Sister Carrie
Theodore Dreiser, born in Terre Haute, Indiana, USA, was raised in poverty and in a German-speaking environment. He left home for Chicago at age 16. After a period of odd jobs and a year at the University of Indiana, he became a Midwestern newspaper reporter and, in New York after 1894, a magazine feature writer. In 1892, married Sara White, but their marriage wasn’t happy, so they have been separated since 1909 and never officially divorced
Sister Carrie (1900), his first and still highly regarded novel, was withheld from general distribution because of it was supposed amoral, and its commercial failure plunged him into financial distress and mental breakdown. Some reasons which caused the difficulties of publish can be seen from the social background of the society of that time. At the time, United States is experiencing a rapid social change, it was transforming from free capitalism transition to the monopoly capitalism. The whole American literature was indulged in idealism, many writers preferred to describe the optimistic aspect of life. The novel is regarded as entertainment products; works is full of illusory ideal and covered by romantic color. The exploiter and exploitee lived a completely different life. The ugly phenomenon in the society was not reflected in literature works. In Sister Carrie, Dreiser truthfully reveals the dark side of the social life, and that’s the reason why the author constantly suffered from persecution. The novels have been classified as "banned", and can not be published in the America.
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