嘉莉妹妹中的自然主义

The Analysis of Naturalism in Sister CarrieAbstract：Sister Carrie is one of the classics of naturalism. It was the first successful novel of American naturalistic writer Theodore Dreiser. This paper explains the meaning of naturalism, analyzes the naturalism writing style in Sister Carrie. It includes two major aspects: naturalism writing style in environmental determinism and biological evolutionism.Keyword: Dreiser, Sister Carrie, naturalism, environmental determinism, biological evolutionism Sister Carrie is the first novel of American naturalistic writer Theodore Dreiser in the 20th century. The novel portrayed images of Carrie and Drouet and so on. The novel fully embodied Dreiser's naturalism morality and life view.一.NaturalismNaturalism was originally a concept of classical philosophy. It was used to point out all forms of materialism, hedonism and secularism. In the early nineteenth century, with the rapid development of natural science and naturalism's connections to it, naturalism lost some derogatory senses and obtained a new kind of respect. Apart from applying in philosophy and science, naturalism was also applied in fine arts and then was introduced into field of literature. It was representative by Flaubert, Turner and Zola.Art critics Turner thought moral science was like natural science. It should be study in a similar way. We should treat all schools of literature equally and be objective to them. Following after Turner, Zola became the summarize and advocator of naturalism theory. Zola thought, the previous realistic works did not fully fit the demand of modern art and she made up her mind to use new theory to tamp it. Respecting the fact and literature was the base of this theory. Zola boiled the characteristic of naturalistic novel down to a point. That was valuing life correctly and getting rid of all elements of novelized character.Naturalist literature originated in France during the 1960s and then flourished. In 1990s, the trend of naturalist spread to American literature. Compared with European countries, naturalism's development in America was more closely connected with its social and economic reform. Naturalism had aroused widespread attention in America.Naturalistic works' writing feature consists in a richness of detail, like real-time objective description. Dreiser used these techniques to become a successful representative naturalistic writer. Naturalistic writers thought human traits was determined by inheritance and their behavior were governed by social and economic conditions. Dreiser's naturalism showed mainly that his protagonist was entirely governed by environment, inheritance and physiology, especially chemistry that involuntarily sinking to the abyss of evil in instinctive efforts. Therefore, men can not be responsible for their own mistakes or failures. Sympathetically disposing towards losers was one major feature in Dreiser's naturalism.二.Naturalistic writing style in Sister CarrieSister Carrie was written at a time when Darwinism prevailed. Many themes of the novel, like struggle, survival and desire, all came directly out of Darwinism's evolutionary perspective. In the meantime,Sister Carrie also was written in American naturalism mature stage--the end of 19th century. American naturalism was influenced by French naturalism. They emphasized human traits was determined inheritance and human behavior was governed by social and economic conditions. Dreiser fully revealed the naturalism style in Sister Carrie. He perfectly revealed the different mentality that different people had and different fate they had. And he explored the impacts of desire and environment on individual fate. These all were filled with ultra morals and survival of the fittest. Dreiser's life was full of ups and downs. So he had a chance to observe the every aspectof social, from the luxury and dissipation life to hungry and cold life.1.naturalistic writing style based on environmental determinismIn Sister Carrie, Dreiser emphatically depicted the profound impact of many different environments on Carrie. He thought Carrie's all ups and downs were caused by environment. Carrie was not a natural dissolute woman. The temptations of the big city and financial pressure let her unconsciously go downhill. Carrie was born into a poor family. But when she was 18 years old, she was long for the life of the big city because of surrounding's influence. She wanted to go to Chicago to have a new life. So she went to Chicago which she had never been to alone.She would like to rely on her sister for living a big city's life she wanted. However, less money and brother-in-law's coldness left her no choice but to look for work. After a series of failures, she finally found a job in shoe factory. But the winter get her into trouble. And even worse, Carrie lost her job because of getting ill. Her sister let her back to home in the countryside. When she hesitated, she came across salesman Drouet whom she met on the train. Forced by poverty and tempted by material, Carrie accepted his help and agreed to live with him. She became Drouet's mistress. He made Carrie enjoy the city's civilization. However, Carrie found Drouet was not as good as she thought. With the help of Mrs. Hale, Carrie contacted more socialites and saw the upper class's luxury. She did not satisfied with the life Drouet provided. Hotel manager Hurstwood's appearance provided a choice met her new desire. So Carrie abandoned Drouet and fell into Hurstwood's arms. She followed him to New York. Carrie became the capture of big city. Environment forced her into a road that pursued money and success. This was bound to be the result of outside word's power. However, ruthless reality devastated Carrie's fantasy again. Hurstwood's job suffered a setback and huge living expenses landed them in hot water. For edging herself into the best society, Carrie had to join in show business. And at last she leaped into fame. From beginning to end, Carrie was passive and pushed around by environment. That resulted in author had a misunderstanding to Carrie's degradation.2.Naturalistic writing style based on biological evolutionismIn novel, Dreiser thought Carrie's behavior could be judged with "the arbitrariness of standard". That meant you could judge her behavior at will without fixed moral standard. According to evolutionism of Darwinism, human beings evolved from low-level animals. The Gold who could judge between right and wrong did not exist.According to the traditional virtues, men should be kind-hearted and women should be chaste. Carrie was a lascivious, degraded and immoral woman. However, author did not agree with this traditional ethics moral view. He thought it limited man's nature and desire. Carrie was successively committed to two men, which could not use traditional moral values to judge. Because it was an inevitable result of outside influence. The passion for better life was not evil. If man wanted to have better life, he should abandon traditional morality. This standard formed Dreiser's evolutionism moral values.Dreiser applied biological competition theory to expound philosophical thought about social issue. When author described the fate of Hurstwood, he applied the law of jungle at their mightiest. When Hurstwood was a combination of power and money, Carrie became his mistress. Nevertheless, when he was down and out, Carrie's career rapidly went up. The distance between them became greater. At last they had to break up.On the thought, Dreiser was firmly influenced by Darwinian's theory of evolution. He firmly believed law of survival of the fittest. So he thought naturalism was a useful tool for people's survival and development. Survival was the first principle. Therefore, under cruel reality, Carrie had to rely on pragmatism to get rid of poor living conditions. The result was Carrie's moral sensegradually lost. On the other hand, in Dreiser's view, morality was just a habit rather than their deep belief. If man did not have the habit, the impact on themselves was not be seen.三.ConclusionIn novel Sister Carrie, Dreiser inherited Zola's naturalism. He applied naturalistic writing technique to discuss the impact of desire and environment on the fate of individual, especially people who lived in the bottom of society. In the novel's field, he had broken the tradition of conservative and elegant in Victorian. And he opened up a whole new world towards fidelity, daring and passion. And then he brought a revolution for American literary circle. 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