Sister Carrie Study Guide
Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser is considered one of the best urban novels ever written. It tells us the story of a countryside girl who desires to earn fame and fortune in a big city. It isn’t the story of Cinderella: Carrie has to struggle searching for any job and realize that even her relatives see her as an additional source of income, not saying about stranger people, her employers. Not used to the cold, pragmatic attitude of the big city, Carrie tries to play fair for a long time, until she realizes that the city is going to kill her, because the salary she can get can’t even provide her food and shelter.
When desperate Carrie suddenly encounters a person ready to help her, it may be called a miracle. This is a person sincerely interested in her well-being who is almost impossible to meet on the streets. The girl is lucky enough not to fall in the hands of a scammer and soon a new, much happier life begins for her.
However, Carrie’s issue is that she stays too passive and relaxed. She may have the life of her dream now, but she still doesn’t fit to the city lifestyle. She has to survive through another stress, kidnapping and the destruction of every relationship she ever had in order to find the strength to start anew. Carrie finally learns to do what she wants without totally depending on others or trying many things feverishly and failing constantly. In the end we see a strong and confident young woman, who has perfectly adjusted to the city life. She can care for herself and is able to choose the relationships she wants to keep and the ones she wants to break. Carrie gets a dream job, though her conditions at the beginning are much worse than the luxurious life she got used to. She discards the passive role on the stage of her life and becomes a prima of her own play.
Author: Wilma Daniels
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