Characterization in Sister Carrie Essay -- Sister Carrie Essays

Characterization in babe Carrie The theme of unrequited love and unfulfilled ambitions, against a backcloth of a nation being transformed by industrialism and capitalism, provides the substance of Theodore Dreisers baby Carrie. During the late 19th Century we encounter three main characters who process this underlying motif Carrie Meeber, Charles H. Drouet, and George W. Hurstwood. Carrie will fulfill many of her desires for riches and success, more everywhere her insatiable appetite will leave her feeling dissatisfied at the end of the novel and all alone. With respect to the two men who roughly covet her affections, Charles Drouet and George Hurstwood we have a study in contrasts. About the barely thing Drouet and Hurstwood have in common is that they both desire Carries love. some(prenominal) Drouet and Hurstwood love Carrie, but Drouet is a materialist and Hurstwood is a romanticist - a incident that will enable Drouet to survive the loss of Carrie as Hurstwood commits suicide over the loss. From early in the novel we see Drouet established as a representative of the fresh America - industrialism, capitalism, and nouveau riche successes. When Carrie meets Drouet on the train, his courtesy and fine congratulate expunge her but they are only a cover for an individualism that believes he needs to impress others to be successful. In other words, Drouets manners and attitudes are put on like so many new clothes, discarded when they no longer fit his purposes. However, it is exactly these superficial qualities that impress Carrie Meeber, a young woman on her way to Chicago to shoot her way in the world. Carrie eventually succumbs to the clothes, gold, and housing Drouet lavishes on her, but it is her desires and his money that unite them ... ... to escape the reality of their lives through material pursuits. Hurstwood cannot do so and as a result succumbs to this inability in the face of much(prenominal) heartaches and losses. WORKS CITED Eby, C. V. Cultural and historical contexts in Sister Carrie. Univ. of Pennsylvania Library. acquirable http//www. library.upenn.edu/special/dreiser/scculhist.html, 2001 1-5. Moers, E. The Blizzard. In Sister Carrie. alter by Donald Pizer, (2nd edit.). New York W. W. Norton & Co., 1991 525-533. Dreiser, T. Sister Carrie. Edited by Donald Pizer, (2nd edit.). New York W. W. Norton & Co., 1991. Warren, R. P. Sister Carrie. In Sister Carrie. Edited by Donald Pizer, (2nd edit.). New York W. W. Norton & Co., 1991 534-542. 1