T.C.
DOKUZ EYLÜL UNIVERSITY
INSTITUTE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
DEPARTMENT OF WESTERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURE
AMERICAN CULTURE AND LITERATURE PROGRAM
MASTER THESIS
MORAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CORRUPTION IN
AMERICAN CITY: THEODORE DREISER: SISTER
CARRIE AND STEPHEN CRANE: MAGGIE: A GIRL OF
THE STREETS
Nazmiye KIRDAR
Thesis Advisor
Assist. Prof. Yeşim ERSOY
2007
Yemin Metni
Yüksek Lisans Tezi olarak sunduğum “Moral and Psychological Corruption
in American City: Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie and Stephen Crane: Maggie:
A Girl of the Streets.” adlı çalışmanın, tarafımdan, bilimsel ahlak ve geleneklere
aykırı düşecek bir yardıma başvurmaksızın yazıldığını ve yararlandığım eserlerin
kaynakçada gösterilenlerden oluştuğunu, bunlara atıf yapılarak yararlanılmış
olduğunu belirtir ve bunu onurumla doğrularım.
Tarih
..../..../.......
Adı SOYADI
İmza
ii
YÜKSEK LİSANS TEZ SINAV TUTANAĞI
Öğrencinin
Adı ve Soyadı
Anabilim Dalı
Programı
Tez Konusu
Sınav Tarihi ve Saati
: Nazmiye KIRDAR
: Batı Dilleri ve Edebiyatı
: Amerikan Kültürü ve Edebiyatı
: Moral and Psychological Corruption in American
City: Theodore Dreiser: Sister Carrie and Stephen
Crane: Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
:
Yukarıda kimlik bilgileri belirtilen öğrenci Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü’nün
…………………….. tarih ve ………. sayılı toplantısında oluşturulan jürimiz
tarafından Lisansüstü Yönetmeliği’nin 18. maddesi gereğince yüksek lisans tez
sınavına alınmıştır.
Adayın kişisel çalışmaya dayanan tezini ………. dakikalık süre içinde
savunmasından sonra jüri üyelerince gerek tez konusu gerekse tezin dayanağı olan
Anabilim dallarından sorulan sorulara verdiği cevaplar değerlendirilerek tezin,
BAŞARILI OLDUĞUNA
DÜZELTİLMESİNE
REDDİNE
ile karar verilmiştir.
Ο
Ο*
Ο**
OY BİRLİĞİ
OY ÇOKLUĞU
Jüri teşkil edilmediği için sınav yapılamamıştır.
Öğrenci sınava gelmemiştir.
Ο
Ο
Ο***
Ο**
* Bu halde adaya 3 ay süre verilir.
** Bu halde adayın kaydı silinir.
*** Bu halde sınav için yeni bir tarih belirlenir.
Tez burs, ödül veya teşvik programlarına (Tüba, Fulbright vb.) aday olabilir.
Tez mevcut hali ile basılabilir.
Tez gözden geçirildikten sonra basılabilir.
Tezin basımı gerekliliği yoktur.
Evet
Ο
Ο
Ο
Ο
JÜRİ ÜYELERİ
İMZA
……………………………
□ Başarılı
□ Düzeltme
□ Red
……………...
………………………………□ Başarılı
□ Düzeltme
□Red
………..........
…………………………...… □ Başarılı
□ Düzeltme
□ Red
……….……
iii
ÖZET
Yüksek Lisans Tezi
Amerikan Şehrindeki Ahlaki ve Psikolojik Çöküntü: Theodore Dreiser:
Kızkardeşim Carrie, Stephen Crane: Maggie: Sokakların Kızı
Nazmiye KIRDAR
Dokuz Eylül Üniversitesi
Sosyal Bilimler Enstitüsü
Batı Dilleri ve Edebiyatı Ana Bilim Dalı
Amerikan Kültürü ve Edebiyatı Programı
Kuruluşundan günümüze kadar, şehir kavramı Amerikan tarihinde her
zaman, isteklerin, rüyaların, fırsatların, başarının ve tehdidin merkezi
olmuştur. Özellikle 19. ve 20. yüzyıllarda gerçekleşen Endüstri Devriminden
sonra; şehirler iş, sosyal, kültürel, eğlence gibi değişik alanlarda sağladıkları
yüksek hayat standartları sayesinde, birçok insanın yaşam alanı olmuştur.
Bu çalışmanın amacı şehirleşmenin getirdiği sorunları ve bunların edebi
metinlere yansımalarını incelemektir. Ayrıca bu çalışma; bireylerin, Amerikan
toplumundaki bu önemli sosyal değişimden kaynaklanan psikolojik ve ahlaki
değişimlerini sorgulamaktadır.
Bu çalışmada, bireylerin ve toplumun yaşadığı bu değişimler, gerçekçi ve
doğalcı yazarlar Stephen Crane ve Theodore Dreiser’ın eserleriyle sunulacaktır.
Çalışma boyunca, Crane’in Maggie: Sokakların Kızı ve Dreiser’ın Kızkardeşim
Carrie romanları, şehirleşmenin getirdiği ahlaki, sosyal ve psikolojik çöküntüyü
göstermede temel kaynaklar olacaktır.
İlk bölümde, Amerikan Rüyası terimi ve onun Amerikan tarihindeki
hakimiyeti realizm ile ilişkili olarak incelenecektir. Ayrıca, A.B.D.’deki
şehirleşme süreci hakkında tarihi bilgi verildikten sonra, iki önemli şehir
sosyoloğu Louis Wirth ve Georg Simmel’in görüşleri makaleleriyle beraber
ele alınacaktır.
İkinci bölümde gerçekçi yazar Stephen Crane’in Maggie: Sokakların Kızı
adlı romanı çözümlenecektir. Romanı daha iyi anlayabilmek için çeşitli edebi,
sosyal ve tarihi bakış açılarına da yer verilecektir.
Üçüncü bölüm ise bir başka gerçekçi yazar Theodore Dreiser’ın
Kızkardeşim Carrie adlı romanını çözümlemeyi amaçlamaktadır.
iv
Sonuç olarak şehir öğesini ve bu öğenin bireyler üzerindeki etkisini
merkeze alarak, bu iki şehir romanındaki benzer ve farklı noktalar ortaya
konacaktır.
Anahtar Kelimeler: 1) Endüstrileşme 2) Şehirleşme 3)Ahlaki ve Psikolojik Çöküntü
4) Şehir Hayatı 5) Toplumsal Değişim.
v
ABSTRACT
Master Thesis
Moral And Psychological Corruption in American City: Theodore Dreiser:
Sister Carrie, Stephen Crane: Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
Nazmiye KIRDAR
Dokuz Eylül University
Institute of Social Sciences
Department of Western Languages and Literature
American Culture And Literature Program
From its foundation till present, city has always been a focus for human
desires and dreams, a place of possibility, success and threat in American
history. Especially, after the Industrial Revolution of nineteenth and twentieth
centuries, cities were the living spaces of a large number of people due to their
promise of high standard of lifestyles in various areas such as employment,
social, cultural, and entertainment.
