"Sister Carrie" by Theodore Dreiser

Paper Summary:

This paper details Theodore Dreiser's use of imagery in his novel "Sister Carrie." The writer of this paper also provides a brief look at Dreiser's literary career in which the author has been praised for his fidelity to the facts of ordinary experiences as well as his criticism of bourgeois America. This paper details the areas of incidental animal imagery that run through the novel while citing the largest and most obvious group of images are detailed in the clustering around the sea, which for Dreiser was the symbol of modern urban life. These particular images are first introduced at the end of the chapter one. The writer also describes the plot and main characters in Dreiser's novel.

From the Paper:

"The most terrifying quality of Dreiser's society-sea, however, is not the width of the gulf between poverty and success, but the suggestions that those who attempt a crossing are without power to advance or remain anchored, that each traveler makes more perilous the plight of another, and that the port of success constantly shifts. The powerless travelers in this sea drift (the word is repeated at least a dozen times in the novel) on the tide; we are told that Carrie "felt the flow of the tide of effort and interest-felt her own helplessness without quite realizing the wisp on the tide that she was." This is naturally because on could only survive such a sea unaware of their fragility. Drouet, in fact, clowns his way through the whole novel "assured that he was alluring all, that affection followed tenderly in his wake." Whether or not Dreiser consciously intended the pun on Carrie's name, it is clear that he conceives of her as carried along by the sea, not moving by the exertions of her will."

More papers on "Sister Carrie" by Theodore Dreiser:

• Analytical Essay # 3202 : "The Men In " Sister Carrie"."
• Analytical Essay # 31720 : "Cities in "Sister Carrie"
• Article Review # 119742 : "Criticism of Dreiser's "Sister Carrie"

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