-Sister Carrie in "Climbing Up" Mode

(My western literature homework)

I remember that in the final of CCTV Model Contest in 2005, five outstanding players were asked such a question in the last link, which would you choose, love, money or career? Four of the five contestants chose love, and only Lu Han chose career. However, looking back on this question today, I finally found that no matter what I choose, I will get the same result.

As the saying goes, lonely and empty, spring comes late.

one

Sister Carrie is Dreiser's first novel. In a word, it is the "climbing" mode in western literature, except that the protagonist is replaced by a woman, describing the story of sister Carrie from the countryside struggling in the city and finally getting ahead. This story pattern has become a familiar theme for modern people, especially modern women, such as The Golden Lock and The Song of Eternal Sorrow. Qiao Qi's final realization and Wang Qiyao's last memory of the film factory are the author's moral judgments on the protagonist. The so-called "sympathy for understanding" does not make the story reach a state of great sorrow, and we can clearly see the author's evaluation of the protagonist. Although Dreiser defended Carrie everywhere in this work and faced up to women's desires, people have not reached a consensus on Sister Carrie for many years.

What is Sister Carrie like? Greedy for vanity, self-indulgence and pursuing a luxurious life, Hurstwood abandoned him after his bankruptcy. However, after this view became popular, articles about reversing sister Carrie's conviction appeared like mushrooms after rain, pointing her moral crisis to the industrialized society and female consciousness at that time. Throughout the ages, people always admire saints, and subconsciously think that saints should be perfect people. As long as you are not a saint, start criticizing. Many critics comment on one character after another with various brushstrokes and interpret it with various theories in their works, but they finally ignore that no matter who they are, their essence is "people" after all.

There is a very touching scene in the Japanese anime "Inuyasha": Bai Tongzi tries to control Ge Wei by grasping the darkness in his heart, and finally finds that the darkness in Ge Wei's heart is jealous of Inuyasha's love for Platycodon grandiflorum, which implies that Ge Wei is jealous of Platycodon grandiflorum and hates Inuyasha. Ge Wei, who lost consciousness, murmured, "I am jealous of Platycodon grandiflorum, and I hate Inuyasha, but I am alone. Jealousy and hatred are the most common feelings of human beings, not the darkness in my heart! " After that, I woke up from the control of Jatropha curcas.

As she said, not only jealousy and hatred, but also the feelings embodied in Sister Carrie, including vanity and pursuit of enjoyment, are the most common feelings of human beings, and no one can avoid them. It's just that our so-called "saints" use moral power to bind these, while ordinary people are not so resistant to inner temptations.

Not many people can stand the poor days of "one dish and one soybean milk" in Yan Hui. Moreover, at the beginning of her work, Sister Carrie had to endure not only poverty, but also endless physical labor and poor working environment. Modern people often say "job-hopping", but somehow, the common lifestyle of modern people has been criticized by Sister Carrie. People are often like this, being strict with themselves and making such mistakes unconsciously. I wonder if those who vilify Sister Carrie for "climbing up" have ever done something similar because of their professional titles and bonuses?

Sister Carrie's desire to buy beautiful clothes has become synonymous with vanity. I don't know if the commentators who said these words, especially men, persuaded their relatives and friends to give up beautiful clothes because they didn't want to make themselves "vain". As great as Zhu, he ruled the Song and Ming Dynasties with Cheng Zhu's Neo-Confucianism and took Yan Rui as an example, which was ridiculed by later generations.

two

Whether watching TV or reading books, I think most people have an experience. The biggest villain is often not the most powerful person, but the person whose works are initially discriminated against and worked hard. Such people often fight for it at all costs because they can't get it. A recent survey can also illustrate this problem. A reporter surveyed 65,438,000 corrupt officials in China and found that 98 of them were born in poverty. This is human nature. The more you can't get it, the more you yearn for it. So did Sister Carrie. Because she realized poverty, the hardship of life and the importance of money at her sister's house, she pursued it at all costs in her later years.

No matter what kind of society, women are generally divided into two categories, either "saints" or "ladies" or Sister Carrie, who uses men around her to fulfill her "slut" type. Since social moral standards require that women must be "ladies", men should be kind and upright, but it is shameful that in a city full of feasts and jewels, all the men Kelly meets are invisible traps. They looked at the inexperienced girl with eager eyes. They are "like a group of wild animals, with their eyes fixed on you. As long as you fall under their claws, they will eat you."