The aim of this study is to examine the problems brought by
urbanization and their reflections to the literary texts. Furthermore, this study
questions the psychological and moral transformations of individuals caused by
this significant social change in American society.
These transformations of both individuals and society will be presented
through the works of the realist and naturalist writers Stephen Crane and
Theodore Dreiser. Throughout this study, the novels of Maggie: A Girl Of The
Streets by Crane, and Sister Carrie by Dreiser will be the main sources for
demonstrating the moral, social, and psychological corruption caused by
urbanization.
In the first chapter, the term American Dream and its dominance
in American history will be examined in relation to realism. It also gives a
historical information about the urbanization process in the U.S. Moreover, the
views of the two important urban sociologists’, Louis Wirth and Georg Simmel,
will be presented by referring to their remarkable articles.
The second chapter will be an analysis of the novel Maggie: A Girl Of The
Streets by the realist writer Stephen Crane. In order to understand the novel
better, various literal, social , and historical perspectives will also be given.
vi
As far as the third chapter is considered, it aims at analyzing another
realist writer’s novel: Sister Carrie by Dreiser.
Finally, by putting the element of city and its effects on individuals in the
centre in these two novels, different and the similar points of these city novels
will be concluded.
Key Words: 1) Industrialization 2) Urbanization 3) Moral and Psychological
Corruption 4) City Life 5) Sociological Change.
vii
MORAL AND PSYCHOLOGICAL CORRUPTION IN AMERICAN CITY:
THEODORE DREISER: SISTER CARRIE AND STEPHEN CRANE:
MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS
I.
II.
III.
YEMİN METNİ
TUTANAK
ÖZET
ABSTRACT
İÇİNDEKİLER
ii
iii
iv
vi
viii
INTRODUCTION
1
AMERICAN DREAM AND REALISM
6
1.1. Urban Growth
8
1.1.1. “An Urban Way of Life”
8
1.1.2. Simmel’s Metropolitan Culture
11
STEPHEN CRANE: MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS
14
2.1. Maggie’s American Dream
17
2.2. The Two New Yorks: Bowery and Uptown
21
2.3. Crane’s Chaotic City Image: Maggie’s End In The Jungle
25
THEODORE DREISER: SISTER CARRIE
27
3.1. Dreiser’s Naturalistic Philosophy
28
3.2. Carrie’s Meeting The City and The Material World
29
3.3. Dreiser’s City Image
33
3.4. Carrie’s American Dream
36
3.5. Rise, Fall, and Awakening
42
CONCLUSION
54
BIBLIOGRAPHY
61
viii
INTRODUCTION
Thrive, cities—bring your freight, bring your shows, ample and
sufficient rivers, ample and sufficient rivers,
Expand, being than which none else is more spiritual,
Keep your place, objects than which none else is more lasting.
(Walt Whitman, “Crossing Brooklyn Ferry”)
The myth of city started with John Winthrop’s sermon while crossing the
Atlantic in 1630 which expressed the ideal of “City Upon a Hill” in American
history. Winthrop’s ideal was a heavenly city which was watched by God. On the
other hand, it was Thomas Jefferson who saw the dark sides of cities. According to
Jeffersonian comment, says Neil Campell, “cities threaten personal morality by
encouraging vice, sin, and indulgence” (Campbell, 1997; 164). Again Campell’s
quatation from Reverend Josiah Strong can be a supporting example for Jefferson’s
point of view.
It is the city where wealth is massed and here are the tangible
evidences of it piled many stories high...here are the luxuries
gathered everything that dazzles the eye or tempts the
appetite...here is the most extravagant expenditures...here in
sharp contrast are the ennui of surfeit and the desperation of
starvation...here is heaped the social dynamite, her roughs,
gamblers, thieves, robbers, lawless and desperate men
(Campbell, 1997; 165).
According to these two separate comments, cities can be seen as conflicting
places where one can have adventure, power, joy, economic success and at the same
time where s/he is threatened, destroyed, and lose everything s/he has. Especially, in
the late nineteenth century, the dark sides of the cities appeared together with its
promising sides. Due to the rapid growth of technology, industrialization, and
commerce, immorality and corruption dominated every sector of society which
Jefferson had foreseen two hundred years ago. Thus, Winthrop’s ideal of heavenly
“City Upon a Hill” was defeated against industrial city of the nineteenth century.
1
The transition from nineteenth century to the twentieth century was one of
the most important periods in American history. It was important because of the fact
that this period changed everything from the way people thought about themselves to
the way people had fun and kept themselves entertained. It was an era that had
drastic changes in political and economic attitude and cultural values. The late
nineteenth and early twentieth century American writers destroyed the myths of
“City of God”or the “Heavenly City”; because after the industrialization, cities
became the material expression of civilization, and individual success was
considered in relation to money and status quo. With the industrialization, cities
became the prototypes of Hell instead of Heaven, “ a symbol of absolute alienation
rather than total fulfillment, of shared misery rather than communal bliss”(Fidler,
1981; 115).
Focusing on the last half of the nineteenth century, this study examines
moral and psychological problems of individuals caused by urbanization which is
the most important outcome of industrialization. By putting the naturalist-realist
writers, Theodore Dreiser and Stephen Crane in the centre, this study analyzes both
the social and individual aspects of the psychological and moral corruption which are
brought by urban life. These two writers wrote about the life of the poor and
homeless, and they both dealt with the subjects of morality and materialism from
different points of view. In the works of these writers, it is discussed that the concept
of “urbanization” does not only reflect in the social structure of society but also in
the moral and psychological transformations of the individuals living in it.
The industrial revolution that took place at the end of the nineteenth century
changed American society in remarkable ways. People left rural homes for
opportunities in urban areas. With the development of new machinery and equipment
the U.S. economy became more focused on factory production; Americans did not
have to rely on farming and agriculture to support their families. At the same time,
immigrants from all over the world crowded into tenements to take advantage of new
urban opportunities.
2
The late nineteenth and the early twentieth centuries were the periods when
the writers began to be much more concerned with the social realism. “Social
Realism” is a term used to describe visual and other realistic art works which
chronicle the everyday conditions of the working classes and the poor, and is critical
of the social environment that causes these conditions (www.huntfor.com). Writers
such as Stephen Crane and Theodore Dreiser were
especially involved in the
compelling issues such as the oppression and the suffering that urban-industrial
society had created. These writers turned to the psychological and physical reality of
working classes, whose numbers continued to increase with high rates of
immigration in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Several American
authors who are sometimes known as social realists looked at working conditions,
often for the purpose of social reform. For instance, Crane’s gloomy descriptions of
urban poverty and slum life and Dreiser’s presentation of Chicago city with all its
alienating effects on individuals encouraged other writers to abondon their old
traditions and turn to social realities. “Social realists" were interested in exploring
problems of economic inequality and capturing the experience of urban life that was
transforming the American nation at the end of the nineteenth century.
