HIUS 131 Lecture Notes - Lecture 14: Sister Carrie, Cultural Capital, Astral Plane
HIUS 131 – Lecture 14 – Discussion of Sister Carrie
Dreiser
• Dreiser born to a German-American family in Indiana in 1871 (15 years younger than Bellamy)
• 1892 reporter for Chicago Daily Globe
• 1894 editor of NY literary magazine
• Began writing book in 1899, published in 1900
• Negative reviews and book sold poorly
o Subsequent works got much better reviews
o Took years for critics to appreciate Sister Carrie
• What shocked the world was not what he presented/wrote about, but that his stance as an author
was neutral, that he as’t shoked hat he rote aout
• What did ritis thik he should’e epressed shok aout?
o Carrie lies ith to e to hih she is’t arried ad goes o to sueed
• No repentance for what she did, no sense that there was repercussions for her
immorality
Sister Carrie
• I hat as is Carrie siilar to Peiss’s oe?
o Treating
• Feeling like she owed Drouet something but she had nothing to give but her body
o In beginning, lives with her sister and has to pay room and board
o Doing anything for clothes, even breaking it off with Hurstwood
o Limitless desire for clothes and going to the theater
• I hat as is Carrie differet fro Peiss’s oe?
o Does’t aept WC ulture, thiks of it as eird
• Distinguishing herself from the world of factory women
• Carrie sees it as a ulgar eiroet here she does’t at to e
• Feels superior to women working in factory
o Avoids hard labor, and succeeds
o Not an immigrant woman, but a farm girl
• Young, native-born, white Protestant woman with some education
• Doesn’t speak ith aet
• Carrie has cultural capital
o Very pretty, and uses this
o Does’t at to ork hard
• Young farm girl put in Chicago right when there is explosion of consumer culture, and she is
captivated by it
o Living in world of temptations and accepts treats to gain access
• What talents allow her to succeed?
o Innocent
• Even in her face
o Young, even by the end of the novel
o Great at assessig other people’s appearaes ad their soial status ased off of that
• PG 91 sees Hurstwood as better-off than Drouet
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