Work analysis of Sister Carrie 卡莉姐妹作品分析

Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945)

Catalogue

Life of DreiserMain Literary Works Naturalism

Work Analysis of Sister CarrieWriting styles of Dreiser Evaluation on Theodore Dreiser

Life of Dreiser

American novelist and journalist1871-- born in Indiana At 16 years old--forced to leave home in search of work. 1889-1890-- study at Indiana University. In 1892-- started to write for the Chicago Globe In 1898--Dreiser married, a Missouri schoolteacher in 1909--separated permanently from Sara White.

In 1900-- his first novel Sister Carrie was published .In 1911--Jennie Gerhardt was published . in 1912--Sister Carrie was republished.

A committed socialiston December 28, 1945 in Hollywood, he died, aged 74.

Main Literary Works

Sister Carrie (1900)嘉莉妹妹 Jennie Gerhardt (1911)珍妮姑娘 Trilogy of Desire (欲望三部曲): 1.The Financier (1912)金融家 2.The Titan (1914) 巨人 3.The Stoic(1947)斯多葛 The Genius (1915) 天才 An American Tragedy (1925) 美国的悲剧 Dreiser Looks at Russia(1928)《德莱赛对俄罗斯的观感》

NaturalismNaturalism was a literary movement taking place from the1880s to 1940s that used detailed realism to suggest that social conditions, heredity遗传, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character. It was depicted as a literary movement that seeks to replicate a believable everyday reality, as opposed to such movements as Romanticism or Surrealism超现实主义, in which subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment. Naturalism is the outgrowth of literary realism, a prominent literary movement in mid-19th-century France and elsewhere.

NaturalismNaturalistic writers were influenced by Charles Darwin‘s theory of evolution.They believed that one‘s heredity and social environment largely determine one’s character. Whereas realism seeks only to describe subjects as they really are, naturalism also attempts to determine “scientifically” the underlying forces (e.g. the environment or heredity) influencing the actions of its subjects.

Naturalistic works often include uncouth粗野的 or sordid肮脏的 subject matter.

Major features of NaturalismThe core of naturalism is determinism(决定论)

An individual’s course in life is wholly determined by some combination of animal instinct, heredity, and environment. Humans lack freedom of their own will. All of their actions are controlled, determined. The universe is cold, godless, indifferent and hostile to human desires. Life becomes a struggle for survival.

Two of the naturalist’s recurrent concerns are: social systems that destroy and dehumanize, and individual experience of loss and failure.

American Naturalism

Representatives:Stephen Crane, Frank Norris, Jack London and Theodore Dreiser. These writers’ detailed descr

iption of the lives of the downtrodden and the abnormal, their frank treatment of human passion and sexuality, and their portrayal of men and women overwhelmed by blind forces of nature still exert a powerful influence on modern writers.

Work analysis of Sister Carrie

1. 1 ) Sister Carrie (1900), is a work of pivotal importance in American literature despite its inauspicious launching. It became a beacon to subsequent American writers whose allegiance was to the realistic treatment of any and all subject matter. Sister Carrie tells the story of a rudderless but pretty small-town girl who comes to the big city filled with vague ambitions. She is used by men and uses them in turn to become a successful Broadway actress while George Hurstwood, the married man who has run away with her, loses his grip on life and descends into beggary and suicide. Sister Carrie was the first masterpiece of the American naturalistic movement in its grittily factual presentation of the vagaries of urban life and in its ingenuous heroine, who goes unpunished for her transgressions against conventional sexual morality. The book's strengths include a brooding but compassionate view of humanity, a memorable cast of characters, and a compelling narrative line. The emotional disintegration of Hurstwood is a much-praised triumph of psychological analysis.

In this poem the poet expressed a keen awareness of the loveliness and transience of nature.he not only meditated on mortality but also celebrated nature.it implies that life and death are inevitable law of nature.

"the wild honey suckle"is philipfreneau's most widely read natureal lyric with the theme of transience.the central image is a nativewild flower,which makes a drastic difference from elite flower images typical of tradition english poems. The poem showed strong feelings for the natural beauty,which was the characteristic of romantic poets.

The poem was written in regular 6-line tetrameter stanzas,rhyming:ababcc .The structure of the poem is regular,so it has the neoclassic quality of proportion and balance. alliteration ,assonance,masculine rhyme used in the poem also produce musical or melodious and harmonious,which matches the beautyof the flower,the beauty of poem is partly ambodied in the effects created through changes in the rhythm. The poem contains iambics trochaics and spondee.

the arrangement of stressed and unstressed syllables suggests the transience of the life of the flower and the poet's emotional change.the poem is full of sensuous images such as fair flower visual image,comely grow kinasthetic image and honeyed blossoms olfactory image.all the images make us feel pity for the beautiful flower which has only a short life. obviously the poet is sentimental,deistic optimist. the line"the sapace is but an hour"contains a hyperbole stressing and transience of life. the tone of the poem is both sentimental and optimistic.

Evaluation on Theod

ore Dreiser

Theodore Dreiser was a controversial character in his era. Not only because he had published he published “American Tragedy” in 1925 which made people extremely sorrow, but also because of his own different life. The desire to the ladies involved him into several anecdotes. In his whole life, he became a member of the Communist Party, also entered Hollywood.

In World War II, Dreiser access to some important people, like Emma Goodman, a reporter Mencken, and two Roosevelt Presidents.

It was this era that achieved this distinguished depiction of the harsh realities of the writer's life theme in twentieth-century, and his complex life also left a deep imprint in his masterpieces

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