Sister Carrie: Self-actualization In The City

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 19th and 20th century as background, the novel witnesses the great changes of that time. The thought of Social Darwinism,"the survival of the fittest", and the boom of industrialization changes people's life style as well as their values and goals they pursue. 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. They want to actualize their potentials, no longer satisfied with being a traditional competent housewives, as an accessory to man.Under such an environment, Carrie is a typical representative of this period. Beginning as a poor countryside girl, and ending as a famous actress, Carrie takes rebellious steps towards self-actualization accompanying with the awakening of female consciousness. She comes to Chicago with rosy dreams to lead a happy life, after her dream is shattered by the mean salary and onerous labor, Carrie is disappointed to find that she can't achieve self-actualization by means of menial work. 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. However, when Hurstwwod fails to support the family after their eloping to New York and Carrie can support herself as a star, she wants to get away from men and dominates her own life. Being independent economically, Carrie becomes a provider instead of a dependent, thus gains more rights in front of Mr. Hurstwood. It shows the impotance of economic independence.However, economic success can never make up spiritual achievement. Carrie begins to have spiritual pursuit and exploration. But she can never attains complete self-actualization under such an industrialized city.The thesis aims to analyze the unique process of Characters'self-actualization under the special social background in the perspective of Maslow and Freud's theory, and the moral issues emerging in such a process. Is it immoral if one impairs others'interest in order to fulfil one's own goals? Should we invariably condemn Carrie for her so-called fall? Should we reproach Dreiser for his approval of such a degenerated woman?The paper is divided into three chapters plus an introduction and a conclusion. Chapter one relates in detail the background of the society then and analyze characters'psychology during their process of self-actualization from the angle of Darwinism, Maslow's Need-hierarchy theory and Freud's Personality structure theory; Chapter two combines Carrie's self-actualization with the environment, the city and the countryside, and further analyze the driving force behind her endless desire; The last chapter mainly discuss the morality of Carrie's behavior and Drieser's moral concepts.