Literature Analysis #1 - Sister Carrie by: Theodore Dreiser

1. The exposition of the novel describes Carrie Meeber as she makes her way as a naive girl from a small town to the big city of Chicago where she plans to live with her sister, Minnie. While on the train, she converses with a wealthy man named Charles Drouet who she agrees to meet up with later in the city. After arriving at her sister's minuscule apartment, she writes to Drouet explaining there is no room for visitors and decides to go job hunting. She lands herself a job in a factory that does not allow her to make much money and she quickly loses it after getting sick from the cold weather because she could not afford to buy appropriate clothing. She then runs into Drouet on the street who encourages her to live with him comfortably in his luxurious apartment and she agrees. He invites his friend, George Hurstwood over who is attracted to Carrie and the feeling soon becomes mutual. Both of the men's interests in her spark even more when she gives an excellent performance in a stage show, but she ultimately chooses Hurstwood as he agrees to marry her. Hurstwood's wife discovers the affair and begins filing divorce papers, but he finds a large sum of money in his saloon and takes it with him as he and Carrie runaway to New York City. Carrie then realizes that she does not actually love Hurstwood but simply used him to escape her life in Chicago and their daily routines become monotonous and predictable. She grows increasingly dissatisfied with her cheap lifestyle but meets a man named Bob Ames who convinces her that wealth does not necessarily equal happiness and she respects him for such views. After Hurstwood loses the rest of the couple's money, the two take on jobs but Carrie earns much more in the theater than Hurstwood in the Brooklyn trolley line. Carrie becomes tired of supporting him and eventually leaves him as she moves into a nice hotel, living the life she has always dreamed of and yet is still unhappy. Hurstwood then visits her after a performance and begs for money but shortly kills himself later in a Bowery flophouse by turning on a gas jet and falling asleep.
2. Adoration of  material possessions appears to be a reoccurring theme throughout the novel in which Carrie doesn't seem to desert. She loves material objects and what they represent, which is why she fears poverty and resorts to whatever it takes to stray as far away as possible from it. This love of material objects is the driving force behind most of her decisions and as a result, she is never really given a great amount of depth in the novel. She encounters a man named Ames who teaches her that a great desire of wealth can only lead to dissatisfaction and considers him views for such views, but never considers how it applies to her and that maybe she should rethink her priorities. This love of hers is the ultimate source that decimates her relationships with anyone who ever cared about her.
3. There is a very calm and non-nonchalant tone throughout the novel as nothing dramatically intense occurs, until the the last couple of pages. The author describes things in an emotionless way that makes it virtually impossible to describe the tone as excited or depressed, or anything in between. For instance, when Carrie realizes she doesn't actually love Hurstwood it does not really shock the reader as her previous "love" for him was never described in strong detail like love should be. Another example includes when Hurstwood discovers that his wife knows about Carrie; he does not freak out and instead takes some of his money and illegally marries her anyways without any consideration. When Carrie converses with Ames about the importance of not relying on wealth to provide satisfaction, she did not think about how it applied directly to her life and instead just viewed it as another normal conversation. This somewhat bland tone contrastingly creates a very surprising mood when Hurstwood unexpectedly takes his life at the end of the story.
4. - The author used a metaphor to describe Drouet's and Hurstwood's unconscious craving for company and socializing, even though they did not contain an abundance of friends. "Here come the moths, in endless procession, to bask in the light of the flame." p. 35
- Carrie's feelings toward her not-so-ideal living situation represent her unfulfilled feelings toward Chicago until that moment in time with her unlucky job seeking and lack of Drouet's promised attendance. "That night at the flat she was even more lonely- the dull situation was becoming harder to endure." p. 40
- A great amount of imagery was used to describe Drouet's apartment when Carrie first arrived to show her astonishment. "There was a good Brussels carpet on the floor, rich in dullred and lemon shades, and representing large jardinieres filled with gorgeous, impossible flowers. There was a large pier-glass mirror between the two windows. Some pictures, several rugs, a few small pieces of bric-a-brac, and the tale of contents it told." p. 69
-"She wanted pleasure, she wanted position, and yet she was confused as to what these things might be." p. 107 I found this sentence to be a bit ironic and contradictory as the whole book is centered around Carrie's desire for wealth (which would be her pleasure) and that she was always a quiet girl afraid to venture out into the unknown all by herself, which is why it would not appear as she would be fitting for a job of authority and that she knew exactly what each of those things were.
- "Mrs. Hurstwood felt something, sniffing change, as animals do danger, afar off." p. 152 Dreiser uses a simile to compare Mrs. Hurstwood undeniable suspicion of her husband engaging in immoral actions as she notices he is different.
- "He was really touched by it, and looked into the eyes of it with a rather rare feeling for him." p. 186 Drouet had gone to see Carrie and when he saw a picture of her on the wall in a coat he bought for her, he was taken aback with the feelings that were sparked inside him. The author personifies the picture of Carrie as it "touched" Drouet and "looked into the eyes of it".
