英语本科毕业论文-从《嘉莉妹妹》女主人公的悲剧分析美国的拜金主义.doc

山西农业大学信息学院
本科毕业论文

从《嘉莉妹妹》女主人公的悲剧分析美国的拜金主义

系部名称：山西农业大学信息学院
专业名称：英语
学生姓名：、 学 号：
指导教师：

二○一六年六月

BACHELOR'S DEGREE THESIS
OF CISAU

An Analysis of the Money Worship of the United States: The Root of Sister Carrie’s Tragedy
College ：College of Information, Shanxi Agricultural University
Subject ：English Major
Name ：
Number ：2012600404
Director ：Niu Zhiping

June 2016

郑 重 申 明

本人呈交的学位论文，是在导师的指导下，独立进行研究工作所取得的成果，所有数据、图片资料真实可靠。尽我所知，除文中已经注明引用的内容外，本学位论文的研究成果不包含他人享有著作权的内容。对本论文所涉及的研究工作做出贡献的其他个人和集体，均已在文中以明确的方式标明。本学位论文的知识产权归属于培养单位

本人签名: 日期：

摘 要
在一个时代，经济发展的水平决定该时代人们的精神高度，而人们的精神追求也反映一个时代经济发展的阶段。在西奥多·德莱赛生活的19世纪末20世纪初的美国，正处于商品经济发展的上升阶段，唯物主义渐渐占据上风。琳琅满目的商品点缀的人们的生活，增加了他们的幸福感，但同时盲目追求这种“幸福感”也使人们的心灵逐渐“病化”。嘉丽作为这个时期典型的代表人物，充分体现了社会底层的人们在面对物质满足时道德约束渐渐处于劣势。在嘉丽的经历中，她内心的变化就是对这个时代经济发展水平最好的反映。她一个人来到芝加哥大都市，从衣着破旧的乡下小姑娘到最终成为了百老汇明星，身份，地位应有俱有，看似嘉丽是幸福的，但嘉丽在得到物质享受的同时却也一直在失去，如每个女孩子渴望的忠贞不渝、天长地久的爱情，以及内心道德的自我满足。本文就嘉丽的悲情为线索，从嘉丽出生的悲剧、爱情的悲剧及个人发展的悲剧分析当时导致嘉丽心境变化的拜金主义。

关键词：西奥多·德莱赛; 嘉莉妹妹; 欲望; 物质追求; 拜金主义

ABSTRACT

In an era in which economic development determines the level of the spirit of the times, people's spiritual quest also reflects the stage of economic development. In the late 19 century and early 20th century of the United States, the commodity economy was developing in upswing, materialism prevailing. Dazzling array of merchandise embellished people's lives, increased their sense of well-being, but at the same time the blind pursuit of this "happiness" also makes people become morbid. Carrie as a typical representative of this period fully embodies the underprivileged people whose was tested when they faced the satisfaction of materialism. The change of Sister Carrie greatly reflected the level of economic development of this era. She, a country girl with ragged and old-fashioned clothes, came to the city of Chicago, ultimately became a Broadway star, who owned identity and status. It seemed that Carrie was happy, Carrie get material comforts, but also lost something, such as everlasting love that every girl constantly longed for, and inner moral self-satisfaction. This paper will analyze Carrie’s tragedy from three aspects: the tragedy of her humble birth, the tragedy of her love, and the tragedy of her personal pursuits, so as to explore the Money Worship of the US’s influence on her life.
Key words: Theodore Dreiser; Sister Carrie; Desires; Pursuit of Material;
Money Worship

iii

Table of Contents

摘 要 ii
ABSTRACT iii
I. Introduction 3
1.1 Project Background and Significance 3
1.2 The Main Content of the Paper 3
1.3 Organizational Structure of the Paper 4
II. At Home and Abroad Research Status of Sister Carrie 5
2.1 The Research Status of Sister Carrie At Home 6
2.2 The Research Status of Sister Carrie Abroad 6
III. Analysis of Carrie's Tragedy Composition 7
3.1 The Tragedy of Carrie’s Humble Background 8
3.2 The Tragedy of Carrie’s Love 9
3.3 The Tragedy of Carrie’s Personal Pursuit 11
IV. The Influence of Money Worship on Carrie’s Tragedy 12
3.1 Humble Background VS Money Worship of the United States 13
3.2 True Love VS Money Worship of the United States 14
3.3 Personal Pursuit VS Money Worship of the United States 15
V. Conclusion 17
References 20
Acknowledgments 21

