本论文将从生态伦理的视角来分析嘉莉妹妹，并结合美国社会的生态环境和人们的精神生态来揭露19世纪末20世纪初美国面临的伦理危机。文章第一部分主要介绍作者德莱塞和小说《嘉莉妹妹》，以及介绍文学伦理批评方法。第二部分将分析小说《嘉莉妹妹》中的生态环境，包括当时美国社会的大转型，德莱塞由此引发的思考以及小说中主人公的精神生态等。第三部分运用文学伦理批评方法分析小说中所展现的伦理危机。最后一部分为总结部分。
毕业论文关键词：西奥多•德莱塞，《嘉莉妹妹》，大转型，文学伦理批评，伦理危机
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements.i
Abstractii
摘要.iii

1 Introduction.1
1.1 Theodore Dreiser1
1.2 Summary of Sister Carrie2
1.3 The Ethical Literary Criticism3

2 The Ecological Environment and Sister Carrie6
2.1 America in Great Transition.6
2.2 Theodore Dreiser’s Reflection.7
2.3 Spiritual Ecology in Sister Carrie9

3 Embodiment of Ethical Crisis in Sister Carrie13
3.1 Unbridled Desire for Materials.14
3.2 Hedonism and Pragmatism.15
3.3 Estrangement between Man and Nature, Man and Man16

4 Conclusion....19

Bibliography..20
1 Introduction
Theodore Dreiser’s novels depict meticulously a city environment which is permeated with an atmosphere of ceaseless commercialization, industrialization and mechanization in the late 19th and early 20th century. He is one of the most original and controversial American novelists in the early 20th century. Sister Carrie is one of Dreiser’s most important novels. Since its publication, this novel has been attracting critical attention from both America and abroad and many studies have been done on the novel from different perspectives. However, the novel leads the trend of American naturalism and discloses the living conditions of American capitalistic society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. It has a profound influence with its great realistic significance.

1.1 Theodore Dreiser
Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) is called the pioneer of American contemporary fiction and is considered as the great master of American realism. Coming from the bottom of the American society, Dreiser is the first one to describe the real life of American citizen. He is one of the most original and controversial American novelists in the early twentieth century. Theodore Dreiser’s novels are always under the background of American metropolitan cities like Chicago and New York, depicting every aspect of transitional American society by displaying and presenting enormous details. His novels often features main characters who succeeds at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of choice and agency. The characters mostly come from the bottom of the society, and their degeneration is driven by their selfish desire and motives. They are also deeply influenced by the privilege or limitation of the social status, which leads to their misfortunes at last.

Theodore Dreiser was born on August 27, 1871 in Indiana and he was the ninth of the ten surviving children in his large family. Theodore Dreiser’s father was an immigrant from German who suffered from misfortune both economically and physically right before the birth of Dreiser. His education was irregular, but with the help of a high school teacher, he spent one year at the University of Indiana. After working as a journalist and editor for several newspapers and magazines, he went to New York in 1894, where he began a career in publishing and eventually rose to the presidency of Butterick Publications. His first novel, Sister Carrie, published in 1900, tells the story of a woman who flees her country life for the metropolitan city. In Chicago, she is hoping to obtain fortune and upgrade her social status. However, the novel was considered immoral and horrified its publisher, who gave it only limited circulation. Jennie Gerhardt (1911), again about a “fallen woman”, met with a better response than the first novel. In The Financier (1912), he tended his attention more specifically to the American economic situation, which is the first of Trilogy of Desire that also includes The Titan (1914) and The Stoic (1947). His first commercial success was An American Tragedy, published in 1925. It tells a story of a poor young man’s futile effort to achieve social and financial success. 生态伦理视域下的《嘉莉妹妹》(2):http://www.youerw.com/yingyu/lunwen_17499.html