Keywords: sister carrie imagery, sister carrie analysis
The naturalistic copy writer reveals his theme through symbolic details. The usage of symbolism in Sister Carrie offers some evocative effects to this book, specifically, it eases to look for the elements, expose the reality and combine the theme. In this manner the symbolic amount of the narrative put down straight within the events and occurrences of the easy report itself. Dreiser's use of symbolic detail permeates the book which range from careful explanations of dresses and adornment to information of great American metropolitan areas and their area.
The publisher must make the audience aware that the facts are essential to this is. Matching to Donald Pizer in his The Books of Theodore Dreiser: A Critical Study, "Dreiser is much more lucrative as a symbolic than as a metaphoric writer". Dreiser generally accomplishes this end through some sort of "incremental repetition" (qtd. in Ward, web) of important details. Occasionally, however, he shows too little subtlety when he addresses his audience directly to show his motive.
By saving carefully Carrie's a reaction to specific situations Dreiser shows her moving from her early on naЇve optimism to her last disillusionment and despair. Carrie's sensitivity to details supplies the emotional centre of the novel. The most important habits of details, in addition to clothing and money, are mirrors, the theater, hotels, and restaurants; interiors and dwellings mainly. These comprise the walled and gilded city to which Carrie seeks entrance.
- Rocking to dreamland
Symbols in Sister Carrie are what E. K. Brown, in his Tempo in the Novel called rhythmical symbols because they constantly reappear in a variety of contexts changing in figure and situation through the novel. The rocking couch as a symbol of desire for Carrie in Chicago and of get away from for Hurstwood in NY, and it is an obvious exemplory case of a rhythmical icon. . (qtd. in Pizer, 1976: 91)
Throughout Sister Carrie, the image of the rocking chair is utilized by Dreiser to represent "the restlessness, the feverish activity, which leads Carrie to no satisfying destination"( Gerber, 1964: 62). Early in the book Carrie is seen rocking in her sister's flat on Vehicle Buren Street, thinking of escaping with Drouet. As Drouet's mistress in Ogden Place she wants a lavish life, popularity, applause, refinement. The rocking couch is symbolic of Carrie's continued irritation and her failure to make a choice, wavering instead from one probability to the other. Just before Hurstwood's two visits which occur along chapters eleven and twelve Carrie sits rocking in her chair. Dreiser requires the possibility to foreshadow the future result of her desire: "She hummed and hummed as the moments passed and was therein as happy though she didn't understand it, as she ever before should be"(87). In NY when living with Hurstwood, she sits rocking back and forth, pondering how "common place"( 229) her quite flat is compared with "what all of those other world was enjoying"(229)- all of those other world made of those who possessed money and acquired an improved life than hers. ( Gerber, 1964: 62)
In compare to Carrie, after dropping his business, Hurstwood uses the rocking seat to meditate within the lost days and nights, the exhausted funds and his insufficient strength. Inside the chair's slow and repeated movement he finds a narcotic imagine security.
The last view of Carrie is moving. She now sees herself rocking in her couch, "successful but unsatisfied, attained but unfulfilled" (Gerber, 1964: 63), she dreams of new conquests which undoubtedly will or must bring her delight. Yet she allows for the first time that happiness may well not be for her, that perhaps her destiny is "forever to be the pursuit of that radiance of joy which tints the distant hilltops of the world" (369). Dreiser creates a world where life assumes the facet of " a brutal, grim struggle where no 1 / 4 was either given or considered, and in which are laid traps, lied, squandered, erred, through illusion". (Dreiser, 1991: 82) As well as the survivors of the struggle to become a king, are left without a trophy.
The symbolic action of rocking is most fitting: Carrie reaches once discontent, physically uneasy, reasonably full of energy, and passively waiting for better lot of money to come and find her. By the end of the book, Carrie is still rocking. Her dwellings will vary now and better by material standards-she is currently in a lush NY hotel-but the action is the same and is also symbolic of everlasting discontent. (Gale, 1968: 88) Carrie has reached in her quest the bare terminal, which Dreiser points out, so many People in america reach especially those who ascend from humble beginnings and are deceived by the life around them into thinking the money ideal to be all in all. (Gerber, 1964: 63)
Dreiser's symbolism shows the distinct and specific worlds of Sister Carrie. There is the genuine world of the "reasonable" brain in the dreamed world of the "emotional" world, a world defined in the book as: "Elf-land", "Dream Land", or "Kingdom of Greatness". This is actually the world that Hurstwood emerges as an "ambassador" to bring Carrie again with him. It really is this world from which Carrie ironically becomes a citizen - ironically because it never appears to deliver the rewards and beauty it assures. Life is a regular battle fought between the big armies of aggravation and desire.
