XX大学毕业设计（论文）开题报告

学院（系） 专业 20xx年 12月 24 日

第二篇：自然主义,嘉莉妹妹

1. The introduction of naturalism

1.1 The definition of naturalism

The naturalism is at first in a classical philosophy concept that was first proposed by the French novelist Emile Zola who thought that the humanity has not obtained a real sense of freedom. As the most

influential naturalistic writer in Europe，Zola declared in his famous The Experimental Novel that he wrote about life as it was lived in slums，that is，he aimed to present a true -to-life picture in front of his readers．This bolder way to describe realities soon caught the attention of many young writers in America who found that Howell Sian realism was too genteel and restrained to depict the sordid facts in American society and discovered an effective and new way to describe the hideous side of American life. Against such a literary background，naturalism came into being in America .It refers to all forms of materialism, hedonism and secularism. Moreover, in its eyes, the person is one kind of animal in nature, which affected by environment and driven by the heart‘s desire. However, he and himself can do nothing for all of those.

1.2 The development of naturalism

1.2.1 Early ninetieth century, with the rapid development of natural sciences, the naturalism lost some derogatory and got a new respect. Beside on the philosophy and science use, the naturalism is also applied in the arts study, and then is introduced to the literature filed.

1.2.2 In 1960s, the literary naturalism was first produced and got a vigorous development in French. French naturalism, with its new

techniques and new ways of writing, appealed to the imagination of the younger generation, like Crane, Norris and Theodore Dreiser. They tore the mask of gentility to piece and wrote about the helplessness of man, his insignificance in a cold world and his lack of dignity in face of the crushing forces of environment and heredity. They reported truthfully and objectively, with a passion for factual detail. They painted life as it was lived in the slums and were accused of telling just the hideous side of it and making a god of the dull commonplace.

1.2.3 In 1990s, this naturalism affected the American literary field. The naturalism had a close contacting with its social and economic reform in American development. Industrialism and science and the new

philosophy of life based upon science were among the important factors which helped to create the economic, social and cultural transformations of the country. Industrialism produced financial giants, but at the same time created an industrial proletariat entirely at the mercy of external forces beyond their control. Slums appeared in great numbers where conditions became steadily worse, and the city was poor, lived a life of insecurity, suffering and violence.

New ideas about man and man‘s place in the universe began to

take root in American. Living in a cold, indifferent, and essentially

godless world, man was no longer free in any sense of the word. He was completely thrown upon himself for survival. The world in which God was still good and warm and caring enough to redress the wrong of Hawthorne‘s condemned Wizard was gone not to return and the

comfortable belief that man could hope to fall back on divine help and guidance was exploded and irretrievably lost. Life became a struggle for survival. The Darwinian concepts like ―the survival of the fittest‖ and ―the human beast‖ became popular catchwords and standards of moral reference in an amoral world. Darwin‘s ideas of evolution helped to change the outlook of many rising authors and intellectuals, and

produced an attitude of gloom and despair which characterize American literature. Along with the science development, the naturalism began to be popular in the American novel creation and aroused people‘s interest, gradually emerging Stephen Kleine, Franker Norris, Theodore Dreiser and other renowned writers.

2. Environmental Factors

One outstanding feature of naturalism is its stress on the influence of environment upon man‘s fate. According to naturalism, man is a helpless pawn, at the mercy of the surrounding.

2.1The Living Environmental Factors

Naturalism attaches great emphasis on one‘s living environment,

believing that one‘s living environment influences one‘s fate enormously. Therefore, the paper starts with discussing the crucial role played by metropolis in Carrie‘s rising journey.

