On Naturalism in Sister Carrie

On Naturalism in Sister Carrie论嘉莉妹妹中的自然主义摘要 西奥多德莱塞是美国最伟大的自然主义作家之一。他的第一部小说嘉莉妹妹作为一部伟大的艺术作品为现代文学的发展竖立了一个重要的里程碑，而小说中自然主义的运用则为小说的成功奠定了基础。本文旨在从环境，机遇和遗传三个方面来探讨小说中的自然主义特色。关键词 西奥多德莱塞 自然主义 环境 机遇 遗传Abstract: Theodore Dreiser is one of Americas greatest naturalist writers. Naturalism contributes a lot to the success of his first novel Sister Carrie, which is both a major work of art and an important landmark in the development of literary modernism. This paper aims to discuss the naturalistic features in Sister Carrie mainly from three aspects: environmental factors, chances and hereditary factors.Key words: Theodore Dreiser; naturalism; environment; chance; hereditary factor1 IntroductionTheodore Dreiser is a representative American naturalist writer. His frank discussion and celebration of sex are new and shocking to the reading public, and he opens a new ground of American naturalism. “The revival of naturalism in the 1930s enthroned Dreiser as the guide and pioneer for the latter-day naturalists such as James T. Farrell, John OHara, and John Dos Passes, for it is in Dreisers works that American naturalism is said to have come to age” (常耀信,2003:148). Apart from Hemingway and Faulkner, Dreiser is also regarded as one of the three greatest novelists in America after World War I. In Sinclair Lewis Nobel Prize Acceptance Speech, he highly praised Dreiser and pointed out that it was Dreiser rather than he himself that deserved the prize, “Dreiser more than any other man, marching alone, usually unappreciated, often hated, has cleared the trail from Victorian and Howellsian timidity and gentility in American fiction to honesty and boldness and passion of life. Without his pioneering, I doubt if any of us could, unless we liked to be sent to jail, seek to express life and beauty and terror” (钱青,1997:117). Actually, he expressed a widespread feeling in American literary community. Dreiser was the twelfth children of German immigrants and grew up in poverty. At the age of fifteen, he was forced to leave home in search of work. So his personal experiences play an important role in leading him to a pessimistic view of human helplessness in the face of outer forces and instinct. With great efforts, he becomes a leading writer of American literary history. He is a productive writer whose masterpiece is An American Tragedy, and he is also the author of Jennie Gerhardt, The Genius, and Trilogy of Desire, which includes The Financier, The Titan, and The Stoic, while his most popular work is Sister Carrie.Dreisers first novel Sister Carrie was published in 1900. However, at first, this book is regarded as an advocate of moral corruption and degeneration. And it is not promoted and therefore sold badly. It is not until 1912 that the novel received the greatest reputation and became one of the most famous novels in literary history. The novel is about the story of a poor country girl Carrie who comes to Chicago to seek for a new life. Poverty, unemployment and desire for a better life make her become the lover of two men, Drouet and Hurstwood. She becomes a cold and ambitious girl whose goals are beautiful clothes, money and fame. At last, she becomes one of the most popular actresses in New York by chance, while her lover Hurstwood kills himself, whose tragedy is just as accidental as Carries success. The rocking chair is a perfect symbol for Carrie, which forever moves but never goes anywhere and never truly achieves anything.Although the novel is attacked by most critics and readers at the very beginning, it turns out to be a great work at last. Some writers regard the novel as a break-though in American realism. Some critics tend to analyze the novel from some specific aspects, such as American dream, consumer culture, feminism and naturalism. This thesis aims to discuss the naturalistic elements in Sister Carrie. It attempts to study the novel from the naturalistic point of view and explain how material and economic environment or physical and hereditary factors influence peoples fate in details, especially Carries fate. On the basis of the analysis of the naturalistic elements in the novel, it explains why Sister Carrie has become a representative work of naturalism and also shows us the limitation of naturalism.2 Environment outer force dominating mans behaviorNaturalism is a term of literary movement created by the French novelist, Emile Zola, and flourished in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is characterized by a refusal to idealize experience and by the persuasion that human life is strictly subjected to natural laws.An outstanding feature of naturalism is its stress on the influence of environment on mans fate. Naturalists hold the opinion that man is conditioned and controlled greatly by environment. To them, man is a weak and incompetent animal and man himself cant master his own fate. In face of the surrounding environment, man is a helpless