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The main idea of the novel is based on American naturalism, which is presented in Sister Carrie from the beginning to the end. And naturalism is based on the three background——darwinism, determinism and consumerism. By this novel, we could vividly see that man’s behavior is dominated by desires (instincts, needs and fear) and environments (cities and consumerism) and chances. This novel is a masterpiece in American literature with the natural writing methods, which draw wide attention from critics both at home and abroad. Sinclair Lewis, the first American Nobel winner, speaks highly of him, “he (Theodore Dreiser) broke the timid and genteel tradition of Howells, and opened a door to an honest, daring and zesty field; without his deploitation, later writers would not have described life, and horror as they do today” (Hussman 96).
Being based on the above-mentioned studies, the thesis can be pided into five parts. Part One will give us a brief introduction of author, novel, naturalism and the brief frame of the paper.
And the second part focuses on presenting the literature review and relative theory objectively, on which the paper depends highly.
Partr Three talks about the background factor in Sister Carrie. One’s personality is deeply determined by the environment, which right reflects the ideas of naturalists.
The forth part analyzes naturalism by presenting the outside and inner side world of Carrie.
Part Five draws some conclusions, states briefly the limitation and the realistic significance of the novel.
II. Introduction to Naturalism and Literature Review
There exist some outstanding views about naturalism in Sister Carrie, which are all very helpful to the paper on analyzing naturalism presented in it.
2.1 The Formation and Development of Naturalism
From the existing relative theory, we can know that naturalism is formed from Darwinism，Determinism, and Consumerism, which are based on the Darwin’s The Origin of Species, Freud’s theory about determinism and the Industrial Revolution.
In 1859, the appearance of Darwin’s The Origin of Species soon changes man’s recognition. Before Darwin, human is different from the animal because of its moral. However, at this time evolutionist regards human as a part of natural things and a member of the animal kingdom. American naturalists gradually accept “bestiality” and “human beast” as an explanation of desire. They attempt to obtain extreme objectivity and frankness to present characters of low social and economic classes who are determined by their desires, environment and heredity. Darwinism is the most important theory, which greatly affects Sister Carrie.