An Analysis Of Conspicuous Consumption In The Financier

Theodore Dreiser（1871-1945）was a distinctive American writer during the late 19^th and early 20^th century.With his profound understanding about social mechanism and his keen insight into human nature,Dreiser tactfully depicted realistic pictures of American society in his books.At the beginning of 20^th century,Dreiser made his name through Sister Carrie（1900）and its companion piece,Jennie Gerhardt（1911）.After the publication of these two excellent works,Dreiser released Trilogy of Desire.In all his books,Dreiser described the rapid development and unsettling social condition in that so-called“gilded age”.The Financier（1912）is the first work of Trilogy of Desire,in which Charles T.Yerkes’s experience of getting rich is set as the prototype of the story.Dreiser strived to describe the luxury lifestyles of people in Philadelphia high society,so that the extravagance in their ways of consumption and the weakness in their moral consciousness can be completely exposed to readers.In this thesis,Veblen’s economical and sociological theory of conspicuous consumption will be applied to analyze the consumer culture in The Financier.The sign values of commodities,the psychological mechanism of conspicuous consumption,and the influence of consumer culture are all to be analyzed,so as to study how consumer culture thoroughly influenced American people’s life and thought in the process of social commercialization.Through the analysis of the classics,readers will get a more profound understanding about consumer culture.And it would be a good lesson to remind them of keeping a proper outlook on life,so that the negative effects of consumerism can be largely avoided.