As I analyze the novels of Sister Carrie and Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, I
explore the portraits of two different women who have the same expectations in life
but separate ends. The one is Dreiser’s Carrie who becomes a Broadway star in New
York after she leaves her small town in Chicago and the other is Crane’s Maggie
who commits suicide in a life of prostitution.
I argue that these two heroines of both novels, who pursue the “American
Dream” in their struggle to achieve a self-fulfillment, are destroyed by their
environment which is full of dehumanizing , desperate, and morally corrupt
conditions. Although Carrie seems to rise from a position of economic dependence
to an economic power, she fails morally. In that sense both heroines are the “fallen
women” who are not able to adopt the “gilded” environment of the cities.
Stephen Crane’s novel Maggie: A Girl of The Streets, which was written at
the end of the nineteenth century, depicts the New York of 1890s with a dual
3
perpective. The heroine of the novel is Maggie Johnson. She lives in Bowery, the
slum area of New York where mostly immigrants and working-class live in poverty
and filth. In contrast to the harsh living conditions of Bowery, Crane also presents
the alurring sides of Uptown New York where the rich live. Thus, the duality of the
setting can also be seen among the cultures, world views, and values of the people of
this fragmented city.
The main theme of the novel is the determinism of social and economic
forces on the lives of individuals. As a naturalist writer, Crane was interested in the
inadequacies of society. Furthermore, he shows that in spite of an individual’s
efforts, his environment determines his fate. Maggie, growing up in the poverty,
limitation and violence of Bowery slum, meets the Uptown New York one day. From
that moment on, the entirely different structure of the city, its theatres, joyful
crowdeds, and expensive restaurants attracts Maggie very much. Moreover, her
dreams begin to be shaped by the Uptown New York. However, her struggle to rise
as an individual in the city, and abondoning her Bowery background lead her to
isolation, alienation, and to death.
The clashes between Bowery and Uptown, the moral struggle for surviving
in a big city, and the psychological distress of the sentimental heroine drifted her to a
tragic end. Beacuse she was too weak against the environmental forces. Maggie
committed suicide at the end of the novel, because living as a prostitute in the city
was not the kind of life she had aspired.
The other realistic writer Theodore Dreiser presents a different potrait of a
woman in his novel Sister Carrie that was written in the very beginning of the
twentieth century. In this city novel, the transition of an eighteen-year old girl from
country to city is the main theme. Carrie Meeber, whose materialistic desires are
demonstrated to the reader from the time she gets on Chigaco train, ascends in both
economic and social ladder in New York city. She rises by using all the offerings of
the city without questioning them. She exploits everybody in her life both morally
and economically.
4
Seeing everybody in her life as an obstacle for her rise, Carrie leaves them
selfishly after getting what she wants. She leaves her sister, and both of her lovers by
whom she is supported financially and socially. Thus, her lack of attachment to
anybody and moral values gives her a quick rise as an actress on Broadway stages.
Although Carrie reaches at a wealthy life, the corruption in her inner life, and
morality leaves her unsatisfied even at the end of the novel. She gains an economic
independence, yet cannot find the real happiness. Therefore, a moral and
psychological decay prevails her life.
In this naturalistic novel, Dreiser draws a portrait of a woman who benefits
every material oppurtunity regardless of its causes. In her journey to rise, Carrie’s
instincts are one of the most important factors that guide her. Throughout the novel,
Carrie has always acted according to her instincts and desires. In the end, she
succeeds materially but fails morally.
It is seen that the American city did not produce a single mode of life. The
city novels that deal with the different human portraits in the cities indicate how
greatly urban experience may differ. According to Gerd Hurm, urban ways of life
may range from cohesion to isolation, from embeddedness to insecurity, from
closeness to anonymity, and from safety to uncontrollable violence (Hurm, 1991;
66). In this study, two different modes of life will be analyzed through the life stories
of two heroines.
5
I. AMERICAN DREAM AND REALISM
The term “American Dream” traditionally meant material success and
economic wealth based on thrift and hard work in American history during the time
of its foundation. In another definition, it has been the dream of a land in which the
life would be better, richer, freer for everyone. During the colonial period, America
was the land of opportunities for Europeans where they could exercise their religion
freely and prosper through self-disipline and self-reliance. It was the land of
achievements. America offered to the newcomers the rights of life, liberty, and the
pursuit of happiness. Thus, a lot of people from different ethnic, economic, and
religious backgrounds were destined to the promised land in order to fulfill their
dreams.
The nineteenth century was the era in which the American Dream was the
strongest. With the rise of industrialization, thousands flocked to America in order to
seek their fortunes. However, the rise of industrialization caused a change in
Americans’ work ethic. Success through hard work is replaced by the philosophy of
making quick money. As one critic noted, “consumed by desires for status, material
goods, and acceptance, Americans apparently had lost the sense of individuality,
thrift, hard work, and craftsmanship that had characterized the nation.”
(www.americans.org.uk). As people earn more money, the social and moral values of
the people have changed. As American society became more urban, more complex
and more dominated by the consumers; the old meaning of American Dream was
threatened. Greed, empty pursuit of happiness, or material success without morality
became the superficial meanings of American Dream. Moreover, its emphasis on
material possessions as the only way of finding happiness made the American dream
a meaningless utopia.
In the novels of Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie and Stephen Crane’s
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, the theme of American Dream is the prevailing
subject. The heroines of the two novels are attracted by the glittering faces of two big
6
cities; Chicago and New York and the oppurtunities they offer. The two writers bring
out the oppositions of poverty and wealth, success and failure. Although Carrie, the
heroine of Dreiser, seems to have an economic rise, it is not the fulfilment of
American dream. She became a famous actress, and gained a social recognition.
However, in the process of her rise, she ignored the moral values and sacrificed her
naivete and innocence. In a way, she sold her soul to live in a big city. She violated
the rules of thrift and hard work which were the main principles of American Dream.
On the other hand, the other heroine, Maggie, who was not as lucky as Carrie, ended
her American Dream with a dramatic death since she was unable to carry the weight
of her immoral life that she lived as a prostitue for a short time.
The United States grew rapidly after the Civil War. The increasing rates of
democracy and literacy, the rapid growth in industrialism and urbanization, an
expanding population due to immigration, and a rise in middle-class provided a
fertile literary resources for writers who are interested in these rapid shifts in culture
and the social structure.
Before the Civil War, America had been a nation made up primarily of
farms and small towns. Most citizens worked in agriculture or in small, familyowned shops and businesses. By the 1870s, however, the growth of industrialism
transformed American lifestyles: more people lived in cities and worked in factories
than ever before. Multiplying in size and serving as home to both wealthy and
impoverished immigrants, these cities reflected the astonishing diversity of the
millions of people who lived and worked in them. While this meeting of people from
radically different economic, social, and ethnic backgrounds created a rich and
vibrant urban culture, it also led to social tensions and brought into relief the
discrepancies between the very wealthy and the very poor. The sweeping economic,
social, and political changes that took place in post-war life allowed American
Realism to prevail.
