Literature Help: Sister Carrie

By Students' Academy

“Sister Carrie” by Theodore Dreiser was first published in 1900. The novel is about a young country girl who comes from the country and moves to the big city.

Having reached the city, she begins realizing her own American Dream. She initially becomes a mistress to men and she thinks that it is superior. However, she later becomes a very famous actress.

When the book was first published there were several questions raised against its content, particularly about the depiction of sexual relations and illicit relationships, however, with the passage of time people began to realize the realism and naturalism present in the novel. Consequently, the book began to gain popularity and acceptability.

Literature Help: Sister Carrie
Copyright
Chapter One: Introduction
Chapter Two: Plot Overview
Chapter Three: Major Characters
Chapter Four: Complete Summary
Chapter Five: Critical Analysis

• Language: English
• Publisher: Raja Sharma
• Release date: Jan 22, 2015
• ISBN: 9781310993855

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Literature Help: Sister Carrie

Copyright

Literature Help: Sister Carrie

Students' Academy

Copyright@2015 Students' Academy

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Chapter One: Introduction

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser was first published in 1900. The novel is about a young country girl who comes from the country and moves to the big city.

Having reached the city, she begins realizing her own American Dream. She initially becomes a mistress to men and she thinks that it is superior. However, she later becomes a very famous actress.

When the book was first published there were several questions raised against its content, particularly about the depiction of sexual relations and illicit relationships, however, with the passage of time people began to realize the realism and naturalism present in the novel. Consequently, the book began to gain popularity and acceptability.

Sister Carries is considered as one of the greatest of all American unban novel. However, the debut of the novel was said to be inauspicious.

Since its publication, Sister Carrie has come to be regarded as an American classic. There are several scholars and critics who call it the first modern American novel. It is often said to be a precursor to the works of Fitzgerald and Hemingway.

The novel describes how the American society experienced exuberance and social transformation at the turn of the century. The story uses a lot of slang and the nation’s distinctive personalities. It explores the development of the capitalist society with the role of fortune in it.

It is also a rags to riches and riches to rags story. Both the tragic and comic aspects of American capitalism are there in this novel.

Chapter Two: Plot Overview

Caroline is the title character Sister Carrie. She is an eighteen-year old girl from rural Wisconsin. She happens to be dissatisfied with her life there. She decides to leave her home and move to a big city.

She takes a train to Chicago. Her older sister Minnie and Minnie’s husband, Sven Hanson, live in Chicago. They have already agreed to take Caroline in.

On that train, Carrie comes across Charles Drouet who happens to be a travelling salesman. Charles gets attracted to Carrie because of her simple beauty and fair manners.

During the conversation, they exchange their contact information. However, when Carrie reaches her sister’s home and finds that the atmosphere there is very somber, she writes a letter to Drouet and tells him not to call on her in her sister’s house.

She begins to look for a job because she must pay rent to her sister and her husband. She gets a job of operating a machine at a shoe factory. In a few days, she is shocked to see the coarse manners of the factory workers there. The working conditions are very bad there. She must work very hard there and it exhausts her.

Her sister and her sister’s husband do not approve Carrie’s interest in recreational opportunities in theatre. She is particularly interested in the theatre.

One day, she does not go to