摘 要

西奥多·德莱塞是美国现代小说的先驱，他喜欢用现实主义及对细节的描写来烘托主题，这使得他的作品对于一些人来说很难阅读。《嘉莉妹妹》便是他颇具争议一个作品。随着美国资本主义的飞速发展和经济的繁荣，丰富的物质供给刺激着消费，这助长了人们对金钱的渴望和崇拜，消费意识形态开始强调花费和物质，它削弱了勤俭、节约、自控等传统道德标准。而主人公嘉莉是那个时期女性的典型代表。本文将采用定性研究的方法，探讨《嘉莉妹妹》中的消费文化。希望本文能有一定的实践意义。

关键词：嘉莉妹妹；消费文化；消费意识

Contents

1. Introduction 1

2. Demonstration 2

2.1 Consumption in Sister Carrie 2

2.1.1 Material consumption 2

2.1.2 Sex consumption 3

2.2 Cause of consumption changes in Sister Carrie 5

2.2.1 Carrie and economy 5

2.2.2 Carrie and desire 6

2.3 Influence of consumption 7

2.3.1 Spiritual level of Carrie 8

2.3.2 American people in the early 20^th century 8

3. Conclusion 10

Works Cited 11

Bibliography 12

Analysis of the Influence of Consumption Culture in Sister Carrie

1. Introduction

Sister Carrie is a famous work written by the American writer Theodore Dreiser. Since its publication, it has occupied an important status in the history of American literature. According to St. Louis Mirror,

“Sister Carrie remains vital for many reasons: as an historical marker for the turn away from sentimentality, romance, and moral rectitude in the American novel at the brink of the twentieth century. etc” (Mirror 51).

In addition, the thesis can also provide a new research perspective on the images in literary works; thus, it is also of some practical significance.

According to this paper, the consumption of Sister Carrie is actually the conspicuous consumption. What Sister Carrie can show is the clothes, house, feeling and her body. She is only the victim in the consumption society since she totally loses herself in this society and she can only look forward to the happiness in loneliness and coldness.

In consideration of the purpose of the thesis, the author mainly adopts the method of qualitative study to analyze the Sister Carrier from the perspective of consumption culture. In this paper, the author borrows Baudrillard’s consumption theory to the analysis of the consumption of Sister Carrie.

In conclusion, from these former studies, the novel can be better and more completely understood. However, although these scholars both at home and abroad have studied Sister Carrier from different perspectives, in the present time, the related studies on the consumption culture that can be indicated from this novel are not systematically enough. Thus, the present thesis, to some extent, can make some contribution to the related research fields.

2. Demonstration

2.1 Consumption in Sister Carrie

Jean Baudrillard has pointed out: It has to be made clear from the outset that consumption is an active form of relationship (not only to objects, but also to society and to the world), a model of systematic activity and global response which founds our entire cultural system (Baudrillard 1). The culture system is built on this basis. He thinks that consumption is a symbolic exchange, including material consumption, emotional consumption and sex consumption.

2.1.1 Material consumption