Dream symbolism offers a method of exposing the actual world outside feels of Carrie's behaviour. Minnie, Carrie's sister, functions in the book as a choric number. In her wish, the standard judgement of Carrie's activities is revealed. Carrie leaves the world of her sister to go to a dark and dangerous world below the top of floor. The swirling waters and unplumbed darkness of that world without a rigid morality seem to be certain to eliminate the naЇve girl. It is destroy all the necessary to accept Carrie's estimation of her sister Minnie as definite and unbiased real truth. Each woman unconsciously views the other as a projection of herself, and so interprets the life span of the other as it could seem to herself.
- Clothes and Appearance
The finest clothing made is someone's epidermis, but, of course, population calls for something more than this. ~Mark Twain??( il las sau il elimin pt ca doar acest subcapitol e introdus de un citat?)
The most clear and well-known continuing symbol in Sister Carrie is that of clothes- clothes as an index of preference and interpersonal position and for Carrie of a naЇve but moving desire for a fine and pleasing life. (Pizer, 1976: 92) You can acknowledge the fact that appearance, without including value and morals, as should be of more importance, defines oneself and helps them establish a place within the public system. Sister Carrie functions as an outstanding model to portray this notion. To a lot of the characters, the way they appear and respond hides the reality of which they live. Dreiser carefully lists in exact aspect everything Carrie owns: "an inexpensive imitation alligator-skin satchel, [], a yellowish leather snap tote, [] and four us dollars" (1). Since Carrie has enough money to cover a genuine alligator-skin satchel, she supports a imitation with the objective that she appears to be another thing than she actually is. False looks are a dominating theme throughout Sister Carrie.
Because so little is exposed about Carrie's identification, the first impression remaining by her is created not with what she does or with what she ideas but by her belongings. Dreiser ends the description of her with the complete amount of money she retains. This stress on money is a major theme all through all of those other novel.
To Carrie, the sensation of completeness comes only once dresses magnificently. On her first day at work, she seems ashamed with her feminine co-workers. After leaving her obscure work place, she proceeds to the lobby where she encounters other young women. As she strolls past, "She believed ashamed in the face of better dressed girls who passed. She felt as if she should be better served and her center revolted. "(31) Being of middle income stature, she considers degraded and believes she can get no esteem or attention from these, " better dressed young ladies. "(31) Though she actually is extremely attractive in her less express, as proven by the teenagers who flirt with her, she feels only remorse because she was not lavishly displayed.
Carrie's first come across with mass fashion includes her stop by at the Good, a Chicago department store. Within this episode she actually is not shopping or more properly, having no money she is only "window shopping". (Geyh, 2006: web) Carrie's call to the division store demonstrate her fascination with conspicuous use; "it acquired developed a new and curiously romantic relationship between customer and consumer goods". (Eby, 2001: web) As she observes the eye-catching goods available for sale, Carrie "could not help being the claim of every trinket and valuable after her in my opinion [. . . . ] The dainty house slippers and stockings, the delicately frilled dresses and petticoats. [. . . ] all touched her with specific desire" (22). But the lure that clothing and other personal belongings have for Dreiser's protagonists-that he message or calls "the words of the so-called inanimate!" (98)-lets us to note that memorable change. Every one of of the expensive items tempts Carrie although she cannot manage to pay for some of them; "thus a capitalist economy manipulates the desire of the buyer without ever before completely satisfying it" (Eby, 2001: web). Carrie realizes how far removed she is from its glamour and attraction. Although she desires for herself the frilly dresses, the jewellery and trinkets heaped after the counters, she keenly seems how none of these are in the range of her purchase. "An outcast without career" (17), only job-seeker, even the shop-girls could see she was poor and in need of a paying job.
The coveted components of clothing placed on screen in the shops, restaurants, hotels and avenues, are for Carrie, subject of both conscious and unconscious desire, but the desire is unrelated to any organic, biological "need". The clothes are practical primarily as indications of what Carrie might own and be, of the desire, but also indicators of she actually is not, of "her class bound position as a child of working-class parents", and of most that exceeds her grasp. ( qtd. in Geyh, 2006: web)
The importance of clothes in Sister Carrie arises from the choice that one may exercise over them "as a conspicuous performance of possible being. " Drouet seduces Carrie buying her the clothes that might be the appropriate costume limited to the role of mistress. The clothes "are ones that she could not even explain let alone wear were she in which to stay her role of working female at her sister's flat". . Likewise, Carrie's first acting job in NY translate into a paradoxical ability to choose the clothes for the role of a actress. ( Fisher, 1991: 554)( se intelege ca citatele sunt ale lui Fisher?)