The writing during this period was very regional. Patricia Penrose argued
that America was leaping into a new modern age and people feared that local
folkways and traditions would be soon forgotten. In Penrose’s words “Responding
7
to these sentiments, realistic writers set their stories in specific American regions,
rushing
to
capture
the
"local
color"
before
it
was
lost”(www.nctamericancollection.org). Thus, realist writers drew upon the grim
realities of everyday life, showing the corruption of traditional values and the
growing plight of the new urban poor. American realists built their plots and
characters around people's ordinary, everyday lives. Additionally, their works
contained regional dialects. Using plot and character development, realists’ main
concern was to what extent a man could determine his own destiny. They all believed
that man’s freedom of choice was limited by the external forces. Some of these
social realist authors wrote in order to protest the inequalities and exploitation that
characterized American industrialization. Their works were in objective realistic
style and reflected the psychological authenticity of the period.
Another litarary movement which is considered to be the extension of
realism is “Naturalism.” It would be useful to give a short information about the
term, since Crane and Dreiser mostly appear as the representatives of naturalism.
Sharing the same principles with the realists, naturalists concentrate much more on
the human beings, whereas the realists focus on the literary technique. Naturalists
writers study human beings governed by their instincts and passions as well as the
ways in which the characters' lives are governed by forces of heredity and
environment. Their characters are the margins of the society; the criminal, the fallen,
and the prostitute. In this study, two naturalist writers’ works will be analyzed in
relation to these principles.
1.1. URBAN GROWTH
1.1.1. “An Urban Way Of Life”
The second half of the nineteenth century witnessed a series of changes in
America in various areas, such as economy, social structure, and cultural life. The
basic reason for these significant changes was industrialization. The Industrial
Revolution of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries transformed the urban life and
8
gave people higher expectations for improving their life standards. The increased
number of job opportunities, along with technological innovations in transportation,
and housing construction encouraged migration to cities, especially to northern cities.
Development of railroads, streetcars, and trolleys in the nineteenth century enabled
city boundaries to expand. The wealthy no longer had to live in the center of the city,
they created separate neighborhoods for themselves by building mansions in the
countryside. As the industrialization expanded, there were floats of people moving to
cities from rural areas in search of better oppurtinities. This caused a rapid increase
in the population of cities between 1860-1900s. According to a research of Richard
N. Current, in 1860 approximetely one-sixth of the American people had lived in
towns of 8.000 or larger; by 1900, one third of the people lived in such places. The
number of cities with more than 50.000 inhabitants was 16 in 1980 and 109 in 1910
(Current, 1959; 524). Multiplying in size these cities were home for both wealthy and
impoverished immigrants.
The demands of this increasing urban population gave way to new
technological inventions and industrial developments. For instance, the housing
problems of the people spurred the construction of skyscrapers and the transportation
problems spurred the expansion of railroads. While the developments in technology
and industry made the lives of people easy in appearance, they were actually
destroying their lives with the serious hardships they caused. Cities in the late
nineteenth century were large, crowded, and impersonal places devoted to making
money. Not surprisingly, corruption was widespread in city government and city
services, in the construction industry, and among landlords and employers. High
rents, low wages, and poor services produced a misery in the middle of
unprecedented economic growth. Moreover, the urbanized America was now facing
problems such as poverty, overcrowding, traffic jam, epidemics, filth, robbery,
prostitution, drug use, violent crimes, and suicides.
The developments were not only in technology and in industry but also in
social lives of people. The city attracted people with its institutions of entertainment
and culture—its theatres, museums, shows—and above all it offered various
9
oppurtunities for employment. Thus, the interests of people shifted from homeentertainments which were shared among family members to the outdoor activities.
This transformation was the starting point of fragmentation among family bonds and
led people to a more individualistic lifestyle. It caused the weakening of bonds of
kinship, a decrease in the social significance of the family, the disappearance of the
neighbourhood. The city offered an endless freedom and wealth for each individual.
The rise of urbanization led to “an urban way of life” (Hurm, 1991; 45).
Whether the Americans liked it or not, they could not escape from the influences of
new lifestyles that industrialization brought. The urban middle-class were consuming
the new products of industrial economy, and they had more free time for leisure
activities. These were the people who welcomed the new ways. On the other hand,
there were also people who were threatened by these new ways of life. Thus, a
fragmentation ocurred in the social structure of the society. Louis Wirth, a famous
urban sociologist dealt with the issue of urban life in his article “Urbanism As a Way
of Life” that appeared in American Journal of Sociology in 1938. Wirth’s basic
argument was that city life was characterized by isolation and social disorganization
and that this was due to the fact that all cities were large, heterogeneous, and dense.
Other characteristics that Wirth attributed to cities were superficiality, anonymity,
temporariness, and impersonality. In his own words:
Whereas, the individual gains, on the one hand, a certain
degree of emancipation or freedom from personal and
emotional controls of intimate groups, he loses, on the other
hand, the spontaneous self-expression, the morale, and the
sense of participation that comes with living in an integrated
society. This constitutes essentially the state of social void
(Wirth, 1951; 54).
Wirth goes on defining cities’ characteristics. For him, in the urban
environments our physical contacts are close, whereas our social contacts are distant.
In cities we are given the glaring contrasts of splendor and squalor, poverty and
richness, intelligence and ignorance, order and the chaos. Wirth explains how
individuals turn out to be lonely figures in this chaotic atmosphere:
10
The close living together and working together of individuals
who have no sentimental ties, foster a spirit of competition and
mutual explotation... Frequent close physical contact, coupled
with great social distance accentuates the reserve of
unattached individuals toward one another and gives rise to
loneliness which also gives occasion to friction and irritation
(Wirth, 1951;56).
1.1.2. Simmel’s Metropolitan Culture
Before starting studying the novels, it would be useful to analyze another
urban sociologist’s theories and views which are considered to be the first attempt to
examine the urban mode of life. Georg Simmel defined the nature of the modern
urban culture in his article “The Metropolis and The Mental Life,” which appeared in
American Journal of Sociology in 1903. In his sociopsychological essay, Simmel
concerns with the individual reactions to the changing conditions of the modern
metropolis. In his article he parallels living in an urban environment to the primitive
man’s fight against nature. For Simmel, the deepest problem is the individual’s claim
for more liberty and autonomy. With this psychological fact and the state of distrust,
the man protects himself with a state of “indifference.” On the one hand, the
metropolis offers the chance of accomplishing an individual freedom and uniqueness,
on the other hand urban dwellers are immersed in impersonality. Because of the size
and high degree of differentiation, the individual is confronted with more superficial
contacts, rapidly changing images and sharper discontinuities in the metropolis. For
Simmel, “the psychological basis of the metropolitan type of individuality consists in
the intensification of nervous stimulation” (Simmel, 1951; 635), and metropolitan
dwellers adjust to this psychological overstimulation.