- "It was a five-story building, and their flat was on the third floor. Owing to the fact that the street was not yet built up solidly, it was possible to see east to the green tops of the trees in Central Park and west to the broad water of the Hudson, a glimpse of which was to be had out of the west windows." p. 216 Imagery is used again to describe the new and luxurious apartment for Hurstwood and Carrie to show how Carrie's desire for this lifestyle influenced all of her decisions.
- "Girls who can stand in a line and look pretty are as numerous as labourers who can swing a pick." p. 276 This simile was used to describe one of the many struggles that Carrie was facing in her search for a job in a big city that was very picky.
- "And he had worked so hard to make expenses seem light. He had been "doing" butcher and baker in order not to call on her." p. 298 Dreiser uses this metaphor to show how much of a burden that Hurstwood felt on Carrie to show how little he had eaten so that he would not upset her.
- "He was wholly disconsolate in spirit, hungry to what he deemed an almost mortal extent, weary, and defeated." p. 344 This imagery was powerful in providing a portrait of Hurstwood and solidifying how hard it was for him to try to win Carrie back.

CHARACTERIZATION
1. - "If Hanson had only pleasant thoughts or happy feelings he concealed them. He seemed to do all his mental operations without the aid of physical expression. He was as still as a deserted chamber." p. 38 Dreiser uses direct characterization to describe Hanson because it would be very boring to read about an encounter with an emotionless character. Now we know that he was just a master of concealment who was actually capable of such emotion, but simply chose to hide them. When I read about Hanson I did not get upset about his lack of passion, I wondered what the driving forces were behind his decision to suppress them from the world.
- "He loved to make advances to women, to have them succumb to his charms, not because he was a cold-blooded, dark, scheming villain, but because his inborn desire urged him to that as a chief delight. He was vain, he was boastful, he was as deluded by fine clothes as any silly-headed girl." p. 49 Indirect characterization was used to describe Drouet because it gave validity to his promiscuous personality when he was around Carrie and showed the readers what his intentions were. As a result of this, I never really trusted Drouet and questioned everything that appeared to be genuine about him.
- Carrie was always a naive and shy girl with big aspirations to make it big, she had the motivation but her quiet personality sometimes interfered with her pure talent. This can be seen when she performed at the theater in which the her part in the actual show was not as up to par with how she rehearsed it. This performance of hers really solidified her static characteristics as she never partakes in anything spontaneous with enthusiasm. This indirect characterization can be found on page 135
- "He looked rather worsted in thought as he stood before her." p. 205 Hurstwood was apologizing for his schemes and was trying to show how genuine he truly was about the situation. After physically showing Carrie that he was dismayed, he proposed to her and she agreed out of impulse. Hurstwood's reaction allowed me to genuinely see that he cared for Carrie, and that this passion was not mutual.
2.When Dreiser is focused on characters, his syntax dramatically shortens as they usually are never given more than a sentence worth of words to say. He does this to focus on what they say and describes the scenarios better through adjectives and phrases rather than actual events. Dreiser's diction also becomes very basic when the characters speak using very few vocabulary words and rather most that are apropos for a sixth grader, while the rest of the book is told with a handful of advanced words in every sentence. For instance, the author discusses how society contains a conventional standard used to judge all things; especially about how men are supposed to act and women virtuous. He then begins with Carrie's thoughts on the matter, " 'Ah,' thought Carrie, with mournful misgivings, 'what is it I have lost?' Before this world-old proposition we stand, serious, interested, confused; endeavoring to evolve the true theory of morals - the true answer to what is right." Dreiser gives Carrie a lack of depth with her basic response to such an issue, but doesn't fail to provide his intellectual commentary on the subject following her words.
3. Carrie Meeber is the protagonist in this story and is an obviously static and flat character. It was a bit odd to read a novel in which the main character never really changed, even though she faced many occurrences in which she could very well have drastically altered. She had an indestructible infatuation with wealth, which is what caused her to move to Chicago in the inception, and her desire never faded. She left her sister to live with an affluent stranger and left her husband because he couldn't provide her with the luxurious objects she so desperately wanted. She respected a man who told her that wealth isn't the key to satisfaction and when she found herself unhappy when she was finally able to attain what she wanted, she never stopped to question her views. She never regretted or reflected on anything that happened in the past and as a result she was never able to grow as a person. Throughout the novel, Carrie never had control of the events that occurred because she was a very passive character and wasn't given a great amount of depth, which is why she is both a flat and static protagonist.
4. After finishing this book, I feel like I simply read about a character because readers were never granted access to Carrie's feelings and thoughts about every drastic and little thing that happened to her. It felt as if I was watching a movie about her life instead of reading about it because of the lack of insight provided. For instance, when Carrie discovered that Hurstwood had a wife she never stopped to question his character or hers for the matter. The readers never knew her thoughts about the entire situation or whether she felt like she could trust him anymore. She reacted as if she knew about her the entire time and just accepted the fact that her soon-to-be husband cheated on his previous wife. This should have been shocking news to her, but she didn't react with a great amount of emotion and never regretted her actions later on in the novel. It was a time when she could have shown through as a noble person and left him, but she continued to commit such an immoral crime and we never knew why.