While Carrie is the primary character whose lifetime thrives on the dependence on her looks, she actually is not the only one who Dreiser decides to make a victim of appearance. At Carrie's first meeting with Drouet on the train from Colombia City to Chicago his clothing and conduct " built up on her behalf a dim world of lot of money, of which he was the centre" ( 6) The young man whose charm and audacity found Carrie's attention on the coach also suffers from the value he places on appearance. While uttering her first words in their first sparked chat, she notices his, "Flush, colourful cheeks, a light moustache, a gray fedora hat. " (3) She further observes him realizing every light details of his suit and the jewellery. "His suit was of any striped and cross routine dark brown wool, [] the low crotch of the vest disclosed a stiff bosom of pink and white stripes. [] his hands bore several wedding rings" (3) From this quote, you can come to the conclusion that Drouet is a fairly wealthy man with many refined tastes. In reality, "He was not a moneyed man. " (32) When in the existence of those who were lucky, " he straightened himself a little more stiffly and eats with stable comfort. " (32) This defines his social position since he is well known among the list of productive. Carrie soon noticed all the city had to provide her, such as "prosperity, fashion, eases every adornment for girls, and she longed for dress and beauty with a whole heart" (21). Carrie is aroused by "something appealing in the whole material possibility" that Drouet acquired to offer (5). While her backdrop does indeed subconsciously caution her momentarily, she ignores her misgivings in exchange for the contentment that Drouet's success might bring her. While Drouet did work, he desires to cover up his actuality. His bogus preens dazzles many, including Carrie. As soon as Carrie recognizes that Drouet is not as well off as she originally identified him to be, she changes to some other man, another man who, like Drouet, was masking his own actuality behind his allure of money and position.
Mr. G. W. Hurstwood is the next gentleman to capture Carrie's fancy. He's the manager of a renowned restaurant and is known as a successful man about town. Many see him as a solid man of good physical stature, rather young, and is well known for his, "fine clothes, his clean linen, his jewels, and, most importantly, his own sense of his importance. " (33) On the surface, Hurstwood is a guy of electricity. He retains a valued judgment among many and some kind of influence on many more, Drouet and Carrie included. With all of the appeal, there is no possible method for anyone to see Hurstwood's personal life. No hint of the slightest inconsistency of the glamour can be found. People of sociable royalty know to see his family on many popular public outings. His partner is a charmer as well and many have high expectations for his or her young daughter. One would not conceive that Hurstwood and his partner were having heated up arguments resulting in marital problems. Due to the fact that many recognized the family and how affluent in all respects they can be, most overlooked Hurstwood's callings on Carrie. Appearance, which led to this man's cultural status, kept folks from considering this. Looks and attraction is the thing that placed this man from suspicion.
Later in the storyplot when Hurstwood sociable position declines, clothes and implicitly appearance mirror this time the truth. Gradually working out of money Hurstwood is not preoccupied with his appearance, he once rigorously guarded. Still, for the sake of old times, he tries to bring to light the old home. This truth emphasis Hurstwood's aspire to keep appearances even though his social status was not the same. As Hurstwood encounters life as poor specific he begins to start to see the life of his wealthy history as " a city with a wall about any of it" (328) on the other side Hurstwood's shabby clothes expose his talk about, the opposite but similarly conspicuous equivalent to the display of state, that is the normal function of clothes. ( Fisher, 1991: 554)
In contrast to Carrie's new clothing which makes her part of her " new world ", Hurstwood's clothing is currently threadbare part and worn. It is not sufficiently warm for him to weather in the chilly winter. Clothing unveils the complete inversion of the relationship" of Carrie and Hurstwood. As Hurstowood's preoccupation for the lack of money rises he tells Carrie that they don't afford to buy her any new clothes, "she hadn't failed to observe that he didn't seem to seek advice from her about buying clothes for himself. " (340) One or two short years ago he was struggling breadwinner who occasionally indulged himself in new clothing to meet up with the world, while Carrie remained home, running family members in her outdates garb.