Drouet, who was flashy and vulgar, was the first person to use and deceive Carrie. The naturally horny salesman seized Carrie's weakness and took advantage of it. Carrie once had an ideological struggle after living with him, swinging between truth and sin, but this inner struggle did not dominate, because if she gave up the existing superior conditions and did not find a way out, she would return to the hard life of the past again.

Later, Hurstwood concealed the fact that he was married and persuaded Sister Carrie to elope with him, which eventually led to Sister Carrie being cheated for the second time. However, being cheated, Sister Carrie's story is quite different from Tess's. She didn't commit suicide, but pursued her dream more boldly. She began to face up to her social status and see her inequality in love, which was the real beginning of her thought transformation to take the initiative to grasp her destiny and stop attaching happiness to men.

However, it is this pursuit that is still criticized by people and called "self-indulgence".

Sister Carrie is just an ordinary person with no social experience and no culture. Of course, what happened to her can't be completely attributed to the society, but there is really no need to criticize or justify these things that human beings generally pursue.

three

So far, Sister Carrie has gained money and career and become a famous actress.

After becoming an actress, she met Ames. At this time, Carrie, who achieved status at all costs, began to feel lonely, and no one could get close to Carrie's inner world.

Perhaps Ames himself didn't know how deeply he influenced Carrie's thoughts. It was he who made Carrie hear and think for the first time: "Does one have to be rich to be happy?" It was also in the communication with Carrie that he made Carrie understand that acting is a great art and that an actor needs to be an excellent actor. When the perfect man who can touch Carrie spiritually and guide her ideologically saw Carrie again at Mrs. Vance's house, Carrie had become a star, but she still longed for Ames' insight.

When I first met Ames, Ames said, "Do you have to be rich to be happy?" Let Kelly start to doubt the power of money. When Carrie really succeeded and stopped worrying about money, she felt that money was not everything and money could not really satisfy a person. This understanding undoubtedly made Carrie's mind clearer, and it urged Carrie to explore the true value of life. Ames's thoughts and opinions are the source of strength that can inspire Carrie to mature, wake up and think.

At this time, compared with the first half of the work, Carrie completed another upgrade, because she finally realized the power of emotion.

However, at this point, we still have to make an idea to reverse Gan Kun.

Suppose that the first man that Sister Carrie met was Ames, what would happen?

I think Dreiser has given a hint in his works. If Sister Carrie met Ames first, then the sister's life at the beginning of the work is Carrie's future. Just as she deeply understands her sister's sorrow, she will not be happy without money and everything that can satisfy her material life. Ames asked, "Do you have to be rich to be happy?" Carrie can think because it is based on the premise that she already has money. For a sister Carrie who has no money, she will never think about this problem or feel happy, because without money, she is in the state before she came to the big city.

People living in this world, the first pursuit is the comfort of life and the enjoyment of the senses. After that, they will become great and beautiful in thought and spirit. Sister Carrie, who has money, is unhappy, and sister Carrie, who has no money, will not be happy.

Imagine again, if Sister Carrie married Ames from the beginning, and Ames wanted to be an actress and gain money and status, what would she do? Will it be a stumbling block on her way, or will it help her? If Carrie finally has love but no money, will she sigh, "Do you have to have love to be happy?" ?

At this point, back to the question mentioned at the beginning of the article, what should I choose between love, career and money?

A junior told an experience of playing a debate contest, saying that she burst into tears for the first time in the debate contest. She said that the topic of her debate was "The sex industry should be legalized in China". She said, "In China, there are many poor girls from rural areas. They have no money and no knowledge, but their families are heavily in debt, and their elderly parents have to farm for their meager income. They want to live, but what do they live on? Without the porn industry, how can these people, these poor girls, survive in this society? "

A teacher who teaches education said, "Let's fall in love quickly now. When you graduate, all the good boys will be taken away. If you haven't found a boyfriend in graduate school, don't continue the exam, because the more you go up, the more you can't find a boyfriend. "

The world women face is so cruel. Without money, they can't be happy, just like the theme of Dreiser's works, but not as those who have been poor together know. For many people, pursuing a career and being a "strong woman" is at the expense of happy love and marriage, because there are too many responsibilities entrusted to women by society, and few people can have the energy to take care of their families and careers at the same time. Another example is love. In an era of very difficult survival, will anyone pursue such a simple and beautiful love, and will someone's view of love not be based on money? People often say that the love in the student days is the most beautiful and good. Perhaps one of the reasons is that the love in the student days is so simple that you just accept each other and don't need to consider the future life or family background.

No matter how you choose, Carrie will not be happy in the end. She still has to face emptiness and loneliness. Sister Carrie is like this, and so are we as ordinary people.