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1 Naturalism in Sister Carrie Abstract: Theodore Dreiser the writer of Sister Carrie is one of the most outstanding representatives of American naturalism. In this thesis his first novel Sister Carrie is taken as an example to analyze the features of Dreiser’s naturalism. The thesis referred to three great historical and cultural background of the novel which are Darwinism Determinism American Naturalism and Industrial Revolution .And the thesis analyzes three features of naturalism. At last we pay attention to Dreiser’s exploration ------human desire and revelation of the dark side of human nature Key Words: Naturalism Darwinism desire environment human nature Naturalism of Dreiser in Sister Carrie Introduction Theodor Dreiser 1871-1945 an American author outstanding representative of naturalism whose novels depict real-life subjects in a harsh light. Many of his works referred to the description of naturalism and weakened his critical spirit. His first novel Sister Carrie published in 1990 revealed the financial disparity and the moral decline of American society and thus regarded as forbidden book. But now the book becomes one of the best-sellers of American literature because of the naturalistic features in it. Then Dreiser is regarded as a pioneer of American naturalism and as a naturalist Dreiser expresses the characteristics of naturalism in most of his works. The themes of Darwinism and Determinism are the common features of Dreiser’s story which also characterize Sister Carrie. Dreiser chose to reflect life truthful in his works when other novels deal only with the beautiful aspects of life. It is not an exaggeration to say that Dreisers Sister Carrie clears the way for the development of American fiction. 2 From follow analysis of three aspects and conclusionwe can find out the naturalism of Dreiser in Sister Carrie 1. The historical and cultural background for Sister Carrie Theodore Dreisers Sister Carrie reflects the profound transformations in American life in the late nineteenth century. 1.1 Darwinism and Determinism In 1859 Darwin’s The Origin of Specie appeared. It soon changed man’s recognition. Before Darwin human was separated from the animals because of its moral. However at this time evolutionist considered human as a part of natural things and a member of the animal kingdom. American naturalists accepted “bestiality” and “ human beast” as an explanation of desire. They attempted to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness presenting characters of low social and economic classes who are determined by their environment and heredity. They dismissed the validity of comforting moral truth. Darwinism is the most important theory which greatly affects Sister Carrie. Freud’s theory gives theoretic basis to Dreiser’s description of man’s desire. Freud considers man’s natural instinct as determination. To him man is a part of nature since man is a member of animals. Human mentality and action will forever be determined by instinct. Desire is just a genetic instinct in his opinion. 1.2 American naturalism Sister Carrie was written and published also at the rise of American naturalism which means a particular genre of fiction that developed in the late 19th century America and associated principally with writers such as Jack London Stephen Crane Frank Norris and Theodore Dreise. At the end of nineteenth century came a generation of writers whose ideas of the working of the universe and whose perception of the societys disorder led them to naturalism. A new and harsher realism naturalism was introduced to the United States 3 literary naturalists spoke out against the ideas that literature should present what Howells called for the smiling aspects of life. Instead they attempted to achieve extreme objectivity and frankness presenting characters of low social and economic classes who were dominated by their environment or heredity in depicting the extremes of life. American naturalists emphasized that world was amoral that men and women had no free will that their lives were controlled by heredity and the environment that religious truths were illusory and that the destiny of humanity was misery in life and ablivion in death. 1. 3 Industrial Revolution Industrial Revolution brought American people a value crisis. The 19th century was the time of industrialization. Serial changes made people feel they were conquering the world and obtaining their treasures. The surprising development made people feel too close to wealth and happiness. Then appeared small amounts of industrial giants and large number of poor people American value materialistic to the core. Living in such a society with such a value system the human individual is obsessed with a never end yet meaningless search for satisfaction of his desire. 2. The typical characteristics of naturalism in Sister Carrie In Sister Carrie I find out that some of its themes differ from those of other naturalistic works. 2.1 The desire instinct and the ifluence of environments Freud’s theory gives theoretic basis to Dreiser’s description of man’s desire. Freud considers man’s natural instinct as determination. To him man is a part of nature since man is a member of animals. Human mentality and action will forever be determined by instinct. Desire is just a genetic instinct in his opinion. This thesis covers Dreiser’s meaningful ideas--desire. Man’s behavior is dominated by instincts desires needs and fear and environments cities and consumerism and chances. In the process of evolution man is not able to control instincts completely. Desire is considered hereditary and instinctive. In this novel 4 most of the central characters are hur上一篇:原创英语论文naturalism_in_Sister_Carrie论嘉莉妹妹中的自然主义