2.1.1 Living Environment in Chicago

Chicago is the first city that forms a suitable living environment, necessary for Carrie‘s rise. At the time when the novel was written, it was the vibrant center of business, where the promise of fortunes to be made hung in the air. To Dreiser, Chicago was the wonder of his life, the only great city in the world to which all its citizens had come with the unanimous, avowed object of making money. In its process of industrialization and urbanization at the turn of the new century, the appetite for unskilled cheap labor was voracious. Lured by the promise of unbounded work opportunities, the newcomers poured in at such a huge number—500，000 per year. To these green hands and the rustic, the big city is a shimmering mirage of hope, promising not only economic opportunities but also a glamorous, exciting, and comfortable social life. However, this is just one side of the city. The other side of it is a rather harsh and indifferent place, a merciless jungle, like industrial society. In the novel, Dreiser first presents readers with a picture of the sordid side of the city. Among the picture, the imagery of the open, lonely prairie is one of these important symbols which remind readers frequently of the jungle. While the maiden, like prairie is intruded step

by step by human society during industrialization, the innocence of a beautiful young girl, like Carrie in novel, is also gradually invaded by the hypnotic power of the corrupted city. As a result, the once na?ve young girl is changed into an experienced young lady, which is an indispensable step for her rising journey in the metropolis.

Carrie is a bright and beautiful girl of eighteen years old. She is eager to enjoy various pleasures in the life, especially ambitious to gain in material well being. She looks forward to Chicago with mixed feeling of ignorance and youthful expectancy. At the very beginning, Carrie dreams wildly that she can again fame and fortune and take the big city in her control. But the reality turns out to be quite different. Instead of playing the role of the conqueror of the city, man has been moving about in the jungle, like driftwood caught in the ocean‘s tide Facing the compelling allures in the mysterious city, at the same time, with no one to guide and counsel her, Carrie is ignorant of traps and disasters that lie in wait for her in the big city, thus it‘s certain that she will be seduced by the superhuman tempter and have her desire for material goods greatly stirred up. At the very beginning, her limited experience in the city focuses her desire on fine clothes, rich foods and comfortable residences. Her obsessive interests about those items sufficiently illustrate the city‘s hypnotic effect on her. Since those are not available at the moment, she unconsciously seeks a way to make them available

and her every action is motivated by her unquenchable desire for those items.

By the way, the city‘s hypnotic power not only stirs up her desires for material goods, but also contributes to her moral fall. Her short but poignant shop-girl working experience in Chicago makes her realize that it is impossible to be a successful person by working hard and honestly. A poor innocent countryside girl, like Carrie, either works to death under great pressure of overwork and exploitation, or sells herself flesh and soul to be successful but later suffers the fatal accusation of moral degradation. Entrapped in the dilemma, Carrie is doomed to choose the latter and becomes one of so many victims of the city‘s hypnotic influence. The conspicuous result is that having met with the hardship of finding a job and tempted by the dazzling material world in Chicago, she becomes the mistress of Drouet, a dandy salesman. The comfortable existence as a fallen woman kept by men is preferable to the hard life of a poor but honest working girl, although she is under severe moral accusation.

2.1.2 Living Environment in New York

New York is another important living environment which is instrumental in Carrie‘s material rise. As an imperial metropolis, it is the origin of all wealth, power and fame, where the mysteries and possibilities of mystification are infinite. The whole world is attracted

by this flamboyant atmosphere, and as long as human beings view this as the one desirable realm which they must attain, the atmosphere of this realm of greatness will always work its desperate results in the soul of man. The high and mighty atmosphere in New York is like a chemical substance: staying in the atmosphere for one day will completely affect dyed. One day of it to the never tried mind is equated with opium to the non-smoker. A craving is stirred up, which, if gratified, will permanently end in impractical dreams and finally death. As a more powerful superhuman tempter, New York‘s dreams are more destructive because they are more remote and unattainable than Chicago‘s. With its glittering theatres, sumptuous restaurants and other various entertaining resorts, New York is a place which seems to promise wealth and fame for those fortunate new comers, like Carrie. This side of the city is irresistible, while the other side of the city is a rather sordid place which bases everything on money, appearance, and reputation. It‘s in such a mighty atmosphere that provides the proper environment for Carrie‘s success.