In Sister Carrie: An Intro, written by Kenneth S. Lynn, the writer summarizes Carrie's arrival in Chicago. Then proceeds to state that she actually is, "depending solely on personal appeal to enable her to work out her salvation. " He continues on to criticize Drouet and Hurstwood as well. "Drouet does not have any reality; get rid of the salesman's clothes, and he has little or nothing. " (qtd. in Pizer, 1976: 40) This offer aimed to spell it out Drouet, implies that though his flashy clothes are a hallmark of his, he really comes down to little or nothing. Hurstwood is in the same situation and as Dreiser says following a passer-by inquires if he is a motorist, he finally realizes that he's nothing at all. Carrie is trained manners and how to become a lady.
Because clothes can be altered quicker than apartments they turn into a more delicate index to changes of state. Clothes are one's address. Only hotels are "places of living hypersensitive enough to the fluctuations of do it yourself to equal clothing as shows of the financial condition of the personal. " In New York after they separate, both Carrie and Hurstwood, move through "opposite ends of the spectrum of records" the need of a society where money will be retained in the currency markets so that its waverings of value can be displayed in the daily magazine alternatively in land or goods that are, by comparison, subject only to year-long or decade-long readings of change of price. As the rocking seat is to fortune's steering wheel, second by second increases and comes, so too are clothes, hotels, and newspaper publishers to the long-term indexes of lot of money and value. ( Fisher, 1991: 554)
Every feature of the characters is a show placed on display like this of your theatrical play. None have a genuine personality because it has been erased by the tantalizing temptation of being that name on the front page, or the cause of a hush fallen over a room as they get into. They even change simple features to deceive their prey audience. As far as personalities being deciphered, as mentioned before, these three critical people haven't any real personalities. They display the best well-planned personality that the situation demands. When they are in the company of a wealthy benefactor, the area and field is filled up with gaiety on the plastered surface, nevertheless they loathe for the life.
Each of these three people uses their appearance to obtain materials goods and respectable social standings. Each of them accomplish that, yet in the long run, they end up in desolate isolation. Had these characters accepted their lives as they might have came to be, and not used deceit to con the unknowing, perhaps they wouldn't have ended up in a smaller state they stood at formerly.
- Money
In this novel, together with mirrors and clothes, money presents social position. Dreiser thought we would draw an authentic portrayal of America for exactly what it was- materialistic (Gerber, 1964: 52). Life is offered in relation to this driving push and appears to undergo all destinies, relating everyone, as members in the mad-cycle of the flourishing economy. "The money ideal would be subjected as the fantastic motivating purpose of life in america: one's relative affluence at any degree of society determining the amount creature comfort one might enjoy, the way of measuring prestige one might own, and the extent of social electric power one might control" (Gerber, 1964: 52-53). Sister Carrie completely reaffirms America's mania with money because all people' status image is determined economically.
Dreiser's characters are often fascinated with the physical certainty of money (Pizer, 1976: 91); "the money she's accepted was two, delicate, green, attractive ten-dollar expenses" (39). The physical copy of money can be an act which assures much for both "the body and the heart it either requires or suggests the sexual" (Pizer, 1976: 91)
Carrie's impoverished situation incites genuine pity, but Drouet offers her money having covered desires and motives. This enables him to touch her hands, the first function in establishing physical connection with her. The apparently safe offer of loaning money to Carrie and the pleasurable lunch are a first step into obtaining it. Presenting her the money somehow enables him to feel her hand, the first move around in creating physical intimacy with her. In reality, he's trading the occasion for gender. ( Pizer, 1976: 92) The lunch break and the loan are only the first step in getting it. As she feels the twenty dollars in her side, Carrie fells that a she was connected to him by a "strange tie of love. "(47). Having money as a primary weapon, Drouet has obtained the to commence physical closeness with Carrie.
Several times in the novel, including in this instant, an exact money sum is known as. "Carrie lives in a world of prices" regardless of whether she is at work, out shopping, at home or on the street. Her labour value is set to four us dollars and fifty cents per week; accommodation costs four us dollars per week; car fare amounts sixty cents weekly; an economical lunch time is ten cents; etc. By recognizing Drouet's money, Carrie unconscientiously establishes her well worth to him at exactly twenty dollars. Carrie's desire maintain secret her intentions from Minnie and Hanson confirms that she actually is at least partially alert that she is reselling herself. (Ward, 2000: web)
Carrie symbolizes the collective principles of the burgeoning American consumer culture. To her, money signifies power; one might easily judge her and include her in the money-hunters group of people; those that would be pleased to be trapped over a desert island if only she had a sizable sum of money. (Ward, 2000: web) She hadn't acknowledged the fact that money and little or nothing else will probably be worth nothing. Only in relation to consumer goods will it represent anything of value.
