英语专业毕业论文例文格式

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　Ⅰ. Introduction

　 Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie was published in 1900. The main character of this book was Carrie Meeber, who ran away from home at the age of eighteen. She had typical characteristics of the American middle class, demanding to change her economic situation and status, pursuing the personality liberation. Sister Carrie remains vital for many reasons: as a historical marker for the turn away from sentimentality, romance, and moral rectitude in the American novels at the beginning of the twentieth century; as a text that influenced the succeeding American novelists over the next several decades; and as a conundrum that never ceases to provoke debate for readers both general and professional. While the first half of the twentieth century produced a diverse range of critical opinions on Sister Carrie by reviewers and essayists, the second half witnessed an abiding argument within academia regarding the quality, value, importance, and interpretation of the text. This novel made the volatility of the period concrete, vivid, and unforgettable by registering its effect on individual lives. The sweeping changes registered in the novel were the economy's shifting from an agricultural to an industrial base, the erosion of traditional values following the Darwinian revolution, and the changing relations of men and women.

　This thesis reanalyzes Sister Carrie from a new angle, that is, the twisted American Dream and women’s self-consciousness displayed in the novel, which will help invoke readers’ considerations over Dreiser’s naturalism. What is the twisted American Dream? How is Carrie’s self-consciousness awakened? What is the inner relationship between American Dream, woman’s self-consciousness, and Dreiser’s naturalism?

　In American literature, there is a reappearing theme, American Dream, with different manifestation in different periods of time. First of all, the writer will focus on the twisted American Dream, which is caused by the cruel social background at that time and the twist of Carrie’s infinite desire and her wrong views of value. Then the thesis will proceed to expound the awakening women’s self-consciousness in Sister Carrie. Carrie’s self–consciousness embodies the properties of New Woman, so the definition of New Woman must be introduced. The hard process of Carrie’s awakening self-consciousness will be demonstrated after that. In the course of pursuing the twisted American Dream, Carrie goes toward independence step by step. Finally, naturalism embodied by the twisted American Dream and women’s self-consciousness will be set forth. Dreiser regards objectivity and reality as the best creative rule, gives prominence to living consciousness and desire instinct and emphasizes the decisive role of the environment. It is the relentless social environment that changes the pure American Dream into a twisted one. Struggle for survival is Carrie’s basic demand. The conclusion will be drawn that it is essential for us to establish a harmonious social environment, and erect view of world, view of life, and view of value.

　Ⅱ. The Twisted American Dream

　2.1 The Evolving Process of the American Dream

　The history of the American Dream began with the “May flower” in 1620. The puritans from England, who wanted to escape from the political, economic and religious persecution of the Old World, dreamed of building up a New World. That’s the beginning of the American Dream. America, a place where everyone had a fair chance in making it big; America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, set your sail and travel to the New World of wonder and where your wildest dreams come true. In the American Declaration of Independence, the founding father stated “old certain truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”1. Http:///Asset/3655.php This sentiment was considered the foundation of the American Dream. Everybody tried to struggle for freedom and welfare. After the independence of the U.S, Benjamin Franklin, one of the drafters of the Declaration of Independence, became both a spokesman and a model for the national character of later generations of Americans. He was the representative of the American Dream for his autobiography. Benjamin Franklin was often referred to as the First American and he was given this title with good reason and it prove

　1. Http:///Asset/3655.php

　In the monopoly period, modern values had transformed the American Dream’s pure ideals into a scheme for materialistic power, and further, the world of high society lacked sense of morals and consequence. The disparity between rich and poor being serious, hedonism and money worship being overflowed, people would stop at nothing to get what they wanted. Benjamin Franklin’s way to wealth had been out of date. The American Dream had become the pursuit of material prosperity that people worked more hours to get bigger cars, fancier homes and the fruits of prosperity for their families, but they had less time to enjoy their prosperity. In Dreiser’s times, the content of the American Dream was to pursue more money and higher rank in society and it brought great hazards to the American society.