pawn. For example, in Jennie Gerhardt, a novel considered as the twin sister of Sister Carrie by Dreiser, the character Lester declares that “All of us are more or less pawns. Were moved about like chessman by circumstance over which we have no control” (Dreiser,1991:65). Environment is a tremendous outer force that dominates mans behavior and leads man to a wrong direction. However, in Sister Carrie, instead of crushing Carrie down, it even contributes to her success.2.1 The living environmental factorsAmong all the environmental factors, the living environmental factor undoubtedly plays an important part in determining mans fate. Carrie is a poor country girl who comes to Chicago to look for a new life. She is a bright and beautiful girl of only eighteen years old, and full of the illusions of ignorance and youth. We can imagine the future of Carrie very easily from what the author depicts in the opening chapter “When a girl leaves her home at eighteen, she does one of two things. Either she falls into saving hands and becomes better, or she rapidly assumes the cosmopolitan standard of virtue and becomes worse. Of an intermediate balance, under the circumstances, there is no possibility” (Dreiser,1992:3-4). Carrie meets Drouet accidentally on the train, and is attracted by him and what he says about Chicago. The salesman stimulates Carries desire for materials and the upper-class life, and later changes Carries whole life to some extent. With great desire, Carrie settles in Chicago. She lives with her sister Minnie and brother in law. Her sisters flat is small and it is located in the area resided by laborers and clerks. “She felt the drag of a lean and narrow life. The walls of the rooms were discordantly papered. The floors were covered with matting and the hall laid with a thin rag carpet. One could see that the furniture was of that poor, hurriedly patched together quality sold by the installment houses” (Dreiser,1992:11). It reflects her sisters poor familys financial state. There, Carrie cant enjoy the comfort and warmth of a family. Whats worse, Mr. Hanson, her brother in law doesnt show any welcome or warmth. Carrie is greatly depressed by living in such a small and cold place, “She was glad to be out of the flat, because already she felt that it was a narrow, humdrum place, and that interest and joy lay elsewhere” (Dreiser,1992:29). She finds she shares nothing in common with the Hansons in thoughts and always feels lonely, and thats why she always wandering alone in the street after supper. The life of the streets contained for a long time to interest Carrie. She never wearied of wondering where the people in the cars were going or what their enjoyments were. Her imagination trod a very narrow round, always winding up at points which concerned money, looks, clothes or enjoyment. She would have a far-off thought of Columbia City now and then, or an irritating rush of feeling concerning her experiences of the present day, but, on the whole, the little world about her enlisted her whole attention (Dreiser,1992:44). And Carrie is expected to find a work to pay for her rent and even meals. Soon Carrie realizes that Minnie and her husband are too realistic, and they just want to make use of her hard work and save money. She also realizes that her sisters house is not the permanent place for her to dwell in. Carries experience of looking for a job is not smooth, either. She applies for many jobs but is rejected because of having no working experience. Finally, a shoe factory promises to hire her at a low wage of four and a half dollars a week. Carrie has to pay the Hansons four dollars a week, and only a half dollar is left for her own use. The work is rather tiring and the working condition is awful. Unfortunately, the job doesnt last long. Carrie loses it because of the sudden struck of illness. From then on, the Hansons become much colder to her, as Carrie has become a burden. Carrie knows that she has to leave Chicago for hometown very soon. Now Carries life is rather rough, and thats why she accepts Drouet very naturally. In order to get rid of poorness and continue to stay in Chicago, she leaves the Hansons and becomes the lover of Drouet.On the other hand, the city itself plays a decisive role in Carries life. Dreiser points out directly in the opening chapter that the city is a superhuman seducer.The city has its cunning wiles, no less than the infinitely smaller and more human tempter. There are large forces which allure with all the soul fullness of expression possible in the most cultured human. The gleam of a thousand lights is often as effective as the persuasive light in a wooing and fascinating eye. Half the undoing of the unsophisticated and natural mind is accomplished by forces wholly superhuman. A blare of to the astonished scenes in equivocal terms. Without a counselor at hand to whisper cautious interpretation what falsehoods may not these things breathe