At the beginning of 19th century, liberal capitalism in the United States developed rapidly。 United States turned from a agricultural society into an urban-centered society。 Mechanized production improved productivity。 Surplus labor force in rural areas flooded into the cities。 Economic development and science and technology made human less dependent on nature and people had more freedom to choose the lifestyle they wanted。 The city, as the center of modern life, became a place which young people desired。 Sister Carrie was among them。With the prosperity of American capitalism and increase of wealth , abundant material supply stimulated consumption。 It caused people’s desire for money。 Consumption ideology gradually replaced the production-oriented ideology。 This ideology emphasized consumption and material and it weakened thrift, savings, self-control and other traditional moral standards。 

   In Sister Carrie, Sister Carrie went to Chicago to seek for a better life。 She was temped by money and cheated by two men and became their lovers。 Social reality, her two lovers and her family play an important role in the shaping of her character。 In addition, her understanding of life, her desire for better life and her growing conscious can’t be neglected too。  This thesis will analyze Carrie’s main character and probe into the causes leading to her character。

2。 Literature Review

Sister Carrie is Theodore Dreiser’s first novel which realistically describes how a simple and innocent girl became a selfish, cold, money-driven person。 Carrie was at first a mistress and finally achieved her American Dream by being an actress。 Dreiser held expect high of his first novel but Sister Carrie underwent the harsh criticism after its publication。 It was lashed for its jumbled structure, its clumsy expressions, and mostly for its bad content, as it concentrated on the character’ barbarity instead of humanity, on the poor instead of on the rich, and on its heroes’ and heroin’s infinite desire。 At that time, the public didn’t adore this book mainly for two reasons。 In one time, it described a sexual misconduct which led to the eventual success of the heroin rather than failure。 In another time, the public was not ready to accept the fact of life Dreiser described vividly。 Besides, it was also deeply criticized that the author refused to make comments on Carrie in terms of morality and even narrated her pitifully to some extent。

Luckily, there were still some critics thinking that Sister Carrie was an extraordinary book。 Sinclair Lewis , an American Noble Prize winner, once said that “Dreiser more than any other man, marching alone, usually unappreciated, often hated, has cleared the trail from Victorian。。。 timidity and gentility in American fiction to honesty and boldness and passion of life。 Dreiser’s great first novel, Sister Carrie , gives us the first fresh air since Mark Twain and Whitman”（Rebinstein 86）when he won Noble Prize。The American famous critic, Alfred Kazin maintained that “It is a challenge to the illegal and immoral society and it accomplishes its task in literary history, gives a down-to-earth expression to the new moral in 1890s and unconsciously liberates this moral outlook” (Long Wenpei 54)。 American novelist James once said: “With his first novel, Dreiser shows that he is much superior to his contemporaries。 No other Americans have had such a strong moral influence on his fellow men and no other novelists have done so much liberate American literature as him since this century。 His Sister Carrie is a social prophecy。 It is a prophecy of a certain type of character in literature” (Song Guoshuang 5)。 Meanwhile, Sherwood Anderson thought highly of Dreiser and thought that Dreiser was creative and broke away with conventional standards of American life, acting as pioneer for later writers。