　2.2 The Causes of the Twisted American Dream

　2.2.1 The Cruel Social Background in

　The city has its cunning wiles, no less than the infinitely smaller and more human tempter. There are large forces which allure with all the soulfulness of expression possible in the most cultured human. In his first novel, Dreiser opted to paint a realistic portrait of America for what it really was—materialistic (Gerber 52). “The money ideal would be exposed as the great motivating purpose of life in the United States: one’s relative affluence at any level of society determining the degree creature comfort one might enjoy, the measure of prestige one might own, and the extent of social power one might command” (ibid. 52-53). Sister Carrie completely reiterates America’s obsession with money because there is not one character whose own status symbol isn’t determined economically (ibid. 53).

　At the end of the Civil War, big business boomed and there was a preoccupation with “conspicuous consumption” (Ward 33). Capitalism roared and consumers began to see each other for what they thought they really were: money. Dreiser first describes his Carrie Meeber not by her opinions or actions, but by what she owns “a small trunk, a cheap imitation alligator-skin satchel ... and a small yellow snap purse” (Dreiser 54). Although Carrie cannot afford a real alligator-skin satchel, she owns an imitation so that she appears to be something she is not (Ward 70). False appearances are a reiterated theme throughout Sister Carrie. Contrary to the model of stay-at-home wife and mother associated with the Victorian era through much of the twentieth century, in the early economy, the labor of women was central. Women canned the family crops, spun cloth and crafted it into clothing and linens, made soaps and candles, and produced other essential goods. The transition from an agricultural economy centered in the family to an industrial order characterized by managerial capitalism depended on the development of factories throughout the nineteenth century.

　When Carrier entered Chicago and met Drouet, the readers became attentive to her fascination with the upper class. “In addition to representing consumerism, Carrie also serves as a symbol of the American middle class. Carrie is “ambitious to gain material things” (ibid 64). Entering a department store to find a job, Carrie leaves with an unsatisfied desire to own things that she cannot. Carrie sees how much the city has to offer her. She longs for the luxury and wealth of the other shop dwellers (Balling 23). All of the fancy items tempt Carrie although she cannot manage to pay for any of them; “thus a capitalist economy manipulates the desire of the consumer without ever completely satisfying it” (Ward 56). This unfulfilled yearning compels the consumer to work long hours just to struggle to buy more items (ibid 85). With each purchase, the need for material things grows while never completely satisfying the consumer. Carrie’s dream of satisfaction is hastily broken when she realizes she must work in an unpleasant job to get what she wants.

　In Sister Carrie, money is a main objective. Carrie’s fascination in Drouet is instigated by his money. “Handing her the money gives him the opportunity to touch her hand, the first step of physical intimacy with her” (ibid. 47). In a society in which wealth is associated with individual merit, Drouet begins to stir up another person into materialism. Through this, he can “conduct his life on a splendid basis” (Balling 25) because Carrie looks to him with desire. A world of possibilities is opened to Carrie through Drouet. She has now become an “insider” (ibid. 29) to the world of prosperity, excitement, and satisfaction.

　With such debatable surrounding, the novel can really only prove one point “it is a story of real life, of their lives” (Norman 474). All of these situations — materialism, seduction, adultery, bigamy, and theft—were actually occurring in real life. Unable to assert his characters’ will against natural and economic forces，Dreiser rarely passes judgment on them. These litigious circumstances created by Theodore Dreiser demonstrate the ironies within an emergent American culture after the Civil War. Materialism and capitalism in a booming economy, conventional standards of men and women’s roles, and the denial of the American public in response to the novel all prove that Sister Carrie was ahead of its time in portraying the authentic and pessimistic view of real existence.