I. Introduction
1.1 Project Background and Significance
Theodore Dreiser is one of the famous American naturalistic writers of the 20th century. Dreiser lived in a poor family, so he dropped out at high school to earn a living. He was influenced by progressive ideas because he read Darwin, Huxley et al.'s work. To survive, Dreiser worked as dishwasher, tellers, laundry workers and furniture salesman and other chores. In 1900, Dreiser published the first novel Sister Carrie. He describes the disillusionment of happiness that Carrie pursued, and criticized the darkness of the capitalistic society. He pointed out that honest laboring is no way to be successful in the United States, but by betraying one’s soul, could we get money and status. Theodore Dreiser stressed the desire and environment are the main factors that affected the fate of the characters. For instance, Carrie is the best model.
The subject of my graduation paper is An Analysis of the Money Worship of the United States: The Root of Sister Carrie’s Tragedy. Sister Carrie tells the story of a young girl who lived in the bottom of the society and at last became a Broadway star. Carrie shows the growing desire in this course. In this materialistic age, everywhere is full of temptation; each of us could be the next Sister Carrie. Could we keep a clear mind, and hold the bottom moral line in the materialistic society? This paper attempts to analyze the tragedy of Sister Carrie, and reveal that money worship exerted great influence on people’s character and life so as to give modern people enlightenment.
1.2 The Main Content of the Paper
This paper tells a story that a country girl who was lived in the capitalist society became a Broadway star at last. Carrie was a girl from a poor family, because she was driven by the Worship of Money, she used unfair means to get success. It was seemed that Carrie was happy, but she didn't get the true love, and she has lost family members.The third part and the fourth part introduced the cause of the tragedy of Carrie in detail. The third part introduced the tragedy of Carrie from three aspects, they are the tragedy of Carrie’s humble background, the tragedy of Carrie’s love and the tragedy of Carrie’s personal pursit. The fourth part is the analysis of the influence of Money Worship on Carrie’s tragedy.
Therefore, research methods used in this topic are: (1) version of the literature research: to solve their own problems based on the data obtained through investigation and information, so as to fully and correctly grasp the background knowledge and theory to solve the problem. (2): the qualitative analysis and synthesis, abstraction and generalization methods, thinking of all kinds of materials processing access to do so, the inner essence of things, to understand and reveal the inherent regularity.
1.3 Organizational Structure of the Paper
This article mainly analyze Carrie’s tragedy through the novel “Sister Carrie” making a conclusion that the influence of Money Worship on people at that time. In order to express the content of this article very well, the article is divided into five parts.
The first chapter mainly introduces the research background and scientific significance and the structure of this paper.
The second chapter mainly introduces domestic and foreign research status of “Sister Carrie".
The third chapter mainly analyses the tragedy of Carrie from three aspects: the tragedy of the Carrie’s birth, the tragedy of Carrie’s love and the tragedy of Carrie’s personal pursuit.
The forth chapter combining the contents of the third chapter, describes the relationship between Carrie’s tragedies and the money worship of the United States .
The fifth chapter makes a summary of this article.

II. At Home and Abroad Research Status of Sister Carrie
Sister Carrie is the famous naturalist writer Theodore Dreiser's first novel of the United States in the 20th century. The author revealed the reality of the 20th century America in a unique vision by Carrie's story. People enjoyed the happiness that material satisfaction brought to them and blindly chased it. Domestic and foreign scholars had a lot of research on Sister Carrie. This chapter mainly introduces the domestic and foreign scholar’s studies on the money worship of the United States’ s influence on Sister Carrie’s life .
2.1 The Research Status of Sister Carrie At Home
Domestic scholars Wei JingJing explores the cause of Carrie's desire combining with the theory of Maslow's hierarchy of needs from Carrie behavior characteristics and psychological factors. She believes that everyone has a dream just like Carrie who had been looking forward to a goal. The key of the desire lies in the desire for achievement.
Gao Yufen through the analysis of Sister Carrie and others, especially the relationship between Sister Carrie and two men, Drew and Hurst wood, reveals the character of Sister Carrie whose life has never been satisfied. With the help of Drew, she achieved the first goal: stable material life, and then, Hurst wood helped Carrie realize the second goal: greater material wealth. After that, she started chasing the third goal: the pursuit of the spirit. She has always been chasing a new goal all the time.
2.2 The Research Status of Sister Carrie Abroad
Current researches in foreign countries on "Sister Carrie" are mainly confined to literary criticism, moral philosophy and cultural fields. Mickey Clark said: Theodore Dreiser equated the city to the desire. A detailed description of the city he described not appeared before. Dreiser's city life is the largest record of the United States. The city represents the separation of people and self-sufficient world, the order created by the natural order of power.(Clark 1967:35-38)
Carrie’s choice was because the evil influence of American society. The city to rural areas have a decisive victory. During this period, Carrie left the rural areas, went in Chicago world to get success. She can get luxury fashion and luxury, but these only by a road of crime.
Philosopher Martin Heidegger said that the essence of the new era is non-apotheosis; God from the world will disappear，and science and technology will make people lose their spiritual homeland. Carrie is in such a state of mind. (Song 1991 :57-59)

