西奥多德莱塞ppt课件.pptx
,Theodore Dreiser,（Aug.27,1871-Dec.28,1945）,Lecturer: Tang RanProducer: Wan Wenfang,Brief Introduction,Born in Indiana, in1871 to a German-speakingfamily.The tenth of ten surviving children in the family (three others died as infants)Attended Indiana University (1889-1890) with the help from a teacher.Involved in several campaigns against social injustice.He was left oriented and became a member of CP in 1945.Died in 1945 in Hollywood California.,Sister Carrie (1900) , one earliest novel by Theodore Dreiser about a young country girl who moves to the big city where she starts realizing her own American Dream by first becoming a mistress to men that she perceives as superior and later as a famous actress, It has been called the “greatest of all American urban novels.”,Characters,Caroline Meeber a.k.a Carrie, a young woman from rural Wisconsin; the protagonistMinnie Hanson Carries dour elder sister who lives in c Chicago and puts her up on arrivalSven Hanson Minnies husband , of Swedish extraction and taciturn temperamentGeorge W .Hurstwood a well-to-do, sophisticated man who manages Fitzgerald and Moys resortJulia Hurstwood Georges strong-willed, social-climbing wifeJessica Hurstwood George and Julias daughter, who shares her mothers aspirations to social statusGeorge Hurstwood Jr.George and Julias sonThe Vances A wealthy merchant and his wife, who live in the same building as Hurstwood and Carrie in New York CityRobert Ames Mrs.Vances cousin from Indiana , a handsome young scholar whom Carrie regards as a male idealLola Osborne a chorus girl Carrie meets during a theatre production in New York, who encourge Carrie to become her roommate,Carrie (a country girl),Charles H. Drouet( traveling salesman),Famous actress,Lived together, mistress,Geoge w. Hurstwood(resort manager),Mistress: eloping,Relations,Plot summary,Dissatisfied with life in her rural Wisconsin home, 18-year-old Caroline ” Sister Carrie” Meeber takes the train to Chicago. On the train, Carrie meets Charles Drouet, a traveling salesman.,After only a few years, Carrie turns to New Yorks theatres for employment and becomes a chorus girl. Once again, her aptitude for theatre serves her well, and, as the rapidly aging Hurstwood declines into obscurity, Carrie begins to rise from chorus girl to small speaking roles.,Carrie achieves stardom, but finds that money and fame do not satisfy her longings or bring her happiness and that nothing will.,An American Tragedy,InspirationThe book was based on a notorious criminal case. On July 11, 1906,the charterer found an overturned boat and body of 20-year-old race Brown at Big Moose Lake in upstate New York. Chester Gillette was put on trial and convicted of killing Brown, though he claimed that her death was an accident. Gillette was executed by electric chair in 1908.,Plot summary,The ambitious but immature Clyde Griffiths, raised by poor and devoutly religious parents who force him to participate in their street missionary work, is anxious to achieve better things.,Following a sensational trial before an unsympathetic audience, and despite a vigorous defense mounted by two lawyers hired by his uncle, Clyde is convicted, sentenced to death, and executed.,The jailhouse scenes and the correspondence between Clyde and his mother stand out as exemplars of pathos in modern literature,Review,One of the very greatest novels of this centuryIt can be seen partly as an attack on a tradition of self-conscious, self-satisfied moralism that was meant to define core American mainstream values during the 1920s.The story was so intriguing that keeps the reader turning pages to see what happens next. Dreiser is strong in plotting and character development.,Dreisers Writing Features- Themes,Naturalism and Darwinism He regards man as merely an animal driven by greed and lust in a struggle existence in which only the “fittest”, the most ruthless surviveAmerican Dream The concept wildly held in the USA that through hard work, courage, and determination one can prosperity.Exposing polarization between rich and poor and immorality.4. America social darkness, corroded and infected by American life style(money talks) in that period.,Alfred Kazin characterized Dreiser as “stronger than all the others of his time, and the same time more poignant; greater than the world he has described, but as significant as the people in it.”H.L.Mencken, declared “American writing, before and after his, differed almost as much as biology before and after Darwin.”,Recommendation,The end,