Simmel describes the city as the places for the lonely, isolated individuals
that lack strong social bonds. Moreover, he presents four distinctive characteristics of
urban settings. These are:
1) Intellectuality: The metropolitan type of man develops an intellectuality
against the threatening external environment. The man in metropolis, for Simmel, is
11
aware and conscious. “He reacts with his head instead of his heart” (Simmel, 1951;
636).
2) Calculative urban dwellers: For money dominates the metropolis in all
areas of life, each action is weighed by numbers. “Money asks for the exchange
value, it reduces all quality and individulaity to the question: How Much?”(Simmel,
1951; 636). People began to arrange their life with mathematical formulas.
Punctuality and exactness are forced by the metropolitan life.
3) Blasé attitude: The metropolitan life highly promoted the personal
subjectivity. On the other hand, the necessity to be punctual, precise and calculable
created the situation of impersonality on people. For Simmel; this rapidly changing
and contrasting stimulations of the nerves caused the “blasé attitude.”
4) Protecting reserve: The metropolitan man, who contacts with
innumerable people everyday, develops a reserve of hatred, indifference, antipathy
against the threatening environment. This reserve provides a self-preservation for the
city dweller. But Simmel sees this reserve something negative which prevents man’s
sociation process. He says:
As a result of this reserve we frequently do not even know by
sight those have been our neighbors for years, and it is this
reserve which in the eyes of the small-town people makes us
to be cold and heartless” (Simmel, 1951; 640).
While Simmel was defining these features of the cities, he also made some
comparisons between the rural areas and cities. Small town life sets barriers against
movement and relations of the individuals toward the outside. It restricts individual’s
independence. Simmel says:
With each crossing of the street, with tempo and multiplicity
of economic, occupational and social life, the city sets up a
deep contrast with small town and rural life. The metropolis
exacts from man as a discriminating creature a different
amount of conciousness than does rural life. Here the rhythm
of life and sensory mental imagery flows more slowly, more
habitually, and more evenly. Precisely in this connection the
12
sophisticated character of metropolitan psychic life becomes
understandable—as over against small town life which rests
more upon deeply felt and emotional relationships. These
latter are rooted in the more unconscious layers of the
psyche and grow more readily in the steady rhythm of
uninterrupted habituations (Simmel, 1951; 636).
It is seen that Simmel values individualism, independence, and personality
very much. He regards city as a determinant of social and cultural life, at the same
time as a threat to all these valuable concepts with its chaotic and instable structure.
This essay of Simmel helps one to gain a strong point of view about the nature of the
modern world. Louis Wirth supported Simmel’s theories by enriching them with his
own. As it was discussed in the previous chapter, Wirth claimed that urbanism leads
to segregation, fragmentation, alienation, and disorganization. In agreement with
Simmel, Wirth also assumed that the forms of urbanism were not confined to the
physical boundaries of the city but extended beyond. As these two sociologists agree,
it can be concluded that urban environments shape the characters in relation to
economical, political, cultural, and psychological practices of society.
This social structure of the cities was not only a subject matter for
sociology but also for literature. The naturalist writer Stephen Crane, for instance,
dealt with this subject in his novel Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by presenting the
corruption and destruction that the urbanization created in people’s lives. Maggie, the
heroine of Crane constitutes a good example for the character who is exposed to the
explotation in cities.
13
II. STEPHEN CRANE: MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS
A man said to the universe :
“Sir, I exist!”
“However” replied the universe,
“the fact has not created in me
a sense of obligation”
Stephen Crane “The Open Boat”
Stephen Crane’s naturalist novel Maggie: A Girl of the Streets was written
in a period when the nation’s values were changing and becoming a society of
personal material success. New York was the new setting for American writers in the
second half of the nineteenth century, since it was the centre of money, pleasure,
vitality, and art. In that sense, it included rich resources for the writers, because it
was welcoming plenty of people, which means plenty of life-stories. But this
welcome of New York was only a physical one. On the other hand, it rejected
feelings of the people. Newcomers had to leave their emotions, values, and old habits
behind in order to adopt their new lives. A remarkable statement made by Alfred
Kazin summarizes the shift in that period with one sentence, “the problem of the
nineteenth century was the death of God” (Kazin, 1981; 88). With that statement
Kazin refers to the foundation ideals of America which are mostly based on sacred
values. In his article “New York from Melville to Mailer,” Kazin pointed out what
New York lacked. It was “the totally independent sense of divinity that Emerson,
Thoreou, and Whitman knew as essential to their own modern quest for personality”
(Kazin, 1981; 88). In New York, man was brutalized by the struggle for existence
with the industrialization. Naturalist writer Crane intoduces the struggle of young
Maggie Johnson while picturing the real life of New York beyond its appearance.
1880 – 1900 was a period in America when the pursuit of American Dream
reached its peak, and the adverse effects of urbanization on the psychology and
morality of people were apparent. Crane’s Maggie came out of this environment and
pointed out various themes such as naturalism in literature, social class, slum life,
14
suicide, and prostitution. The main theme of Maggie is the determinism of social and
economic forces on the lives of individuals. As a literary naturalist, Crane was
interested in depicting the social defects of his time, showing that despite one’s best
efforts, the forces of the society will overcome his/her and determine his/her fate.
Here, Maggie’s abused childhood and poverty combined with her physical beauty
ensure that Maggie will end up living a short, miserable life as a prostitute.
In Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets Crane wrote a familiar plot of the time.
He wrote about the “low life.” Maggie, pure blossom of the slums, was driven by
indifference, selfishness, and sexual exploitation first to the streetwalking and then to
to suicide. This was a known plot for many writers. What made Crane different from
others was his exactness of observation and his vividness. Trachtenberg evaluates
Crane’s presentation of “low life:”
Crane’s version of “low life” aims to represent the
subjectivities of his characters. Each of his characters lives
inwardly in a withdrawn psychic space, possessed by the
shadowy feelings and escapist yearnings of the city’s popular
culture. Each is self-deceived, estranged from all others,
occupying an imaginative world of his own (Trachtenberg,
1982; 145).
The novel takes place in New York’s Bowery slum district, where the
inhabitants are separated from the rest of the world. Mellor argues that even the word
“slum” rouses the feelings of pity and disgust (Mellor, 1977; 67). He gives a
definition of slum:
It is an area where the misfits, the dregs and the outlaws
from society accumulated, a social residue daily joined by
newcomers to the city, and left behind by the more energetic
and ambitious. It is a locale of vice, crime, delinquency and
disease, a disorderly gathering of people beyond society and
without community (Mellor, 1977; 67).
The inhabitants of slums in the novel are ignorant of the world beyond
Bowery. This isolation of the place can also be seen in the lives of the characters in
15
Bowery. In the novel, the characters’ relationship with each other are studied
through their relation to their surroundings, which is one of the basic features of
naturalism. Everything the characters think, say, and do is based on their
surroundings and the facts of their daily existence. This existence is alien to most of
the rest of the world. Alienation is one key to the problems Stephen Crane
highlights.