Chapter seven commences with one of Dreiser's recurrent discussions on the meaning of money. "The true meaning of money yet remains to be popularly explained and comprehended" (47). What Carrie will not understand, a mistake she has in keeping with almost all of humanity, is the fact money should be paid as "honestly stored energy" (48) much less a "usurped privilege" (48). Carrie' meaning of money would be simple and logical- "something every person else has and I have to get" (48). Dreiser then persists to give a remarkable justification of money. Essential in his observation is the fact that if a person has money, it must be put in in order to recognize its value. Carrie as well as Drouet belong to this category. If not received honestly money in this novel are obtained by robbery or beggary. Money functions as a modality of characterization, therefore everyone in the book would depend on money to spell it out who they are and what they do.
In the game played out at the first appointment of Carrie and Hurstwood, Dreiser provides a miniature model of the characters, causes, and motion of the novel making symbolic use of the normal details. Within this game of chance and skill Hurstwood manipulates his palm so that Carrie can earn all the money while Drouet remains ignorant of what's happening. "Not moralize" Hurstwood says to Carrie, "until the thing is that what becomes of the money" (74). This passing is like a perspective from future, unconscious words evocative of what was to come.
Social position is modified with money, at exactly the same time offering those who acquire it the likelihood to recognize the supreme riches or the supreme cutting down of status. For example, in the very beginning of the novel, Carrie rides in a teach, the way the indegent do then in a avenue car, as the trendy girls of the time and finally she actually is pressured to walk, compelled to return to her preliminary position. This completes a string that marks the gradual lowering of Carrie's status in the society until she gets to the cheapest point, the point where she not only has no job but is also compelled to walk around the town. Being Drouet's company in the restaurant Carrie is aware of the decline. She observes that he affords to travel by teach and she immediately affiliates means of transport with wealth. Lost between thoughts she hears him mentioning that she's to come back home if she does not recognize his offer, but she will not acknowledge the significance of this truth. She only considers a stage coach passing by. This assists as a aesthetic reminder a wealthy life can be resided only in a large city like Chicago, and is crucial to making her accept Drouet's proposal. Her choice provides her a feeling of wellness, dragging her out from her express of dreamer, and, by the finishing of the chapter, she actually is already riding the car from her vision. After Hurstwood and Carrie's affair and get away to NY, Hurstwood soon locates himself having to think carefully about small disbursements like hire and cab fare. Although he has sufficient money to purchase new businesses, he becomes down many prospects because they're too low-class for him. Not merely is his money very important to him now, but so is his respectability. Having to live so frugally as he searches for employment humiliates him (Balling, 1967: 61). The importance of Hurstwood's reputation to himself underscores the materialism in America. Being who you are to yourself is much less important as being someone to others (Gerber, 1964: 60-61). Hurstwood's decrease pushes Carrie further from him. Mrs. Vance's decision to cut off her connection with Carrie because of Hurstwood's appearance exposes the "dehumanizing nature of consumer society" (Ward, 2000: web). While Hurstwood gradually sinks toward deprivation and suicide, Carrie once again goes foreword and looks on stage. Carrie's "constant pull to something better had not been to be denied" (Thorp, 1963: 472). Her choice to leave him is nearly completely encouraged by budget, as was her decision to marry him.
- Mirrors - reflections of the self
Mirrors should think much longer before they echo. ~Jean Cocteau??
Another important mark is the reflection in which Carrie makes an attempt to see inside herself to discover the truth or to reflect after some problem. Just like the rocking seat, the mirror symbolizes both poles of Carrie's thought, for it is also utilized by her simply to admire her appearance in new clothes. Both rocking couch and the mirror fuse the desire for materials satisfaction with the realisation that Carrie is never happy if she regularly wishes something new. Naturally, Carrie is never aware of the symbolic transfer of these articles, but certainly the writer is, therefore, it is hoped, is the reader.