Like the first scene when Carrie comes to Chicago, she comes to New York in the evening when the city is at its most fascinating and hypnotic moment. To her, it is an interesting world, she feels her life has just begun and she is not defeated at all. Although she does not feel wrapped in hope, she finds the great city hold much, hoping that she can

come out of bondage into freedom. With an optimistic state of mind Carrie first arrives in Chicago; with the same but a little bit vague expectation for a new life she comes to New York, where as the incarnation of youth and energy itself, she quickly adapts to the new circumstances and rises to fame and fortune.

Generally speaking, described as a ?kingdom of greatness‘ in the novel, New York‘s mighty atmosphere sets up for Carrie a wilder dream for a more glamorous material life beyond. What‘s more, the great metropolis—her ideal habitat, with its gilded theatres, offers her a wonderful arena to display her performing talent. Therefore, she is bounded to achieve material success in New York. At the very point one can easily identify the working of one‘s living environment in shaping Carrie‘s rise in the big city.

No matter in Chicago or in New York, the theater plays a decisive role in Carrie‘s success. As s microcosm of the glamorous city with all its artificial splendor, it embodies the most irresistible attraction from the metropolis. What‘s more important, it‘s in the glittering theater that offers Carrie with an ideal place to display her performing talent and provides the most favorable environment for her rise.

In short, the glittering theater works as the greatest attraction from the big cities. Besides that, representing the gilded world to which Carrie has been dreaming of entering, the theater provides an ideal stage

for her to display her acting gift and help her to rise from a poor country girl to the position of a prestigious actress.

Taking two great metropolises for example, this part discusses the effect of Chicago‘s hypnotic power and entrancing night, and New York‘s mighty atmosphere upon Carrie‘s fate. In the other word, the luring metropolis provides Carrie with a suitable living environment, for only in metropolis can she satisfy at least temporarily her unquenchable desire for material goods and entertainment, as well as display her performing talent.

2.2 The Social Environment Factors- Association with a Group of Human Tempters

Environment factors also contain influence from one‘s social association. The social environment, like the living environment, also plays decisive role in one‘s fate. It definitely influences one‘s value system and stimulates one to pursue a certain kind of success. For example, Carrie‘s association with a group of materialists helps her to adapt to the cosmopolitan environment quickly and has her unquenchable desire for wealth, for fame further stirred up.

2.2.1 Association with Drouet

First, instructions on clothes and manners acquired from the master saleman-Drouet help Carrie to adapt to the metropolitan standards. Drouet plays the role of an eloquent seducer in the appropriate form of a

traveling salesman, arousing Carrie‘s desire by whispering besides her ear like the evil serpent in the Garden of Eden. He describes the big city as a vast department store with numerous fascinating goods, and his own appearance affects Carrie. On the train to Chicago, Carrie is immediately attracted by the elegant appearance, which causes her to study her own and is acutely conscious of the deficiency of her own clothes. The clothes also constitute a well-understood language of society, which indicates clearly one‘s status and wealth. To learn this language well, she becomes a willing student of her lover Drouet. As a dandy salesman alert to any distinctions in dress, Drouet regards good clothes as the first essential thing, things without which he is nothing. Living together with the masher, Carrie is doomed to be greatly influenced by Drouet‘s philosophy about clothes.

Besides instructing Carrie in terms of clothes, Drouet also voluntarily assumes the role of her mentor in manners, makes her aware of herself as an attractive woman. He takes it upon himself to educate the impressionable and affable student in the ways of society, teaching her to dress and behave according to fashion.

Apart from learning elegant manners pointed out so directly by Drouet, Carrie also feels an instinctive desire to imitate other refined demeanors: she now uses her feet less heavily, and learns quickly all those little things concerning one‘s manner which the pretty women

with vanity invariably adopt.