　2.2.2 The Unquenchable Desire of Carrie

　Carrie, a poor country girl, arrives in Chicago, filled with the expectations of acquiring the finer things in life. She imagines the elegant clothes she will wear, the exciting places to which she will go, and the fashionable people with whom she will associate, thinking that everyone who lives beyond the boundaries of her Midwestern state has achieved that higher status. She is a creature of yearning. "A woman should some day write the complete philosophy of clothes. No matter how young, it is one of the things she wholly comprehends. There is an indescribably faint line in the matter of man's apparel which somehow divides for her those who are worth glancing at and those who are not. Once an individual has passed this faint line on the way downward he will get no glance from her. There is another line at which the dress of a man will cause her to study her own" (Dreiser 234).We can not say that she is a woman of calculation who makes others degenerate. It is the instinct of yearning that pushes her toward something better. At first, Carrie leaves her hometown and her parents without any regret. She breaks all ties with them easily and seeks her happiness. When she lives in her sister’s house, she realizes that she must look for a job to support her. After that, she loses her job because of her illness. It is Drouet who wears fine clothes, and has much money that helps her get rid of the trouble. Carrie finds her life with Drouet quite pleasing, he buys her new clothes and takes her to the theatre. When Carrie hears Drouet's laudatory opinion of her dramatic ability, her body tingles with satisfaction. Like the flame which welds the loosened particles into a solid mass, his words units those floating wisps of feeling which she fells, but never believes, concerning her possible ability, and makes them into a gaudy shred of hope. Like all human beings, she has a touch of vanity. She fells that she can do things if she has a chance. How often she looked at the well-dressed actresses on the stage and wondered how she would look, how delightful she would feel if only she were in their place. The glamour, the tense situation, the fine clothes, and the applause have lured her until she fells that she, too, can act—that she, too, can compel acknowledgment of power. Soon she sees Drouet’s shortcoming, until she meets the pub manager. Hurstwood who stands at a higher level and much more elegant than Drouet, she becomes engaged to Hurstwood. She wants better and better, then by chance, she becomes the famous theoretical actress and discards Hurstwood. She is satisfied with herself for a time until she sees she can get more and therefore wants more.

　In an article entitled “Desire as Hero”, Randolph Bourne concluded, “The insistent theme of Mr. Dreiser’s work is desire—perennial, unquenchable ... His hero is really not Sister Carrie, or the Titan or the Genius, but that desire within us which pounds in manifold guise against the iron walls of experience” (Bourne 245). Irving Howe observed that the central characters in the early novels were “harried by a desire for personal affirmation, a desire they can neither articulate nor suppress” (Howe 109). Donald Pizer was more specific about what Sister Carrie wanted. “Of the major forces in her life, it is primarily her desire for objects that furnish a sense of physical and mental well-being—for fine clothing and furniture and attractive apartments and satisfactory food—which determines much of her life”(Pizer 231).

　These various readings underline the importance of desire in Dreiser’s work, particularly in Sister Carrie, where desire is perceived as an unfathomable and irrepressible force. The characters seem so helpless that desire, according to Lawrence E. Hussman, has become the novel’s new protagonist. This subordination of characters to desire is also what Richard Poirier suggests, when describing what he thinks characterizes most American novelists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, “their vision often moves panoramically across the massed phenomena of social and economic structures, and it is only within these that they can see the hero at all”(Poirier 143).