The characters of naturalist writings are usually from the lower class who
are controlled by their passions, and instincts, and they exercise their free will for
survival. However, their attempts for exercising the free will are prevented by the
naturalistic forces, by their environment, just like Maggie’s returning home after
attempting to live according to her own desires with Pete. The conflict in naturalistic
novels is often “man against nature” or “man against himself” as the characters
struggle to retain civilization despite the external threats that release the “brute
within” (www.wsu.edu.tr).
In the novel, Crane apparently figures out how one’s environment shapes
his character, the poverty that Maggie lives in leads her to the extremes in order to
survive. In the very begining of the novel, Crane depicts in detail the slum area
where Maggie lives:
They entered a dark region where, from a careening
building, a dozen gruesome doorways gave up loads of
babies to the street and gutter. A wind of early autumn raised
yellow dust from cubbles and swirled it against a hundred
windows....In all unhandy places there were buckets, brooms,
rags and bottles. In the street infants played or fought or sat
stupidly in the way of vehicles. Formidable women, with
uncombed hair and disordered dress, gossiped while leaning
on railings, or screamed in frantic quarrels. Withered
persons, in curious postures of submission to something, sat
smoking pipes in obscure corners. The building quivered and
creaked from the weight of humanity stamping about in its
bowels (Crane, 1995; 2).
16
These degrading conditions were attributed not only to the environment but
also to its inhabitants. Maggie’s mother and father were both alcholics and
“demonlike,” the mother’s face was always described as “lurid” or “crimson,” she
always repeated the words “go teh hell” to the people around her. The father was also
another brute figure just like his son Jimmie who always fought in the streets. In this
world of violence, the two little sons of the Johnson family could not survive and
died at a very early age, yet the family went on suffering from the illnesses and
starvation. On the other hand, Maggie was the only figure who managed to remain
naive in this environment. In Crane’s words, “Maggie blossomed in a mud puddle,
none of the dirt of Rum Alley seemed to be in her veins” (Crane, 1995; 14).
The effect of environment on individuals is again brought up by Mike
Savage by referring to Louis Wirth, a very influential sociologist. For Wirth, there
was some connection between the type of settlement and psychic life, that certain
sorts of possibilities, psychological traits, and attitudes to life were associated with
being in the city. Moreover, he claims that strong identities were eroded by urban life
(Savage, 2003; 108). For instance, even though Maggie seemed to be the only figure
who was not polluted by her environment, she was drifted to a life of prostitution.
2.1. Maggie’s American Dream
Besides Bowery’s inhuman conditions which was full of poverty and filth,
and the family’s abusing attitude towards Maggie, her relation with Pete also drifted
Maggie to prostitution. Pete was a friend of Maggie’s brother, Jimmie. Although he
was a Bowery boy, he was aware of the world beyond Bowery unlike the other
Bowery inhabitants. He has impressed Maggie with his stories about Uptown, the
northern Manhattan where middle and upper class lived. He was somebody out of
Bowery for Maggie, somebody who can make her dreams come true.
His mannerism stamped him as a man who had a correct
sense of his personal superiority. There were valour and
contempt for cicumstances in the glance of his eye. He waved
his hand like a man of the world who dismisses religion and
philosophy, he had certainly saw everything, and with each
17
curl of his lip he declared that it amounted to nothing.
Maggie thought he must be a very “elegant” man (Crane,
1995; 15).
From the moment Maggie knew Pete, her life has completely changed.
Until she met Pete, her life was nothing more than her Bowery environment and her
job at a sweatshop factory. Pete carried her from an “enclosed world” to a world of
opportunities, he introduced her the other side of New York. He took her to the beer
halls,
theaters, parks, and museums. Whenever
Maggie went to Uptown, she
wondered at the costumes or the lifestyles of the people on the streets or on the stage.
Moreover, her slum environment “began to appear to her mind as a dreary place of
endless grinding” (Crane, 1995; 17). Her dreams began to be shaped by the Uptown
values. Most of the time, she identified herself with the heroines in melodramas she
watched.
Maggie always departed with raised spirits from these
melodramas. She rejoiced at the way in which the poor and
virtuous eventually overcame the wealthy and wicked. The
theatre made her think. She wondered if the culture and
refinement she had seen imitated, perhaps grotesquely, by the
heroine on the stage, could be acquired by a girl who lived in
a tenement house and worked in a shirt factory. (Crane,
1995; 25)
This transition of Maggie from a solitary and isolated world into a world of
interaction, movement, and excitement made her get used to the city’s enticing
oppurtunities easily. This is an organic revolution. To describe the term organic
revolution, it would be a good example to refer to Warren I. Susman’s opinions
about city life. In his book, Culture As History, in which he studied the
transformation in American society in twentieth century, he argued that the city is an
inevitable consequence of three revolutions (Susman, 1973; 238). He explained each
revolution in details. The first revolution was in communication, “a revolution that
involved not only transportation but also all of the ways in which people might
significantly communicate with one another, and made it possible for a man to move
from an era of diffuculty to a period of wider communications”(Susman, 1973; 238).
The second one was an organizational revolution which developed a new middle-
18
class not of property owners but of salaried workers, since it provided an integrity
among all the institutions of American society, including the organizers of work and
production, consumption, and distribution. Finally comes the organic revolution
which “provided a replacement of early-dominated solitary and atomic images by
images of interaction, growth and evolution, process and outcome, and identification
of self in terms of its relation to others”(Susman, 1973; 238).
All these revolutions, Susman asserts, make it easier to adopt to the process
of urbanization and its outcomes (Susman, 1973; 240).
However, one of the
characters in the novel, Maggie’s brother Jimmie, was not able to adopt to anything
urban. From the beginning of the novel till the end, he remains a hard, brute, and
scornful boy to almost anything around him. Especially as a driver, while driving his
horses in Manhattan, he becomes tougher. Crane depicts Jimmie’s rage: “... and he
became so sharp that he believed in nothing”(Crane, 1995; 12). For instance, while
he was working as a truck driver, he drove to city and observed the people. He
despised all the well-dressed men in city, and found himself superior to them.
Jimmie’s occupation for a long time was to stand at street
corners and watch the world go by, dreaming blood-red
dreams at the passing of pretty women....He maintained a
belligerent attitude towards all well-dressed men. To him fine
raiment was allied to weakness, and all good coats covered
faint hearts. He and his orders were kings, to a certain
extent, over the men of untarnished clothes, because these
latter dreaded, perhaps, to be either killed or laughed at.
(Crane, 1995; 11)
Moreover, for Jimmie, even the streetcars seemed to be “intent bugs” that
always followed him. It is very clear how much hatred Jimmie felt for the people
living in city and anyhing belonged to it, and never wanted to be a part of it.
These two different attitudes to the city show the separate characters of the
two siblings. Johnson children are the representatives of the two types of people
shaped by the Bowery slum district. Maggie is a naive, dreamy, and sentimental girl
who pursues a romantic life and escapes from Bowery, and from its decay. She is
19
neither physically nor psychologically powerful enough to survive in Bowery
district. On the other hand, her brother Jimmie is both phsyically and psychologically
tough, and “his sneer was chronic”. Despite the violence and degradation that
surrounds both of them, it is Jimmie who survives and Maggie falls.