2.2.2 Association with Huratwood

Therefore when Huratwood meets Carrie in her flat with Drouet, he finds a pretty, graceful young lady who is much more refined than the provincial Carrie to whom Drouet has first spoken on the train. Hurstwood immediately develops an interest in Carrie. At the same time, she once again falls as an easy prey to Hurstwood‘s rich details, such as the dull shine of Hurstwood‘s soft, black calf-leather boots with the drummer‘s shiny patent leather shoes, and she prefers the soft rich leather. This little episode indicates that Carrie has already grasped the class languages of clothes. Her association with the dandy salesman improves her taste and instructs her to adapt to the metropolitan environment.

Carrie‘s mentors are not confined exclusively to the men who keep her as mistress, but other women-the succession of neighbors and friends who instruct her in the longings for clothes, wealth, and in all the emblems of taste and fashion. It is these things that arouse her passion for material goods and urge her to act.

2.2.3 Association with Minnie and Hanson

At the onset of the novel, she lives with her housewife sister Minnie and her cleaner husband Hanson in a narrow and humdrum flat. Her first impression is that they live a lean and narrow life. The whole workday atmosphere of the flat contrasts sharply with Carrie‘s expectations for the

bustle activities in the city life, and her innate nature of craving for pleasure makes her always try to escape from the narrow flat and seek the interest and joy which lay elsewhere.

In order to escape the dull, empty atmosphere in the Hanson‘s, Carrie soon chooses to live together with Drouet, even without marriage. She finds in the dashing drummer a halcyon harbor, for he rents for her three comfortably furnished and properly decorated rooms. To her great satisfaction, she owns a wardrobe which holds and array of clothes-more than she has ever possessed before, and of very becoming designs, Due to her industry and natural love of order, the flat maintains a pleasing air in the extreme.

2.2.4 Association with Mrs. Hale

However, Mrs. Hale，one of her neighbor in Chicago soon breaks Carrie‘s present satisfaction and arouses new desires in Carrie. Mrs. Hale loves to drive to visit the newly-established and imposing mansions on the North Shore to satisfy her soul with a sight of those mansions which she can‘t afford, and often invites Carrie to join with her in the drive. Viewing with those sumptuous mansions, Carrie finds her childish fancies of fairy places and kingly quarters have come back. With the glow of the palatial door still in her eyes and the roll of cushioned carriages still in her ears, she goes back to her own rooms and immediately perceives their comparative insignificance-they are three common small rooms in a

moderately well-furnished boarding house.

The juxtaposition of the three different dwells has formed a sharp contrast between luxury and poverty, merriness and misery, success and failure. Obviously, she has been attracted to the second life. Since she is sensitive to her living environment, those contrasting scenes have become part of Carrie‘s motives, awakening and stimulation her to long for a more luxurious social life beyond.

In short, Carrie‘s association with the worshipper of wealth-Mrs. Hale teaches her the mighty power of wealth and has her desire for a more comfortable material existence further stirred up.

2.2.5 Association with Mrs. Vance

In New York, Carrie encounters her important mentor-Mrs. Vance, who leads her to discover a host of detailed refinements concerning dress and demeanor that augments a woman‘s charm, and open Carrie‘s eye to the decorum of those above her on the social ladder.

Carrie‘s neighbor in New York, Mrs. Vance, is a smart urbanite. Whenever Carrie is with Mrs. Vance, she never fails to notice the air of the petted and well-groomed woman in the latter‘s general appearance. She serves as a yardstick for Carrie, who sees in Mrs. Vance, thus she needs more and better clothes to compare with this woman. These are not vague opinions any longer. Her situation has become cleared up for Carrie. She conceives that her life with the depressive Hurstwood is

becoming stale, thus she has every reason for gloom. Her old helpless, urging melancholy is restored. Besides that, Carrie has constantly had her attention called by Mrs. Vance to novelties in everything that concerns a woman‘s appearance. For all those instructions given by Mrs. Vance, Carrie listens with eager ears. They serve to augment her increasing dissatisfaction with her present state, but at the same time, help her to adjust herself consistently to adapt to the cosmopolitan circumstance, which guarantees her future success there.

