Ⅰ Carrie’s gradual independence 9

Ⅱ Effects of Carrie’s feminism 11

2.1 Being dependent in Chicago 11

2.2 Being independent in New York 11

Chapter Four: Conclusion 13

Works Cited 15

Carrie’s Gradual Independence——A Feminist Study of Sister Carrie

Chapter One：Introduction

Ⅰ Introduction of the writer

Theodore Dreiser is an American novelist in the 20th century. He went to Chicago and began his independent living at 18 in 1882 which was similar to the life experience of Carrie. “It was August, 1889. She was eighteen years of age, bright, timid, and full of the illusions of ignorance and youth.” (Dreiser 1). Dreiser’s novel is real and touching and full of vitality, which has injected new vitality into the American Realistic Novels.

Ⅱ My view of Carrie’s feminism 论文网

The theme of my thesis is that Carrie’s awareness of feminism is gradually developed under her four times of leaving. Her different status in different cities Chicago and New York shows that it is her consciousness of feminism that has changed her life. “Sister Carrie, which traces the material rise of Carrie Meeber and the tragic decline of G.W. Hurstwood , was Dreiser’s first novel.” (Wu Weiren 143).“ In the years preceding World War Ⅰ, nineteenth-century realism and naturalism remained vital forces in American literature. Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie, a commercial and critical failure when first published in 1900, was re-issued in 1907 and won high praise for its grim, naturalistic portrayal of American society.”(Wu Weiren 162). Although a lot of articles are written from the point of view of the naturalism, the symbolic art and the characterization of this work, this thesis focuses on Carrie’s awareness of feminism. This thesis aims to show her positive attitudes towards Carrie’s awareness of feminism.

Carrie is capable of constantly adjusting to her social position in life, and dare to be adventurous and competitive. She is brave enough to pursue the success of her career. She represents women's experience in groups, which shows a repressed women's rebellious consciousness and the search for the details of self-survival. Carrie's success represents the author's sense of anti-traditional, When Carrie gradually succeed and Hurstwood gradually failed, we do see the author’s subversion of the traditional image of women and patriarchal society.

The object in my thesis is feminism. The origin of feminism is as followed. Feminist movement in the United States is not the invention of the 19th century. The pilgrims think that humble status of women is a symbol of sin. Women should be confined to the family, living as mothers and wives, and housework is their only work. So the status of women slaves inspired the movement of American women's rights.

Here is the development of feminist. The first wave of American feminism began in the 1840s and is commonly marked by the first Women’s Rights Convention, held in Seneca Falls in 1848. It was organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Susan B. Anthony who had been denied a place at the international anti-slavery convention in London in 1840.“Together with Susan B. Anthony, Stanton founded the National Woman’s Suffrage Association in 1869, which later became the League of Women Voters”. （Madsen 6）.“The second wave of American feminism dates from the 1960s, Betty Friedan’s The Feminist Mystique published in 1963 marks the establishment of the Modern Women’s Movement”. （Madsen 7）.Feminist theory arose in the second wave of feminism. Feminist literary theory aims to change the traditional education and social practice of gender bias and is committed to the operation to expose the widespread patriarchal power structure and also call for the re-excavation of female literary creation, and finally establish the theory on feminist perspective. When Sister Carrie was first published, it received no acclamation from the readers. On the contrary, it was criticized. During the second wave of the feminist movement, some critics began to interpret Sister Carrie from a new perspective, and finally this work was highly valued in the American literary world.文献综述