Acknowledgements First and foremost, I would like to express my profound gratitude to Mr. Cheng Qinghua, my supervisor, who has taken his precious time off from his tight schedule, offering me constant encouragement, valuable suggestions and enlightening instructions. Without his generous help and meticulous concern, I wouldn’t finish my thesis in time.
Here I would also like to avail myself of the opportunity to thank all my teachers in the College of Foreign Languages of Shanghai Institute of Technology. Their unselfish guidance in my study will be always cherished and appreciated.24138
Lastly, I would like to extend my profound gratitude to all my family members and all my friends. Their staunch support and encouragement when I am encountering with difficulties and frustrations really give me the courage and confidence to carry on. I feel so lucky, for I have so many amiable teachers, relatives and friends around me, who are ready to lend me their hands any time.
 Abstract
During the period of the late nineteenth century and the early twentieth century, America was going through great changes, shifting from a traditional agricultural society to an urban and industrial civilization. In the process of industrialization, nature was ravaged and the self-sufficient agricultural economy gave its place to commodity economy. Rural economy lagged far behind that of cities, which stimulated many countrymen flocking into big cities in order to get rid of poverty. Carrie was one of the most typical examples among the immigrants of the day. Chicago became the ideal place for people to make a living and to realize their personal ambition among numerous modern metropolises in America. Under the environment of modern civilization, people worshiped money blindly and women were completely attached to men. Pragmatism and hedonism were enhanced and consolidated by the industrialization, urbanization and commercialization at that time. As a result, it led to the collapse of interpersonal relationship and traditional morals. The ecological ethics crisis embodied in this particular historical period when American society shifted its direction to industrialization has great realistic significances and cautionary value on our own society.

This thesis aims to analyze Sister Carrie from the perspective of ecological ethics, ecology and ethical literary criticism. It will focus on the ecological environment of America and spiritual ecology of American citizens to reveal the ethical crisis of America in the late 19th and early 20th century. In this thesis, part one will give a brief introduction to Theodore Dreiser and Sister Carrie, and introduce a method—ethical literary criticism. Part two will introduce the ecological environment in Sister Carrie, including great transition of America in that period, Theodore Dreiser’s thinking on America’s changes and spiritual ecology of the characters in Sister Carrie. The third part is going to analyze the ethical crisis in Sister Carrie by the method of ethical literary criticism. The last part will be a conclusion on my thesis.
Key Words: Theodore Dreiser, Sister Carrie, great transition, ethical literary criticism, ethical crisis
摘要
19世纪末20世纪初，美国处于转型阶段，社会由传统农业向工业化大规模转型。在此过程中，自然受到工业化的蹂躏，自给自足的农业经济让位于商品经济，农村远远落后于城市，许多来自农村的人们为了摆脱生存困境，纷纷涌向大城市，嘉莉妹妹便是其中颇具代表性的一员。在美国现代化的众多大城市当中，芝加哥成了人们心中谋生和实现个人抱负的理想城市。在这个工业化和城市化的现代文明的环境下，人们一地崇拜金钱，女性完全依附于男性。大规模的工业化、城市化和商业化，使实用主义和享乐主义的道德伦理甚嚣尘上，导致了人与自然之间、人与人之间关系的破裂。美国这一特殊历史时期所呈现的生态伦理危机，对我们当下工业化、城镇化和都市化的现代社会具有重要的现实意义和警示作用。 生态伦理视域下的《嘉莉妹妹》:http://www.751com.cn/yingyu/lunwen_17499.html