To sum up, her lover and neighbors in the metropolis who work as the representatives for the seductive social environment change her from an innocent country girl into a smart and experienced city beauty. The association forms a needed social environment, which not only stimulates consistently her insatiable desire for a higher material enjoyment, but also consciously and unconsciously helps her to adapt to the metropolises.

3. Hereditary Factors

Besides its emphasis on environment, naturalism is also characterized by its stress on heredity. As the pioneer of naturalism, Zola remarks in The Experimental Novel – all the motivations of one‘s actions can be traced back to one‘s heredity. To put it in another way, one‘s inherent character urges one to act in a certain way. In Carrie‘s case, her hereditary dispositions—the endowed gift for theatrical performance proves her to be the fit one in the natural selection, and contribute to her

success in the metropolis.

Carrie chooses to be an actress not only because it is the most ideal career for a beautiful woman to rise to fame and fortune rapidly, but due to the reason that the stage presents the best place to display her essential natures. Here her essential natures contain several points, such as her outstanding beauty, emotional greatness and the special gift to represent the world‘s longing, all of which are resulted from heredity and contribute to her splendid theatrical career.

3.1 Outstanding beauty

First of all, her inherited outstanding beauty contributes to her rise in the metropolis. At the onset of the novel, Carrie‘s na?ve prettiness appeals to Drouet who helps her out when she is out of employment and is in hunger, and changes her into a smart urban beauty. This guarantees her later success in the metropolis which appreciates good—looking appearance. The effect of her hereditary beauty is even more conspicuous in the theatrical world. For instance, although she has no special training in acting, her outstanding beauty attracts the attention of the theater manager who immediately promotes her to a prominent position to leas the chorus line, which serves as a staring point for her splendid theatrical career. Suppose she is a homely looking girl, she can be nothing in the metropolis. Therefore, it‘s natural to draw the conclusion that her inherited pretty offers her valuable opportunities to rise to fame and

fortune.

3.2 Emotional greatness

Besides her inborn beauty, she has, as Dreiser tells us, the innate quality of emotional greatness, a special quality which is the necessary foundation of the performing art.

3.2.1 Imitative skill

Firstly, it should be clear that acting is not merely an imitative skill, but a strong ability of imitation also serves as a requisite for a good actor. Carrie is depicted to be possessed of a sympathetic, impressionable nature which if properly nurtured can lead to the glory of drama.

When she begins to live together with Drouet, it never takes her long time to imitate the elegant metropolitan manners pointed directly by the dandy traveling salesman, such as how to walk, how to dress up and so on.

When she has access to enter the theatre and watch several performances on the stage, it‘s natural for her to find a limitless world of grace to imitate. In her private chamber, she indulges herself every now and then in restoring the various expressions of faces in the dramatic situation before her mirror, sometimes repeating to herself the pathetic line fragments which appeal most to her sympathy in the play, or secretly imitating the movement, the grace of the mouth or the eyes which she once witnessed on the stage.

3.2.2 Strong imagination

Carrie‘s emotional greatness lies not only in her capacity to imitate beauty, but also in her unique ability to sense beauty in the realities of life by exerting her imagination power and to communicate it to the audience through her acting.

Throughout her conquering journey in the theatrical world, Carrie‘s imagination power is repeatedly emphasized by Dreiser. Her unbounded strong imagination power helps her to create beauty out of the common daily life and makes her a great actress. For example, it is as if she only had fifty cents in her hand, exerting her powerful imagination, she would experience the exaggerated purchasing power of a thousand dollars. Leaving by herself alone, she sometimes fancies herself in a pathetic scene in which she will assume a tremulous voice and suffering manner, or sometimes in a luxurious and refined scene in which she delights herself to be the focus of all eyes.