A different point of view is brought up by Marshall Berman who examines
the nature of the street life. As the novel’s name is Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, it
would be convenient to mention Berman’s ideas about the streets, where Maggie
actually belongs to. Berman sees the street as a mirocosm for modern life (Savage,
2003; 132). For him, there is a connection between the personal development and
insecureness of the streets. The latter gives way to the former, because the streets
have potential dangers. Everybody is a stranger for everyone, and one is vulnerable
in the streets. For that reason, one always has to be alert against any kinds of attacks.
One has the risk of losing his/her self in the crowds. As a matter of fact, in the last
chapters of the novel, when Maggie begins to live on the streets after having been
rejected by both her lover and her family, the terms Crane uses are effective. He
claims the streets to be “the places of forgetfulness”(50), he describes the people in
the street as “ragged beings with bloodshot eyes and grimy hands”(51), and also his
statement “the deathly black hue of the river”(51) demonstrates the potential danger
the streets have. Yet, this potential, for Mike Savage, develops a “different kind of
knowledge” for individual (Savage, 2003; 132). Savage evaluates Berman’s views:
Berman explored the double-edged nature of modern life by
arguing that people’s freedom to develop and change goes
hand in hand with the insecurity...He connects the role of the
street to wider concerns by arguing that street encounters are
unpredictable and unknowable. We are never sure whom we
will meet, or with what consequences. At one level this gives
us unparalleled potential—to meet our love, a potential
employer, an old friend- but at another level it is deeply
worrying—we may be robbed, attacked or slighted. This
general insecurity reinforces the role of the visual in urban
cultures, this in turn leads us to highlight the visual imagery
we wish to emphasise to others (Savage, 2003; 132).
20
2.2. The Two New Yorks: Bowery and Uptown
“I told a seemingly sane man that I got my artistic education on the
Bowery, and he said “Oh really! So they have a school of fine arts there?”
Stephen CRANE
Establishing the modern city as an agent, a force, a character in a novel, the
urban novel or “city writing” can be defined as one of the dominant literary modes of
expression in the twentieth century. Supporting the idea of “active participation of
the city in shaping the character and the plot,” Blanche Gelfant analyzes the social
fragmentation experienced in twentieth century American metropolises. Her most
influential study The American City Novel (1954) is often cited in sociological
studies to evidence the literary judgements on the American city. This work of
Gelfant has been the main source for Gerd Hurm in his litarary critics, he often
quotes her ideas in his book Fragmented Urban Images. While studying on urban
fiction, Hurm uses Gelfant’s categorization of city novels.
Gelfant distinguishes three types of city novels: “the portrait
type” which reveals the city through a single character, the
“synoptic type” in which the city is the protagonist, and the
“ecological type” in which the neighbourhood manners of a
specific area in the city receive prime attention (Hurm, 1991;
88).
Among these types, Maggie: A Girl of The Streets can be included in the
“ecological type”, because the novel actually tells the story of two separate New
Yorks besides the portrait of a young woman who cannot fulfill her dreams. The two
completely different parts of New York, the slum Bowery district, where Crane
claims to have his “artistic education” and the alluring Uptown, are presented as
effective forces that shape the characters. The reader holds Bowery responsible for
violent characters like the brother and the parents of Maggie and also other fighting
boys. On the other hand, Uptown is responsible for drifting Maggie into a life of
prostitution. Thus, the duality and the fragmentation in a city have created
21
fragmented lives. Actually, this duality was not embedded only in the place but also
in the culture, perspectives, and in the world view of the characters. The Bowery
experience of poverty, isolation, and violence mingles with the affluence,
amusement, lures of Uptown. This dichotomic urban image is resembled by
Maggie’s life. As her city experience widens by theatres, parks, and party halls of
New York, her social contacts with her slum background breaks off. Eventually, she
is rejected by Bowery district. Her detachment from her family and her
neighbourhood leads Maggie to a life on the streets of Uptown, which was once both
an escape and home for her.
A girl of the painted cohorts of the city went along the street.
She threw changing glances at men who passed her, giving
smiling sedately unconcious of the men with a metropolitan
seal upon their faces. Crossing glittering aveneues, she went
into the throng emerging from the place of forgetfulness. She
hurried forward through the crowd as if intent upon reaching
a distant home, bending forward in her handsome cloak,
daintily lifting her skirts (Crane, 1995; 50).
Although the “glittering avenues” brought Maggie material success, they
could not stop her psychological collapse which ended with suicide. Maggie’s
material success brought her nothing more than isolation and exclusion. She was
again rejected, but this time it was Uptown who rejected her, the place in which
Maggie has always desired to fulfill her dreams. The clues in text also demonstrate
the impossibility of Maggie’s rise.
She went into the blackness of the final block. The shutters of
the tall buildings were closed like grim lips. The structure
seemed to have eyes that looked over them, beyond them, at
other things. Afar off the lights of the avenues glittered as if
from an impossible distance...The varied sounds of life made
joyous by distance and seeming unapproachableness, came
faintly and died away to a silence (Crane, 1995; 51).
The huge gap between Bowery slum and Uptown New York can be
grounded on the arguments of William Howton that he presents in his article “Cities,
Slums and Acculturative Process.” He argues that the urban centres are threatened by
22
the excessive slum growth. He prefers the immigrants staying in the slums instead of
moving to the city, until they have enough resources which are necessary to live in a
city. For Howton, the prime function of the slums is to “provide immigrants with a
stopping place until they are able to move up and out into the city proper”(Howton,
1969; 431). Moreover, he justifies himself by presenting economic, cultural, and
social reasons for that. Basing his argument on the huge difference between the
social and cultural structures of the slums and cities, he says “the difference in
cultural level and type between the established urbanite and ex-villager just arrived at
the slums is so great that the rate of assimilation is markedly low” (Howton, 1969;
432). It would be appropriate to present Jimmie, Maggie’s brother, as an example
here to support Howton’s argument. Altough Jimmie, who was shaped by Bowery
slum environment, found job and spent most of his time in New York, neither his
thoughts nor his attitudes changed towards New York or anything belonged to that
city. He did not take the culture of the city, on the contrary he hated it and saw it as
an enemy. The city becomes a monster that has its grip on the characters regardless
of their desire to see its beauty.
In the proceeding chapters of his article, Howton defines the term
“acculturation” as “taking on of culture, a movement from one mode of existence to
another, an evolutionary process” (Howton, 1969; 435). It is to leave all the values,
habits, and attitudes behind and take up new roles. It is a kind of transition. Howton
explains this transition with these words:
Every individual has to learn new roles from time to time; as
his status, activities ans interests change with age; but only a
few have to learn a whole new design for living. The
learning of roles calls for the acquiring of new modes of
thinking, feeling, experiencing...The immigrant arrives from
the back country with the “wrong” kit of cultural baggage,
and passes through it to enter the city as a new urbanite—if
the process is successful—with the “right” equipage (skills,
habits, attitudes and values) for coping with and eventually
finding a secure place in the urban social order (Howton,
1969; 434).
