Abstract: 

Carrie, the heroine of Dreiser’s SISTER CARRIE, who comes to Chicago with confidence in hopes of realizing her American Dream someday. However, in order to meet her own desire, Carrie indulges herself in pursuit of material and compromises her moral standards constantly, which results in the final disillusionment of her American Dream. The paper aims to probe into the causes of the disillusionment of Carrie’s dream through the analysis of the process of her pursuit of her dream. Part one introduces the author Therodore Dreiser and the impact of American Dream on Americans. Part two describes the process of Carrie’s change from an innocent girl to a selfish material girl. Part three analyzes the causes of the disillusionment of Carrie’s American Dream from the perspectives of Carrie’s personality and American social background.

Keywords: American Dream; desire; disillusionment

摘要：

西奥多•德莱赛《嘉莉妹妹》中主人公嘉莉是一位满怀憧憬和信心来到芝加哥并希望在芝加哥实现她的美国梦的姑娘。但是嘉莉为满足自己的欲望而沉溺于物质追求，不断降低道德标准，最终导致她的美国梦的破灭。本文拟通过分析嘉莉妹妹追逐自己美国梦的过程来探究导致她美国梦最终破灭的原因。第一部分主要介绍了作者德莱赛，并概述了美国梦对当时美国人的影响；第二部分阐述了嘉莉从纯真变成自私的一个追求物质的女孩的过程；第三部分从嘉莉妹妹的个性及当时美国社会背景的角度分析了最终导致其美国梦破灭的原因。

关键词: 美国梦；欲望；破灭

1. Introduction
1.1 Theodore Dreiser and Sister Carrie
   Theodore Dreiser, is an outstanding American novelist of the 20th century and a pioneer of naturalism in American literature. He was born in a big poor family and he is the twelfth of the thirteen children. During Theodore’s childhood and early youth, the family moved countless times and his father was always looking for work. The earliest memories of Dreiser always included the joblessness of his father and older siblings, as well as the constant search for economic stability. When he was 15, he went to Chicago, where he did many jobs with very low pays. Then his former teacher Mildred Fielding sought him out at the hardware house and decided to send him to Indiana University to study.