Ⅲ Literature Review

The groups of feminists were “moral and behavioral revolution”participants in 1920s. The American society showed either good or bad views of feminists at that time. Historian Nancy Woloch said:“feminists are young striking models paying more attention to private lives instead of public affairs and preferring competition to cooperation, self-satisfaction to social service. They were also symbolists in the 1920s. The focus of the 1920's is the recent liberation of young people, especially young women, who are the driving force of moral change”.  (Woloch 381-398). But Robert L.Daniel holds different views.  He said :“Feminists in the 1920s  were far from being admired owing to their courage so what they suffered was the condemnation which destroyed the ‘entrenched, full of vitality and effectiveness of the relationship between men and women”. (Daniel 87.) My view in my thesis is supportive towards feminism. The novel is written according to the feminist. In the society where feminist and the American dream appeared, Sister Carrie eventually became a new woman of feminist, from the material pursuit to the spiritual pursuit, from relying on others to her independence, from the feminist consciousness to its development and maturity. This essay analyzes the growing process of Carrie’s feminist according to my reading in the perspective of feminist. This thesis aims to offer a feminist study of the image of Carrie when the rise of American New Woman in the 19th century American in order to offer a reasonable explanation of Dreiser’s ambivalent view of Womanhood.

This thesis is comprised of four parts. The first chapter is going to introduce the significance of this research and literature review. The second chapter analyzes the reasons why Carrie became a feminist. The third chapter aims to express her gradual independence and compare Carrie’s different status in Chicago with that  in New York to show the effects of her consciousness of feminism. In the last chapter, I make a conclusion that Carrie is an independent new woman and she is successful owing to her struggle. It appears that a number of "feminists", such as Carrie, are the forerunners of the feminist movement in the United States soon after, and Carrie’s search for the American dream is the process of the gradual awakening of modern women's consciousness. 来*自-优=尔,论:文+网www.youerw.com

Chapter Two : Main causes of Carrie’s feminist image formation

Ⅰ Feminism sprang up

At the end of the 19th century, American changed at the transitional period from the traditional industry to modern industry. Modern industry accelerated development of the city. With the social development, people had different opinions. New feminist sprang up.

When Dresser was writing Sister Carrie, women in the United States had begun to be affected by the new feminist thought. They had begun to challenge the traditional moral standard. New Feminism holds that women should be valued in their role as child bearers, both culturally and economically, while not being viewed as a "home maker" in the broader sense of the meaning. Its main aim is to promote the idea that women are inpiduals with equal worth as men, and that in social, economic and legal senses they should be equal but accept the natural differences between men and women. Although Dreiser dared to face the reality and write the new feminist image of Carrie, he was criticized. He describes Carrie as a passive striver who is a high-level woman rather than a low-level woman who would rather sell her body to get vanity and desire. At that time, there were many girls like Carrie striving themselves to get their desirable lives.