III. Analysis of Carrie's Tragedy Composition
Sister Carrie vividly described during the 20th century of the United States that obsessed with material comforts, people in the pursuit of material enjoyment lost themselves. Carrie as a representative of this period, changed from a country girl into a Broadway star. It seemed that Carrie was successful, but from the analysis of the process that Carrie pursued her success, this is a tragedy undoubtedly. This part will analyze Carrie’s tragedy in detail from three aspects: the tragedy of Carrie’s humble background, the tragedy of Carrie’s love and the tragedy of Carrie’s personal pursuit.
3.1 The Tragedy of Carrie’s Humble Background
Carrie is a girl from Columbia City, compared with Chicago, there being no tall buildings, no commercial streets, and no noise. People do not know how to drink wine in a restaurant, watching the show to go to the theater, because the environment of Columbia does not allow people to do these activities. They use their own labor to make a living. He earned a little money in the flour factory to support his family. Although her sister has married, her father's income was not enough to allow Carrie to buy new clothes and live a comfortable life. So Carrie went to Chicago. When she came to Chicago full of fantasy, she wanted to find a good man to take her to live a good life, and was eager to get success through her own efforts. However, what she had were just only four dollars, outdated clothes, her own beauty and innocence. She looked like a knight who was not fully equipped, risked exploring the mysterious city, imagining she could dominate her life one day in the future.
Carrie thought that sister could help her change the situation of the poor, but when Carrie saw her sister’s haggard face on the train station she felt disappointed. Carrie felt that it was so hard for the people living the in bottom of the society to live in the city of Chicago. Although Chicago was prosperous and wealthy, Carrie’s sister’s clothes were still so outdated, her sister's hands are so cold, and her eyes are so numb without vitality. Carrie living in the elder sister’s family, her brother-in-law has never cared about her presence. The condition that Carrie could stay in her sister’s family was that Carrie needed to pay 4$ for the cost of living every week, and this was a large sum of money for Carrie. Enthusiasm of Carrie to the new world disappeared in half after seeing her sister.
3.2 The Tragedy of Carrie’s Love
Carrie is a beautiful woman, who is in the best years of the life. Beautiful black hair, perfect figure, and a pair of wisdom eyes made Carrie very charming. There were many boys who went after Carrie in her hometown, Carrie could choose a boy she liked and get married. But Carrie understood that there will be many boys who are more handsome and wealthy that she can make choice. Carrie would not have been living in the remote and backward country, so she abandoned the people that she really likes, and to find someone who can bring her a comfortable life. Carrie's mind is totally taken over by material desires of the fantasy, rather than hardworking.
On the train, Carrie felt a man who paid attention to her, this was Drew. He was a salesman of a factory; the fashionable dress has a deep attraction for Carrie. His appearance attire is a good advertising: "button large gold plated cuff button, studded with called 'cat's-eye' yellow agate. Finger wears several rings. " (Dreiser, Sister Carrie 3) The fashionable appearance, which is made up of gold and silver and the material, and the bulging purse, made Carrie vaguely feel that he was the center of the world of wealth. He talked a lot with Carrie and depicted Chicago as a large assortment of shopping malls. Then, Drew helped Carrie when she lost job because of injuries. He gave Carrie some money and bought new clothes for her. She stood in front of the mirror, and felt the power for the first time, the previous sadness disappeared too. Compared with the life in her elder sister’s family, and each month paying four dollars for living expenses, Carrie felt Drew can bring a better life for her. She thought that living with Drew together was the best choice undoubtedly. Therefore, Carrie chose to live with Drew, even if she was not Drew’s wife. With Mrs. Hale riding along the walking the shores of Lake Michigan, Carrie saw the villas, private cars, private lawn, and luxury interior furnishings, her desire was instigated. She was sure that was happiness. At this time, Drew introduced Hurst Wood to Carrie, who was the manager of the Fitzgerald and Moy.
Due to the need of the work, Hurst Wood knew many people who lived in the upper society. Hurst Wood's demeanor, noble temperament, and decent work had attracted Carrie deeply. Carrie’s appearance also attracted Hurst Wood, and if he could get along with Carrie, he was willing to sell his soul. When Carrie felt Hurst Wood loved her, she chose to accept rather than refuse. Because Drew was even not worth mentioning in front of Hurst Wood, Carrie wanted a more luxurious life that only Hurst Wood could bring to her. So Carrie eloped with Hur