Mirrors-both factual and the metaphorical mirrors of others' a reaction to her-contribute to this construction of personal information as Carrie glimpses the perfect as reflected in them. "The Reflection" as the narrator notices "convinced her of a thing which she had long assumed. She was rather, yes, indeed". (58) The process of mirroring through which Carrie creates her identity is, however not merely a matter of dress: "it is bound with her natural behaving ability". (qtd. in Geyh, 2006: web) Able to "perceive the type of those little modish ways which women choose when they might presume to be something", Carrie mimics, mirrors, the gestures of these whom she admires: "she seemed in the reflection and pursed her lips, accompanying it with a little toss of the head, as she experienced seen the railroad treasure's little girl doShe became a girl of considerable style. " (78-79)
The metropolitan environment itself offers numerous sites of such indemnificatory mirroring, "from half-lit display windows of department stores where one might see one's own ghostly reflection", to posh restaurants like Sherry's where "the floor was of a reddish hue, waxed and polished, and in every direction were mirrors-tall, great, bevel-edged mirrors-reflecting and re-reflecting forms, faces, and candelabra a report and hundred times" (235) (Gyeh, 2006: web)
Looking in the mirror is often considered a form of narcissism. This is particularly obvious in the store show when Carrie looks at herself with the new clothes on. Her sense of well-being is increased, to the stage where she starts off to feel "a warm shine" (70) creep into her cheeks. That is again shown up in section eight, when she realizes that she actually is beautiful after looking in a mirror. The two antithetical potions of Carrie's head, her conscience and desire, make another appearance in section ten.
There, standing before the mirror, she sees that her face unveils a more attractive young lady than she was before but her brain, "a mirror ready of her own and the world's opinions"(70), shows a "worse" creature than she had been before. She wavers between both of these images, uncertain of which one to believe.
The "inner" mirror, the tank of cultural and obtained moral option, must be watched nearer by the reader. Sister Carrie is a report comprehensive of the type; what happens inside Carrie's head is actually far more important than her outward bundle of money of tests and ordeal.
Carrie's complications, more basic recently, have now become mental ones, "and altogether so converted about in all of her earthly associations that she might well have been a new and different individual" (70). Inside the mirror she considers a fairly face, but when she looks within herself she views an image composed of her own judgements and the ones of society that makes her experience a certain moral queasiness. Carrie wavers between these two reflections, wondering which to adopt. Her conscience, "only an average little conscience" (73), is molded by the entire world, her own past life, behavior, and convention, all welded together in a mixed up way. Her conscience bothers her because she failed to live with moral correctness even before she tried. Carrie is within a "winter" disposition, filled with silent brooding. Nevertheless the top secret of her conscience grows more and more feeble.
Before, the mirror only was a sign of vanity and symbolized the capability to imitate things. Now Dreiser remarks that the mirror is the image of any good celebrity as well, a "good celebrity serves as her own reflection to her audience" (Gyeth, 2006: web). Carrie's vocation and power as an actress find their fullest appearance on level, where she creates not only a series of idealized editions of herself, but also an array of miniature mise-en-scЁne- shadow plays-of metropolis and its inhabitants outside. (Geyh, 2006: web) "Carrie was possessed of this sympathetic, impressionable nature which, ever before in the most developed form, has been the glory of the crisis. She was made with the passivity of heart which is definitely the mirror of the lively world", the narrator observes. (117) Carrie's best ability is that she can mirror back to people that they want to see.
- Newspapers
The frequent icon in this book is the occupation of newspapers to designate folks who are no longer capable to start to see the future, people that are suppressed by days gone by and sometimes by the present. The newspaper represents old news as it presents things which have already happened. Those who fall back on the publication thus fall in to the school of have-beens, of these who already lived their life and experienced the globe.
The first who reads the paper in the book is Sven Hanson accompanied by Hurstwood. The two are reading the magazine in the evening as a form of entertainment and because it is the only path they may find out about their own world. Hurstwood is scrolling the paper for the first time in section twenty. The paper symbolizes the past, and the incapacity to rise in the foreseeable future. Thus, his partner is already making the decision regarding the future of the family, and the near future vacation. Within this world between Hurstwood and Julia, the first sees in the magazine a refuge from his wife's requirements and from what his complete family symbolized to him. In this manner he tries to avoid domestic quarrels and pretends to read the newspaper. In comparison Carrie, reads the paper to see if she is written about in one of its articles. The newspaper increases more importance and is more often employed by Hurstwood than previously. "Every day he could read in the evening newspaper" (143). Later Dreiser represents Hurstwood as spending his time reading papers, as the sole enjoyable activity remaining. This again shows that Hurstwood can only just live by looking at days gone by rather than in to the future.
