Female Self-actualization Under Capitalistic Commodification

Sister Carrie is the first novel of Theodore Dreiser which is full of thoughts and artistic connotations. With American society at the turn of the 19^th and the 20^th century as background, the novel witnesses the great changes of that time. The boom of industrialization changes people's life style as well as their ways of thoughts, especially female thoughts. The traditional family pattern is destroyed, and more and more women are involved in the public work which leads to their economic independence. Being unwilling to be housewives as patriarchy required for centuries, they have more physical and spiritual pursuits.Carrie is a typical representative of the period. Being against traditional family concepts, she is unwilling to accept the principle of "serving man and doing housework" as the whole of her life. In fact, her first rebellion and step towards self-actualization just begin with her challenge to family consciousness.She comes to Chicago with rosy dreams to lead a happy life by means of labor. However, in the capitalistic society, even men are exploited heavily as slaves of capitalistic wages, let alone women. They can only appear as "slaves of slaves" and have to suffer from double exploitation of patriarchy and capitalism. After her dream is shattered by the mean salary and onerous labor, Carrie is disappointed to find that she can not achieve her self-actualization by means of labor.Later she chooses to be Drouet's lover in order to continue to stay in the city. Just this life experience opens a unique way for her to realize herself—marketing and commodifying her body. The French scholar Baudrillard once argues that consumption is not only for obtaining the use value of commodity, but for showing off fortune and buying capacity. It is a symbol of social status, and the commodity gains sign value from it in return. Gradually, Carrie realizes the point as well as the use value of her body. Her beauty can not only satisfy sex desires of Drouet, but meet his desire to show off. As a result, Carrie gains the opportunity of continuing to stay in the city and leads a comfortable life. In fact, the relation between Carrie and Drouet is a kind of exchange which is based on inequality. In this process of exchange, Carrie gains "sign value".It is true of her relations with Mr. Hurstwood. Mr. Hurstwood appears when Carrie gradually promotes her use value, exchange value as well as sign value by means of correcting her former defects in clothes and behaviors depending on her innate intelligence and capability of imitation. However, when Hurstwood fails to support the family after their eloping to New York and Carrie can support herself as a star, Hurstwood therefore loses his value of exchange. So Carrie is unwilling to keep this unfair exchange. She wants to get away from men and dominates her own life. Being independent economically, Carrie becomes a provider instead of a dependant, thus gains more rights in front of Mr. Hurstwood. It shows the importance of economic independence.However, economic success can never make up spiritual vanity; Carrie begins to have spiritual pursuit and exploration. However, the dual oppression of Capitalism and patriarchy cumbers her complete self-realization as Marxist feminists have argued.As an important branch of feminism, Marxist feminism lays emphasis on liberating women by means of demolishing capitalistic system. In the thesis, I will analyze Carrie's unique way of self-actualization as well as the contributions of the other female images to her realization from perspective of Marxist Feminism, and draw the conclusion that women can not achieve complete self-actualization in Capitalistic society, and their final emancipation can only be realized when Socialism comes true.