　Ⅲ. The Awakening Women’s Self-consciousness

　3.1 The Definition of New Woman

　Most women stayed at home to take care of her children, make meals, keep house, and to care for the sick in the late nineteenth century. Only five percent of married women held jobs outside the home in 1900.But some did go out looking for work in order to help their family out as much as possible with their bills. Carrie wanted to go out and make something of herself. As the emergence of a new social and political phenomenon, evoking the image of female independence and rebellion, the term New Woman became popular during the 1880s and the 1890s. In the course of the nineteenth century women had increasingly challenged their subordinate social and political position. They had a radical inheritance from the pioneering feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, whose Vindication of the Rights of Woman had condemned the sexual double to standard and urged women’s rights to education, employment, and full citizenship. Therefore, New Woman novels soon became a vital and popular part of the late Victorian cultural landscape—between 1883 and 1900 over a hundred novels were written about the New Woman. The new Woman refers to a specific group of privileged white women. They were born between the late 1850s and 1900; they married later than former generation or not all; they had few or no children if they did marry; they attended college and had highly developed career and professional goals. These white women, rejecting conventional female roles and asserting their right to a career, to a public voice, to visible power, laid claim to the rights and privileges customarily accorded bourgeois men. The new woman was independent, outspoken, and iconoclastic. And this was exactly how Carrie lived; she became an actress and did this to fulfill what she wanted out of life not for what others wanted for her.

　3.2 The Hard Process of the Awakening Women’s Self-consciousness in Sister Carrie

　At first, Carrie was very passive. She was an ordinary young woman with an average little conscience that urged her to stick to the traditional sphere assigned women. Trying to find a job was a difficult task in itself.?"Well, we prefer young women just now with some experience.? I guess we can't use you"(Dreiser 172). Carrie heard this over and over again. Finally, she found a job that paid her three and a half dollars a week in a shoe factory. This was a grueling task working with leather non-stop in a hot stuffy overpopulated room. Being sick she lost her job at the shoe factory, and received Drouet’s ten dollars. We could see that she had the traditional women’s characters. Like other women, she pinched her material dream on men’s help. She considered Drouet and Hurstwood’s kindness and love as the way to stand against threat.

　However, men’s protection didn’t last. As Carrie found Hurstwood had married, she felt that she was deceived. She decided to find a job again in stead of asking for Hurstwood’s help. She could not help feeling, as she looked across the lively park, that life was a joyous thing for those who didn’t need to worry, and she wished over and over that something might interfere now to preserve for her the comfortable stay which she had enjoyed. She didn’t want Drouet or his money when she thought of it, nor anything more to do with Hurstwood, but only the content of satisfaction she had experienced, for, after all, she had been happy—happier, at least than she was now when confronted by the necessity of making her way also.

　She knew that she had improved in appearance. Her manner had vastly changed. Her clothes were shining, and men, well-dressed men, some of the kind who before had gazed at her indifferently from behind their polished railings and imposing office partitions—now gazed into her face with a soft light in their eyes. In a way, she felt the power and satisfaction of the thing, but it did not wholly reassure her. Carrie looked for nothing but to save what might come legitimately and without the appearance of special favors. She wanted something, but no man should buy her by false protestations or flavor. She proposed to earn her living honestly. But her sense of independence was halted by Hurstwood who stole the money and took her to New York.

　Hurstwood tried his best to restart his business and make Carrie enjoy a good life. But things turned out to be unfortunate. He failed and his ideal dream went up in smoke. He couldn’t make his own living by proper means. When Hurstwood was poor in New York, Carrie was determined to perform a play once again. She got a position in a chorus group through her own effort. Her talent was recognized by others and she was promoted and became an actress in the end. In the novel, Dreiser himself commented, “Timid as Carrie was, she was strong in capability. The reliance on others made her feel as if she must, and when she must she dared. Experience of the world and of necessity was in her favor. No longer had the lightest word of a man made her head dizzy. She had learned that men could change and fail. Flatter in its most palpable form had lost its force with her. It required superiority—kindly superiority—to move her—the superiority of a genius like Ames”(Dreiser 162). The writer considered it as a persuasive proof that Carrie Meeber was the representative of New Woman. She became confident and independent. She was no longer an ignorant little girl.

　Carrie's revolt was quiet but decisive. Finding the conventional domestic sphere for women menial as well as stifling, Carrie decided she would not "live cooped up in small flat" with someone who treated her like a "servant" (Dreiser 362). She determined for the second time to go to work, and at this point she switched roles with