The need for newspapers gets to the pinnacle in section thirty five during the surprise. Hurstwood is entirely ruined as a man that he uses the paper even for trivial media including the weather, information he otherwise discovered from his saloon. He reads about how precisely the surprise is approaching, how it has arrived, and how they have cleared up. This describes the home seclusion from the exterior world; his life has obtained so bad that he cannot even look out the windows any longer.
The newspaper symbolism grows to its pinnacle in chapter forty three. Carrie is currently in the paper, being written about, as she always imagined, in the manner all the celebrities are, while Hurstwood only reads about her. "The part of Kiesha, the country maid, within the Wives of Abdul on Broadway, heretofore played out by Inez Carew, will be hereafter packed by Carrie Madedna, one of the cleverest members of the chorus. " (323). This is actually the definitive difference between your future-oriented junior and the hesitant looking aged.
- The theatre
There is the key symbolic role of the theater as an "ascending form of illusion" for Carrie from the sea of life to a source of material wealth and for that reason "happiness to the highest kind of illusion" (Pizer, 1976: 92). Dreiser remarks that the theater presents what Carrie dreams about. The theater is the main form of amusement which is also heading to be Carrie's prospect profession. Hence each visit to the theater offers a unique stepping stone on her way to becoming an actress. In chapter nine, the mention of theatres isn't only done in a confident sense, but also in a negative sense. Theatres serve as places of seduction throughout the novel; this can be a seduction of the senses and a literal seduction. Carrie's search for a part in the theater is reminiscent of her earlier search for a job. The world of the theatre is perhaps more hostile because the men she speaks to, take liberties with her that the shop-men do not dare; to the shop-men she was a product, to the managers she is a toy or a source of low amusement. ( Balling, 1967: 35)
In her simple preference of theatrical life, Carrie finds a sure way of climbing into the world of her thoughts. Carrie is never so introspective as to inquire just why an "An Hour in Elf Land" (131) retains such great charm for her. Nevertheless, in her performance it is impossible to disregard the great changes that have come over the young girl who climbed on the coach from Columbia City.
- Interiors and dwellings
"Sister Carrie resembles a play greater than a film, we visualize Chicago and New York primarily as a series of interiors" (Pizer, 1976: 92). Throughout Sister Carrie, places and especially interiors are the scene for the story and are consistent icons of the internal status of the character types. The jobs of the main results can be charted on a graph of the various dwellings between the Hanson's modest level and a luxurious Waldorf apartment and between Fitzgerald and Moy's well- appointed club and a 15 pence a nights flophouse cubicle. (Pizer, 1976: 91)
In an attempt to leave a well-documented record of a period that has passed, Dreiser departs from the storyplot line that inferior working conditions were even though weighed against those of twenty years later. Carrie and the other perform the same laborious job all day without advantage of a big change in program or a short rest. The hours are long, the manufacturer is without ventilation. No work is made for the employees' comfort, in the fact that hard conditions are advantageous. The suffocating atmosphere displays Carrie's feelings of being trapped in a world that's not for her, an environment of significant industrialisation that only exploits her. Nor does indeed Dreiser forget the symbolic import of the set up lines and the workhouse. Work in a manufacturer is very similar to the grand level of life as he found it. Each individual becomes a cog in a wheel; each is a package of energy. (Pizer, 1976: 92)
The symbolism of the flats comes forward each time Carrie starts another stage of her life. Early in the novel, when arriving to Chicago, Carrie was to begin another level of her life. She left her fathers' house to have with her sister in the city. When achieving her sister's apartment Carrie not produces to notice that is small, even too small for site visitors and poorly equipped. The complete workday atmosphere of the chiseled contrasts with the bustle activity of the town itself and with Carrie's expectations. The chiseled might be considered a sign for Carrie's situation at that time, yet another in the best city of Chicago.
By distinction, towards the end of the book Carrie is offered accommodation in another of the priciest and famous hotels of that time period. Carrie's success as an celebrity endeavours her with a feasible form of promotion. By proposing Carrie a lower weekly demand, the agent of the hotel is invests in a particular kind of advertisement. (Ward, 2000: web) The hotel is aiming at Carrie's consumer wishes causing the consumer needs of the others. The comparison between Minnie's flat and this luxurious apartment is obvious but will not necessarily gratify Carrie's wants and does not make her happy.
Along Carrie's path toward success she involves be displayed by the places she lives in. At the beginning coping with Minnie's family she has a area of her own in a little flat. At this point she dreams of experiencing an improved life and a place to work.