into the unguarded ear! Unrecognized for what they are, their beauty, like music, too often relaxes, then wakens, then perverts the simpler human perceptions (Dreiser,1992:3-4).Facing the prosperous metropolis, and with no one to guide and counsel her, it is certain that Carrie will be seduced by the superhuman seducer. It arouses her desire for wealth and materials, such as fine clothes, rich foods and comfortable residences. So she unconsciously seeks a way to make those things available and realize her dream. Whats more, the city not only stimulates her desire for material goods, but also contributes to her moral fall. Her short experience of working in the shoe factory makes her believe that it is impossible to succeed by working hard and honestly. She doesnt want to work till death under the great pressure of overwork, just like the Hansons and the laborers in the shoe factory she once worked in. So Carrie becomes a victim who has degenerated under the influence of the metropolis.Carries early life in Chicago is the first turning point of her fate, leading her to the later degeneration. Only in metropolis can she satisfy her desire for material goods and entertainment. The role of the living environment can not be ignored in deciding Carries fate.2.2 The social environmental factorsEmile Zola, the founder of the Naturalist movement in literature, has pointed out that “When we research a family or a group of people, I think the environment has a chief importance” and “Man is not an isolated creature, he lives in a society, thus, the social environment, as well as the living environment, plays a decisive role in mans fate” (Zola,1988:476). It will influence mans philosophy and value system, and leads him toward a certain kind of success. Carries association with a group of materialists helps her adapt well to the life in the metropolis and stimulates her desire for material goods, wealth and fame. This paper will mainly discuss three people, under whom Carrie is greatly influenced.First, the salesman Drouet plays an important role in arousing Carries desire for material goods. On the train to Chicago, he describes the city as a vast department store with numerous fascinating goods and his own appearance attracts Carrie a lot, “The purse, the shiny tan shoes, the smart new suit, and the air with which he did things, built up for her a dim world of fortune, of which he was the center. It disposed her pleasantly toward all he might do” (Dreiser,1992:8). Compared with him, Carrie finds that her clothes are too dowdy. It stimulates her desire for fine clothes unconsciously. Drouet regards good clothes as the first essential thing, which indicates ones status and wealth. So living together with him, Carrie is doomed to be influenced by his attitude towards clothes. Besides clothes, Drouet also plays the role of her mentor in manners. Carrie imitates the elegant behavior that is pointed out by Drouet. She has become a girl of considerable tastes and all her former disadvantages of dressing and behaving have disappeared. Therefore, when Hurstwood meets Carrie in her flat, he finds a pretty, elegant young lady who is quite different from before. He is deeply attracted by this girl and later elopes with her. Their elopement changes their fate. Carrie succeeds at last, while her lover Hurstwood kills himself.Second, Mrs. Hale, a neighbor of Carrie when living in Chicago with Drouet, breaks Carries present satisfaction and arouses her new desire. “That young lady, under the stress of her situation and the tutelage of her new friend, changed effectively. She had the aptitude of the struggler who seeks emancipation. The glow of a more showy life was not lost upon her. She did not grow in knowledge so much as she awakened in the matter of desire. Mrs. Hales extended harangues upon the subjects of wealth and position taught her to distinguish between degrees of wealth” (Dreiser,1992:90). In order to satisfy her soul with a sight of those mansions that she cant afford, Mrs. Hale loves to drive to visit the newly-established and splendid mansions on the North Shore. And she often invites Carrie to go with her. Viewing those splendid mansions, Carrie remembers the beautiful palaces in fairy tales, and she dreams to live in such splendid buildings. Compared with those splendid mansions, her own house is much simpler. They are just three rooms in a well-decorated boarding house. Now, instead of comparing it with the Hansons shabby house, Carrie compares it with the splendid mansions she has seen, and shows her unsatisfaction. The association with Mrs. Hale strengthens Carries desire for a more comfortable material existence. She is no longer satisfied with her present life and becomes more ambitious.Third, Mrs. Vance, a neighbor of Carrie when living in New York with Hurstwood, whose elegant clothing and fashionable behavior awakes Carries old desire. After settling in New York with Hurstwood, Carrie