As she habitually rocks to and from besides the window, playing her boundless imagination, she can fully feel ?the density of woe in abandonment, the magnificence of wrath after deception, the languor of sorrow after defeat‘ (192). These bitter and complicated emotions are all experienced by the suffered Laura. Therefore, her imagination makes her suitable for the role of Laura in her first performance Under the Gaslight in Chicago. In the play, Laura is the noble—spirited,

self—sacrificing society girl who is later rejected both by her fiancé and society after being revealed to be of low origins. Exerting her imagination, Carrie convincingly portrays Laura‘s self—sacrificing noble character at the moment when Laura acts with a generous spirit to release her beloved fiancé for a more suitable match. Once standing on the stage, Carrie‘s innate emotional greatness enables her to catch the bitterness of Laura‘s situation and wraps herself with the needed mounting thoughts, the feeling of being outcast by the whole world descending upon her mind. During her acting, the radiating and penetrating waves of bitter feeling and sincerity seem to bread against and pierce the farthest wall of the theater chamber. The magic of great passion which will dissolve the world is here at work. All the attentions are riveted on Carrie, whose innate strong imagination power helps her to bring down the house during her debut and proves the fact that she is a born actress.

According to naturalistic principles, one‘s character that is resulted from heredity determines their fate. Taking Carrie for example, it‘s not difficult to come to the conclusion that her theatrical success is to a great extent due to her hereditary advantages. Without her nature—endowed talent guaranteeing her success on the stage she can be nothing in the cold and indifferent metropolis. Her inborn dispositions prove that she is the fit one in the natural selection;

therefore she is bounded to achieve success in the jungle--- like city. This excellently embodies the essence of Darwinism, that is, the survival of the fittest one through natural selection in the jungle.

4. Desire Factor

The desire depends upon an incessant satisfaction of needs that are hierarchical, ranging from the most basic physiological need for food to a higher need for safety, love, self-esteem, and self-fulfillment. Each satisfied need will be replaced by a new and higher need, making desire insatiable. Dreiser deliberately set America at the age of its budding imperialism of the early 1900s as the entrancing background in Sister Carrie where Carrie‘s various desires are contextualized. Carrie‘s craving for pleasure is so strong that it is her main disposition. Driven by the innate desire for pleasure, Carrie cannot help but dream to get hold on what she sees as symbolically associated with happiness. Carrie desires for money, reputation, beauty, things not for their own, but for pleasures they seem to afford. Desires for both those material goods and spiritual fulfillment serve as a motivating force, stimulating Carrie to move forward on and on. Meanwhile, Carrie just wants pleasure, but she is confused about want these things might be. Be wildered, she simply associated happiness with money, fame, or even more intangible item—beardy. Believe in the illusion that the more she acquires those things, the happier she

will be, and Carrie carries out persistent and blind pursuit of those things. Her desire for immediate pleasure works as an impetus, propelling her to act. But one‘s desire can never be sufficiently and ultimately satisfied, for those material commodities will immediately lose their value and attraction as soon as they are possessed, and the sense of spiritual fulfillment also will soon pass away and be replaced by a higher aim for pursuit. After a period of happiness, excitement, and fulfillment comes the inevitable feeling of taking it for granted, then Carrie become restless and discontented again, desire for something more. It will be a forever respective procession. Dreiser compares her insatiable desire to a kaleidoscope: the every movement of the kaleidoscope of human affairs throws a new luster upon something, and it immediately becomes the object Carrie desires. After another shift of the kaleidoscope, some other new has become the beautiful, the perfect, and the desired. With the old object of the desire fulfilled, another brand-new object will soon appear, then another. There is always new subject of desire, promising to after pleasure, beckoning and leading in the front.

The life for Carrie is like the process of substituting one from of desire for another. Driven by her inherited insatiable desire for pleasure, which takes concrete forms in her unquenchable desire for money, for fame, and for beauty, Carrie is moving up towards success

step by step.

4.1 Desire for Money

Carrie first believes that she can find happiness in money and makes blind and incessant pursuit of it. Dreiser tries to discuss the true meaning of the money at the beginning of chapter 7: the true meaning of money has yet remained to be further explained and comprehended.

A faulty belief which is common with almost all of men is that money stands for a certain kind of privilege. Carrie‘s definition of money is the same with the popular---money: something everybody else has and she must get.

