 “She realized in a dim way how much the city held-wealth, fashion, ease-every adornment for woman, and she longed for dress and beauty with a whole heart”【5】 But the fact is that the cold rea
39、lity takes her by the hand. First, her sister and brother-in-law live a lean life and consumed by housework. The money left by Carrie every week is not enough for her car fares, let alone clothes, laces, ribbons, etc. And none of those things is in the range of her purchase. Second, in the shoe fact
40、ory, the machines work intensively. Carrie is not strong. Her shoulders and necks ache in bending over and she is totally exhausted every day. “As Carrie listened to this and much more of similar familiar badinage among the men and the girls, she instinctively withdraws into herself. She feared that
41、 the young boys about would address such remarks to her.”【6】 “and the whole atmosphere was sordid” 【7】Carrie doesnt like to bear the hard work, the foul working condition and the human environment. She hopes to break away from the factory to enjoy physical comfort and from such uncouth men to keep h
42、er calm. Third, as the rigorous winter is around the corner, Carrie worries about the problem of winter clothes, for she has nothing to wear. At last, as a result of illness she loses the job and to return hometown seems to be the only choice. According to Maslows hierarchy of needs, if the physiolo
43、gical needs are relatively well gratified, there then emerge the safety needs. The problem is that whether she can satisfy it or not, it depends on the reality which supplies enough conditions or not, besides her own effort. Carrier understands that it is impossible to buy dress and entertain hersel
44、f by her personal diligence. Drouet is, for Carrie, an escape. She does not love him, but he means a source of amazement, and she recognizes that the relative opulence of his chambers and department he procures for Carrie is the signs of that for which she is striving. Eventually she betrays herself
45、 to become Drouets mistress to realize her safety need. Carrie and Drouet pay a visit all round the city and go shopping, take part in various activities, have delicious foods, purchase beautiful clothes. Though Carrie has ever hesitated, “Money! Money! What a thing it was to have! How plenty of it
46、would clear away all the troubles. ” 【8】she surrendered to the magic of money. At the second stage of material pursuit, Carrie has a much stronger desire. She falls in love with it without reason.3. Carries spiritual sublimation by degrees3.1 The love and belonging needs- awaking stepAs the plot goe
47、s, the author depicts a panorama of rising needs and desire. On one hand, Carrie is not just satisfied with living together with Drouet. “That young lady, under the stress of her situation and the tutelage of her new friend, changed effectively. She the glow of a more showy life was not upon her. Sh
48、e did not grow in knowledge so much as she awakened in the matter of desire. Mrs. Hales extended harangues upon the subjects of wealth and position taught her to distinguish between degrees of wealth.”【9】 When she comes to her own room, Carrie sees their comparative poverty. She is not comparing it
49、with what she has had, but what she has seen recently. She begins to ponder what, after all, Drouet is and what she is. On the other hand, Carrie fears of losing Drouets affection, of being abandoned, and also she longs for someone to sympathize herself, but not let herself ponder and wonder. It makes clear to Carrie that Drouet could not understand her. He just cares about her be
