What is the theme of Sister Carrie?

What is the theme of Sister Carrie?

The central theme of Sister Carrie is the effect of the misguided and misdirected American dream of success. The novel traces the separate but nonetheless individual stories of its characters in their efforts to realize the fabulous American dream.

How does Sister Carrie end?

In a few years Carrie gains fame and fortune as a stage comedienne. Hurstwood continues to decline until he becomes a Bowery tramp and finally commits suicide. At the time of Hurstwood’s suicide, Carrie has gained all that she had originally hoped for: wealth, finery, and prestige.

What is the setting of Sister Carrie?

Sister Carrie features two different urban settings. At the beginning of the plot the reader is introduced to the city of Chicago in year 1889 and 1890. Later on, the storyline proceeds in New York from 1890 to 1897. Both locations had been the largest cities of the United States at that particular time.

Which character was legally married in the novel Sister Carrie?

Minnie Hanson Carrie’s married elder sister, with whom she stays when she first arrives in Chicago. Sven Hanson Minnie’s husband, severe and practical.

Who is Carrie jealous of?

Carrie Meeber When she loses her job, her sister and brother-in-law cannot support her, so she becomes Charlie Drouet’s mistress. Afterward, she becomes infatuated with another man, George Hurstwood.

What is the plot of Sister Carrie?

Sister Carrie (1900) is a novel by Theodore Dreiser about a young woman who moves to the big city where she starts realizing her own American Dream. She first becomes a mistress to men that she perceives as superior, but later becomes a famous actress. It has been called the “greatest of all American urban novels”.

What was the effect of the department store on Carrie?

Carrie’s visit to the department store shows her fascination with conspicuous consumption. All of the trinkets and fancy clothing seem to call out to her, even though she cannot afford any of them; thus a capitalist economy manipulates the desire of the consumer without ever completely satisfying it.

What is the summary of Sister Carrie?

What does Carrie think of Ames?

Ames is a New Yorker and a cousin of the Vances; Carrie becomes infatuated with him. She thinks of him as a scholar of sorts, and he represents for her the artistic taste she wishes to acquire.

What type of character is Carrie?

Carrie is, finally, a sentimental character, not a passionate one. In the melodrama of the novel, Carrie begins as the heroine of a popular romance, the naive, dreamy-eyed, ambitious but virtuous youngest sister; she emerges as a sort of nun, a “sister of the poor,” dedicated to charity, lonely and celibate.

Is Sister Carrie a fallen woman?

Carrie is a “fallen woman” who achieves a remarkable success in the big city. This was what the publisher’s wife and the general American public disliked about Dreiser’s novel. In Theodore Dreiser’s novel “Sister Carrie,” Carrie can be seen as a fallen woman.

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