She thinks that there must be some power in money itself. With a bundle of money, she is even willing to be cast away upon a desert. Most of Dreiser‘s characters in the novel are in the same line with Carrie in their desire for money, like the Hurstwoods, Drouet, and so on. Dreiser‘s novel accounts for each penny that finds its way to the characters, so Carrie‘s rise and Hursrwood‘s fall are both measured in terms of their rising and falling incomes.

At that time when the novel was written the American society was materialistic to the core: money occupied a dominant position and controlled everything; almost everything was measured in monetary terms; everything, including love and friendship, has a price. Immersed in such a society, the human individual is bound to be

obsessed with a never-ending yet futile pursuit of ultimate satisfaction of one‘s desire for material wealth. Anyway, one‘s insatiable desire for money serves as forever lasting purpose in one‘s life, motivating one to act.

Carrie is always fascinated with the green, soft, handsome bills, feeling immensely better off for the possession of them, thus in demand of more and more money. For instance, when she receives her first large weekly payment of 150 dollars, for her role of her silent Quakers, everything seems rosy and bright. As a tangible and apparent thing, which she can touch and look upon, the money is adverting thing for a few dyads. With the seeming enormous sum of money at her disposal, Carrie finds the trivial room tent ridiculous and begins to buy more clothes and lovely tinkers, to have dinner in exclusive restaurants and to enlarge her circle of friends. At the sight of‖ her purse bursting with good green bills of comfortable denominations‖(532), her wallet brimmed with such a huge amount of money, she is filled with excitement and happiness, since she has been enduring scant allowance for several years when she is living with the impoverished Hurstwood. However, it is not long before the newly won money reveals its own importance: Carrie soon discovers that her income brings her nothing much, for the world of wealth a distinction is still quite far away as ever. She finds the real world of eminence is

an illusory place that is never here, but always some other places above her, thus she feels she must have more—a great deal more money to enter the fantastic world, which in turn propels her to act.

As E.L.Doctorow remarks in his introduction to Sister Carrie,‖ to a populace firmly in the grip of the material existence, the desire for something more is a destructive energy that can never be exhausted; it is doom‖(Doctorw). In Carrie‘s case, the desire for money is inexhaustible, but it‘s not a destructive energy, instead, it serves as an impetus, stimulating Carrie to climb higher and higher in the social ladder.

4.2 The Desire for Reputation

Besides money, Carrie identifies happiness with her theatrical reputation. She thinks the reputation followed by her success on the stage will make her happy. Though acting on the stage, Carrie not only finds an escape from the troubled sea of tedious daily life to a source of material well-being, but also derives unprecedented happiness from her spectacular theatrical reputation, which encourages her to make more progress in the theater.

In the Chicago portion of the novel, she gets a role in an amateur performance by sheer accident. Before the play starts, she can‘t help but wonder at ― the greatness of the names upon the bill-boards, the marvel of the long notices in the papers, the beauty of the dresses upon

the stage, the atmosphere of carriages, flowers, refinement‖(211). Form it, one can find out how obsessed Carrie is with the charm of the theater and how eager she is to gain fame and fortune. Beholding all these, she conceives that shi is indeed in a chamber brimmed with delight.

On the stage, her nature-endowed gift proves her to be a born actress. Her performance moves the entire audience and makes her be the focus of all attention.

After the drama, the applause dies hard and an immense basket of flowers is hurried down along the aisle towards Carrie. The little actress is in her element. It is the first time for her to realize what it is to be petted, admired and sought for. She tastes the fruit of the independence coming from her success and is coated by her newly found capability.

In the New York half of the novel, though her clever ad-lib remarks, she rocks the audience with appreciative laughter and soon gains her first speaking part. One day, in the Sunday Supplement appears a shout notice which comments Carrie to be one of the cleverest members of the chorus. This greatly pleases Carrie who reads it ―with a tingling body‖ (531) and bugs herself with delight. She keeps claiming in her heart, ―oh, wasn‘t it just fine! At last! The

first, the long-hoped for, the delightful notice! And they called her clever‖ (ibid). Her first notice greatly satisfies her craving for reputation. She can hardly restrain herself from laughing loudly.

