Abstract

Theodore Dreiser is considered as one of the most outstanding American novelists in the early 20th century. What he created were somehow beyond the moral tradition at his time and he made great contribution to introducing new realism into American fiction writing. His first novel, which is also his representative work, Sister Carrie got great success and established his literary status in America. The novel takes the American society at the transitional period between the late 19th century and the early 20th century as its background when America society changed from a production-oriented society to a consumption-oriented one. During the process, consumerism came into being in American society and it gradually influenced people. It greatly changed their values, lifestyle and social relations. People in this society were not diligent or thrifty any more. Instead, they preferred the mental satisfaction that the consumption and possession bring them. The thesis is aimed at studying Sister Carrie from the perspective of consumerism and tries to explore the change of people’s interpersonal relationships and their materialized lifestyles under the influence of consumerism.

Key Words:  Theodore Dreiser   consumerism   interpersonal relationship   materialized lifestyle 
 
摘 要

西奥多•德莱塞是20世纪美国文学史上一位杰出的小说家。他创造的作品在某种程度上超越了他所在时期的传统道德标准，并且促进了现实主义在美国的发展。他的第一部小说，同时也是他的代表作《嘉莉妹妹》在发表后获得了巨大的成功，同时也奠定了他在美国文坛上的地位。小说以19世纪末20世纪初的美国社会为背景，此时美国正由一个生产型社会转向一个消费型社会。在这个过程中，消费主义思想开始在美国社会形成，并逐渐影响了人们的价值观，生活方式和社会关系。人们变得不再勤俭，节约，相反地，他们更加青睐于花费和物质占有所带来的精神满足。本论文旨在以消费主义为视角对《嘉莉妹妹》进行解读，从而来探索消费主义如何影响人际关系并导致他们的物质化生活方式。

关键词：西奥多•德莱塞 消费主义 人际关系 物质化生活方式

1 Introduction
Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) is one of the most outstanding and controversial American novelists of the early 20th century. His excellent novels are great success. They describe American life of all classes, especially the life of those people in lower class. Dreiser’s first novel Sister Carrie is one of his representative books, which exposes the dark aspect of American society. This novel is a master piece. Many critics and scholars analyze it from various perspectives such as naturalism, realism, Freudian psychology and ecologism, but comparatively speaking, the focus on consumerism is not exhaustively explored.