acts like a housewife until she meets Mrs. Vance. Mrs. Vances elegant dressing greatly pains Carrie, and it arouses her desire of buying more and more beautiful and fashionable clothes to compare with this woman. They often go to theater matinees together and then join the Broadway fashion parade. The later is a show place, with a huge crowd of beauties in their fashionable clothes. And Carrie is immediately fascinated with the showy parade of pretty faces and fashionable clothes. She dreams to enter the world of fashion and enjoy the delight of parading here as an equal. Besides the role of fashion adviser, Mrs. Vance also shows Carrie the ways of the high world. The experience of dining at Sherrys, a very exclusive restaurant at that time, makes Carrie greatly attracted by the high life of New York. And Mr. Ames, the cousin of Mrs. Vance, plays a role in encouraging Carrie to take acting as her career to some extent. In Carries eye, Ames is a smart young man, so his praise on acting greatly encourages Carrie.Carrie is changing from an innocent countryside girl to a sophisticated city beauty under the influences of people surrounding her. The association forms the social environment and leads Carrie to a greater desire of material enjoyment.3 Chance invisible force determining mans fateTheodore Dreiser reads works written by Herbert Spencer, Charles Darwin, Balzac and Hardy, from whom he comes to formulate his own naturalistic philosophy, that is human being is fundamentally an animal without free will and is controlled by mighty and mysterious forces. Here the mighty and mysterious force is referring to chance. Besides the horrible external force, what impresses readers most is the mysterious chance throughout the novel. The saying “Without coincidences, there would be no stories” (Pierre,1982) is well illustrated. To some extent, it is chance that contributes to Carries success, while leads Hurstwood to his final destruction.3.1 Contributing to Carries successIt is chance that involves Carrie with Drouet. On the train to Chicago, Carrie encounters Drouet, who shows great favor to her. And Carrie is also attracted by his fine clothing and his description about Chicago. It arouses her desire for material goods and upper-class life greatly. They exchange addresses for further communication. When living with the Hansons, Carrie cant help remembering Drouet. Later, Carrie loses her job in the shoe factory because of the sudden illness. After losing her job and planning to go home, Carrie meets Drouet again accidentally turning her life into another way. This time, suffering from extreme poverty and the fate of leaving Chicago, Carrie becomes Drouets lover. So if Carrie hasnt met Drouet by chance, she will have another experience absolutely, either leaving Chicago for the countryside or working in Chicago till death just as her sister. Living with Drouet, Carrie is introduced to his friend Hurstwood, who is greatly attracted by Carrie and shows deep love to her. And Carrie is also attracted by this man, who is much more gentle and wealthy than Drouet. Beyond that, by accident, Drouet finds a position in an amateur play for Carrie, and this greatly evokes Carries desire for the glamorous theatrical life and helps Carrie discover her potential acting ability. Her well performance in the play wins applause and flowers for her, whats more, it strengthens her self-confidence greatly. On the other hand, the two men are much more attracted by Carrie due to her perfect performance. In the New York part of the novel, chance also contributes a lot to Carries final success. After several years struggling, Hurstwood is bankrupt at last, and from then on, he is becoming more and more depressed and refuses to work out. Threatened by the shadow of poverty, she goes out to search for a job. And the early experience of performance in Chicago leads her to turn to theater. She starts her adventure as a chorus girl and later acts in some comic operas. Later her experience of playing the role of a plain Quakeress, a trivial and unnecessary role, helps her come to the success. Disappointed with such a small role, Carrie is upset, but dramatically Carries blue attracts the audience greatly.There she was, suited-suited, sweet-faced, demure, but scowling. At first the general idea was that she was temporarily irritated, that the look was genuine and not fun at all. As she went on frowning, looking now at one principal and now at the other, the audience began to smile. The portly gentlemen in the front rows began to feel that she was a delicious little morsel. It was the kind of frown they would have loved to force away with kisses. All the gentlemen yearned toward her. She was capital (Dreiser,1992:360-361).This mysterious chance of taking this seemingly small role brings Carrie reputation and leads her to the success in her acting career.3.2 Leading Hurstwood to destructionOn the one hand, chance ma