Sister Carrie

Ascribed status is associated with social class. It is solely based on biological factors. Sociologists believe that it cannot be achieved or controlled, but yet millions of people judge one another by each person's ascribed status. Is it fair that a little girl covered in rags and full of innocent envy can only stare wide-eyed at the beautiful clothing she cannot possess? Is it not society that tells her she needs it to be happy? In Theodore Dreiser's novel, Sister Carrie, the protagonist, Carrie, is like a little a girl staring into the window of things she can't have. The story takes place during the industrialization of Chicago when the city contained social polarity. One block is rich and the next one over is poor. It is the constant pressure of seeing the material things that Carrie does not have that manipulates her actions to obtain them. This novel is a product of Dreiser's own personal life experiences. Like Carrie, Dreiser was looking into a window of opportunity that was only available to the privileged. Dreiser was raised in a working class family and knew all to well the perils of the lower class economic/social sphere, "Dreiser's family was extremely poor, close to starvation at several points, and driven into desperate living circumstances" (Sloane, 23). The theorist Pierre Bourdieu would state that Dreiser's belief in naturalism and his actual novel, Sister Carrie¸ derived from Dreiser's own social class. In essence, Bourdieu states, "that the position that writers found themselves in depended largely on the class and financial position they brought with them to their literary vocation" (Bourdieu, 88). Dreiser for most of his life felt that his social environment dictated his life and he reflects this idea through Carrie's life experiences. Through his own experiences, Theodore Dreiser depicts Carrie as a victim of circumstance to the industrialist era, which inevitably leads to her material success and personal failure.

According to Thomas P. Riggio in his essay, Carrie's Blues, "She is a character whose destiny is unclear because her identity, from beginning to end is only in the process of being formed" (Riggio, 24). In the beginning of the novel, Carrie is still green to the world around her and it is her environment and the people she meets that will determine what kind of person she will become. It is the cities influences that starts her on her journey. Carrie is battling with the identity she must have been raised with and the identity that will be transformed by the city. A solid connection between his novel and his personal life begins with Carrie. This character is loosely based off of Dreiser's own sister, Emma. By observing Emma's struggles to move up the social class ladder, Dreiser is reinforcing Bourdieu's theory that writers will use their own class familiarity to construct a work of art.

Carrie's wide-eyed enthusiasm for the city also derives from the young women she sees on the street. They are sophisticated but most importantly they seem happy to Carrie. She begins to focus her attentions on the materialistic aspect because she believes that if she emulates this identity, she will be happy. Carrie is all too aware of her situation: "The dainty slippers and stockings, the delicately frilled skirts and petticoats, the laces, ribbons, hair combs, all touched her with individual desire, and she felt keenly the fact that not any of these were in the range of her purchase" (Dreiser, 21). The development of the department store and its mass produced items on display is a constant reminder to Carrie of all the things she cannot afford.

Perhaps Drouet is the catalyst that leads Carrie into a downward spiral of self gratification. Dreiser portrays his character by stating, "Let him meet with a young lady twice and he would straighten her necktie for her and perhaps address her by her first name" (Dreiser, 4). Drouet is a friendly and inviting man, especially to women who intrigue his interest. As the first person Carrie met, Drouet already symbolizes the wonderful things about big city life. In accordance with the realist theory, Carrie and Drouet's relationship is anything but orthodox.

To help Carrie climb into the upper crust of the social stratosphere she realizes her best option is to marry a wealthy man. Like most women of this time period marriage is the only way for a woman to move through the social ladder. She seeks Drouet because she is aware that he has the power to help her in this horrid situation. But again social forces remind her that living with a man unmarried is unacceptable. Dreiser uses this tool to contrast the unrealistic ideas of the romantic writer. His own life experiences in a poor family that endured many struggles led him to reject the idea of romanticism. He was preordained to reject this movement because his own life was less than ideal. Dreiser wanted to show the limited options Carrie has financially by creating this living situation with Drouet. Carrie needs Drouet not only to survive financially, but to keep up her appearance socially so she can appeal to those that are in a higher social sphere than she. And though he will not marry her, Carrie will not leave because she would have to take several