Abstract: Naturalism refers to a literary movement that emerged in 1890s, and was prevailing in 1990s in Europe and America. It is characterized by the true description of life, the absolute advocating of environmental and hereditary factors that play decisive roles in shaping people’s fate, the amoral attitude towards materials and pessimistic determinism in the works as well. Theodore Dreiser, an outstanding representative of naturalistic literature, published his first novel Sister Carrie in 1990, which is a great representative work of naturalist style. This paper will take Sister Carrie as an example to analyze naturalism in it. Controlled by outside material wealth and inner desire, Carrie is devoid of free will and lack of rational reflection. Deprived of her own identity, Carrie completely throws herself upon environment and heredity. Through analyzing Sister Carrie, some inspirations could be drawn to our modern life that the young people should be self-esteemed and self-confident, trying hard to overcome the adverse factors, being the master of our own fates. |
