Abstract: “American Dream” often appears as the theme in American literature. The novel Sister Carrie, written by Theodore Dreiser, mainly describes Carrie’s pursuit of “American Dream” and the disillusionment of Carrie’s American Dream. Through the analysis of Carrie’s American Dream, the disillusionment of American Dream and the causes of the disillusionment, this thesis aims to point out that the American Dream looks beautiful, but in fact it is not reliable, just like the foam of soap. Therefore, Carrie’s disillusionment of the American Dream is inevitable.

Key words:  American Dream; Carrie; disillusionment 

摘要： “美国梦”是美国文学作品中经常出现的主题。西奥多·德莱赛的小说《嘉莉妹妹》主要介绍嘉莉妹妹对“美国梦”的追求及梦的破灭， 本文通过对小说中女主人公嘉莉的美国梦、其美国梦的破灭以及造成嘉莉梦想破灭原因的分析，试图指出：美国梦看起来很美，其实就像肥皂泡一样不可信，所以嘉莉美国梦的破灭是必然的。

关键词：美国梦；嘉莉；幻灭