Several days later, since she carries out her role capably, it brings another notice in the paper praising her for doing her work satisfactorily. This pleases her immensely and she begins to fancy that the world is taking notice of her. At last her picture with fames around it appears in one of the weeklies, which takes her breath away and pleases her extremely.

From this we can figure out what importance Carrie attaches to her theatrical fame. Gradually the desire to attract takes hold of her. She longs to be renowned like others and reads with avidity all the complimentary or critical comments made concerning those above her in the theatrical profession. She has become completely absorbed in the showy world which her interest lies in. Several months later, in a summer performance at the Casino Theater, when she is playing the marginal role of a silent little Quakers, her natural frown which is merely her instinctive expression of longing and dissatisfaction somehow caters to the audience are fancy and make her be the focus of the play.

Carrie seems to take the whole theatrical world by storm. After the play, critics of the daily papers greatly appreciate her triumph.

Long notices praising the excellent quality of the comedy with frequent references to Carrie appear in various newspapers and magazines. To Carrie‘s extreme happiness and excitement, her salary then arises to 150 dollars a week and she is invited by the manager of the Wellington—a new and imposing hotel on Broadway to live in one of its splendid apartments at an incredibly low price since her name is now worth something to the society and appealing to other wealthy patrons. Even Mrs.Vance whom Carrie uses to look up with envy comes to her to reestablish their communications. Now Carrie feels as good as this smart and fashionable woman---perhaps better. Mis.Vance‘s solicitude and ingratiating manners make Carrie feel that the situation has been reversed, for it‘s she who seems to condescend. From now on, she is immersed by flowers and love notes from wealthy men who plead her to with them. Her theatrical reputation makes her seem to be on top of the world.

In the end of the novel, at the summit of her profession, Carrie is still dissatisfied with the present reality and left looking for something more. Her insatiable appetite for reputation will forever be fulfilled. In short, her unquenchable and insatiable desire for reputation propels her to climb higher and higher in the theatrical career and to achieve more and more material richness.

5. Conclusion

This paper has made a tentative studying on the naturalism influencing the fate of Carrie. By applying these important social currents of thoughts, such as Naturalism and Social Darwinism to explain Carrie‘s fate, the paper points out that environment, heredity, and desire have played indispensable and decisive roles in one‘s life. Facing the there factors, we can exert the courage, the intelligence and the perseverance to overcome difficulties and change those disadvantageous factors into favorable ones.

At present, our China is undergoing the unavoidable process of industrialization and urbanization. With such process on the way, a huge population is rushing from small towns into the big cities. For example, every year, numerous people in the comparatively less developed regions, such as, Si Chuan, An Hui are rushing into those prosperous metropolises like Shang Hai, Guang Zhou to seek livelihood and opportunities to make fortune. Among the emigrants, there are numerous Carrie—like young females who share the similar fate with Carrie. Living in today‘s merchandised society, filled with material temptations, these innocent young woman who cherish the universal desire for material well—being can‘t escape the lure of the metropolises. Like the early day‘s Carrie, they consider the accumulation of money as their sole aim in the life, and carry out insistent and blind pursuit of it. Some of them, relying on certain

environmental or hereditary advantages, achieve the success in the city. But they soon feel discontented and can‘t dismiss an unaccountable sense of emptiness and loneliness, which is the disillusionment after their material success, for the money—oriented world is a desert of love, where one‘s pursuit for happiness is always in vain. Others, entrapped in poverty and tempted by the prosperous city life, turn to dishonest ways to have their desire for material goods satisfied. All those are the troubling aspects of urban life.

By studying the naturalism in Sister Carrie, one can find a solution to those universal social problems to as to provide some valuable experience for our socialistic constructions.