Upon reaching Drouet she lives in a "comfortably enough equipped" (69) washboard that provides her stability and in which she feels "free of certain troubles which most ominously confronted her" (69). This place can be associated with another step Carrie will take near the top of world and success. She has a much better life in this place and she seems it as her home. Still she leaves it too for another, when escaping with Hurstwood. Carrie "had never seen such a little flat as her" (220) but "for the very first time in her life she noticed settled, and relatively justified in the eyes of modern culture" (220). This appears to be the best moments of her life, she seems accomplished and happy because this accommodation offers her security. The routine of the even soon bore her and she elopes from it finding a job in the theatre world. She steadily spends almost all of her time out or working. Family members is not she desires, she expects for something better. That is why she goes with Lola Osbourne and although they share an area at least she pays less for it. Carrie has always dreamt of a location of her own and she now possessed it. The cost of living had not been high and was precisely what a young actress needed. As she becomes famous, her position is reflected by the resort rooms she actually is offered. She lives in luxury now but however not thrilled.
In pursue of her aspiration Carrie goes by through numerous dwellings as they suggest her express and aspirations in various moments. Sometimes she feels suffocated by her home, sometimes it permeates her to desire or sometimes it offers her a feeling of equilibrium. Small or luxurious, furnished or not all of the places offer her something she needs at all moments: the likelihood to rock and roll in a seat by the window contemplating her life and the sudden turn it requires.
Many a times Dreiser comments upon the way in which social status is achieved and looked after. Drouet dines frequently at Rector's because it is a vacation resort for stars and professional men and so it inflates his vanity and stirs his ambition. For the same reason he seeks the comforts of Fitzgerald and Moy's saloon, which Dreiser explains in his awkward style as a "truly swell saloon". (33)
Dreiser embarks on the dialogue of the establishment of the men's saloon. Visitors there seek pleasure as well as the satisfaction of shining amongst their betters. In the culture which equates riches with individual value, the worst such an institution would do is mix up ambition of the materialist, such as Drouet, so that he too could execute his life on a splendid basis. ( Balling, 1964: 31)
By implication Dreiser says that to a newcomer this saloon must appear "a unusual and bright thing" (36). Then with a way of measuring irony he gives, "just what a lamp-flower is must bloom; a strange, glittering night-flower, odor-yielding, insect-drawing, insect-infested rose of pleasure" (36) thus by contrasting what such a location appears to its regular customers with what it will seem to the outsider, Dreiser as narrator invites the audience to start to see the aimlessly wandering, dressy, greedy, company as not terribly not the same as Carrie herself, only luckier and wealthier. Dreiser uses the moth image to characterize the saloon that Hurstwood handles: "Here come the moths in unlimited procession to bask in the light of the flame" (46) the saloon denotes the power of attraction the town has over its inhabitants, and the guarantee of enjoyment a restaurant can convey in passers by. ( Smith, 2010: web)
The irony of destiny leads Hurstwood in one charity line to another. He often considers of suicide but usually does not have the fifteen cents necessary for a cell with a gas aircraft. While Hurstwood descents to the state of hawaii where he must be concerned about insignificant sums, Carrie loves gathers income, larger than in the past. Hurstwood's state of depravation is also reflected by the loss of a long term home and his daily battle to find a destination to sleep. The cheap hotels and the charity homes are the reverse of what Hurstwood once appreciated. Homeless fellow, he will depend on the passers-by. Being one of the beggars from the captain's row of ill-fated individuals, Hurstwood participates in a spectacle expecting a different type of payment. Like Carrie, he's also an actor of fate, participating in a role-but his "wage" is less. ( Ward, 2000: web)
"Dreiser's images and symbols resemble his authorial voices in that they vary from those that are enforced on the character to those which arise implicitly from the narrative. The sophisticated pattering of symbols through repetition and cross-reference is a way of complementing and reinforcing the principal themes of the novel. (Pizer, 1976: 94) As the critic Donald Pizer notices, Dreiser's symbolism is incurred with double expressive so this means reflecting both the key ideas that symbolize the individuals and at the same time tips at aspects that are attracted from the storyline itself.
Dreiser's style is, nevertheless, important to the totality of his work. It is as valid a part of his art as his creation of people and selection of fine detail. Details and especially symbols play a decisive role in highlighting the theme of the novel foreshadowing the course of the occurrences and at the same time provokes the reader to make a story type of his own which can not necessarily be the aimed one.