23
From Howton’s sentences it can be concluded that Maggie’s transition
from a slum life to city was not a successful one. Maggie could not find a secure
place in the urban environment, since she was not equipped with the necessary
characteristics of the city dweller. She was more sensitive, naive, and dreamy than
she was supposed to be to live in a “warlike” environment.
In conclusion, Stephen Crane does not only present the destruction of hopes
of working-class slum, but also analyzes the reasons for this. The major reason for
Maggie’s social, physical, and psycholocigal failure is the Uptown and Bowery
duality. Since the Bowery people could not keep up with the world beyond Bowery
because of their environmental restrictions of poverty, filth, crowdness, and violence,
they remained closed and uncivilized. Moreover, Maggie’s romantic dreams clashed
with the harsh realities. More briefly, Maggie was not able to rise like the stage
heroines she watched in the melodramas. Her wish to rise brought her death.
Altough the novel’s title is Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, it is not actually
about Maggie herself , since the reader hardly ever finds Maggie speaking or sharing
her thoughts. In fact, the novel is based on the life surrounding Maggie with all its
harsh realities. Professor Edwin Cady from Indiana University deals with Crane’s
works in his article “Stephen Crane: Maggie:A Girl of the Streets”:
My assumption was that the subject of the novel is Maggie,
but I have since perceived that I was wrong. It is not a novel
about Maggie as a person. She is in fact the character least
studied. She seldom speaks or acts; her activities, ideas and
feelings are summarized, fore-shortened, compacted and
described to us while the dramatic action goes on all around.
The carefully characterized people are Mary, an ogre, then
Jimmie, end then Pete (Cady, 1969; 261).
Maggie always thinks, contemplates, marvels, looks, watches and rarely
speaks in the novel. She is in the position of an observer. She observes the life
around her and discovers her inner world, her passions, desires, and dreams. She
experiences all the intolerable pretense and hypocrisy of the people, the indulgence
of men and women who could not see the meaning of life. By portraying such a
24
realistic scene of the slums in America in a specific period, Crane wants the reader to
feel compassion for those who fall far from morality. Crane creates a character like
Maggie who cannot survive in an immoral environment to express the importance of
being moral at the time when the material gain was the only value people cared for.
By this way, Crane brings up the issue of morality and makes the reader question
their values and the promises of cities. Crane does this questioning by putting
himself away from the characters. When the dramatic language and the ironic
comments of the writer are observed, it is seen that Crane distances himself from his
characters and from the Bowery plight. He only reports the experiences of the two
New Yorks and never associates himself to any of them. This detached mode of
writing and sarcasm of Crane puts him somewhere away from all Bowery violence
and chaos. Crane’s detachment displays his condescending manner towards the
working-class people.
2.3. Crane’s Chaotic City Image: Maggie’s End in the Jungle
In the novel Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, the city is defined as a
contradictory
place where small, dirty, overcrowded, and violent slums of the
working-class are confronted with the affluence and opportunities of the middleclass. This juxtaposition of the two separate settings of the novel appears as a chaos
in the novel.
The fighting scene in the beginning of the novel implies how chaotic is the
setting that the novel takes place. “A very little boy stood upon a heap of gravel for
the honour of Rum Alley. He was throwing stones at howling urchins from Devil’s
Row, who were circling madly about the heap and pelting him” (Crane, 1995; 1).
The continously repeated oppositions in the novel, such as darkness and
light, blackness and glitter, poverty and affluence drift the characters to a physical,
social, and moral chaos. The “darkening chaos” of the neighbourhood of the Johnson
family does also exist at home. Two children of the family die at early ages, the rest
become alcoholics and criminals. In addition to these, Crane’s chaotic description of
25
Bowery slum, where “women are with uncombed hair and disordered
dresses...yellow dust rises and swirls...infants fight...men sit smoking pipes in
obscure corners...the buildings quivere and creak...”(Crane, 1995; 4) signifies the
reason behind his detached narration. The author himself is like an outsider, a
stranger to the district. Crane does not want to be a part of this chaos but to portray
the changing perspectives of the city in the 1890s. His disorderly and chaotic
description of the city is actually a reference to the incomprehensibility of the
modern city image of the 1890s.
The conflicting aspects of cities are also mentioned in the article of
Chauncy D. Harris “The Nature of Cities.” He says that cities are paradoxical
entities. (Harris, 1951; 237). Moreover he claims that though their rapid growth and
large size affirm their superiority, their success leaves a very poor environment for
the man. Harris also suggests to shift the advantages of the urban environment for
the benefit of man while minimizing the disadvantages.
This chaotic city image of Crane reminds the reader the term of “survival of
the fittest” of Social Darwinism. The term suggests that those who have economic,
physical, and technological power survive in a society while the weak fail. In this
sense, Crane parallels the characters to the animals. In his words: “Maggie ate like a
pursued tigress”(Crane, 1995; 6), and “Jimmie snarled like a wild animal”(33), and
“the glare of the panther came into Pete’s eyes”(33). Crane’s heroine, Maggie, was
not able to survive in this chaos of the city long, and she ended her life after some
time she had lived in the mud of prostitution. She was neither physically strong nor
economically powerful. Briefly, she was not fit to survive. She was too sensitive for
the urban environment. Her tragic death was an inevitable consequence of her life
which was shaped by alienation, loneliness, and exclusion and also an outcome of
her romanticism. Because her romantic mood was a disadvantage for her to see the
deceptive side of Pete, she was not adopted to survival but to romantic dreams. By
portraying Maggie as a very romantic character, Crane actually attacks romanticism
and sentimentalism since they prevent one to see the realities.
26
In the closing pages, the reader sees Maggie as a prostitute walking by the
riverside where she meets a disgusting man. After a short while, “sounds and lights
of the city fade behind them”(51). Although there is no clear narration that Maggie
committed suicide, most probably she did. The romantic girl Maggie whose unique
dream was a better life than she had in Rum Alley with his lover, finds herself in the
streets as a prostitute instead of a stage heroine. Under these circumstances,
disgusted by her own immoral life, Maggie committed suicide.
The type of Maggie’s death is not what is important. If Crane’s aim is to
emphasize the inescapability of social forces in one’s life, it does not matter whether
Maggie was murdered or she committed suicide, since each outcome is likely for a
fallen woman, and each outcome is caused by social forces. Whether she committed
suicide or was murdered, she is dead because of the determining environmental
forces. Crane left the ending open, since his aim was not to demonstrate Maggie’s
death but the reasons behind it. Just before Maggie loses her life, she loses her
individuality as well. Crane uses a distant and isolated narration in the end. He calls
Maggie as “the girl” ignoring to use her name. Maggie’s life ended as a simple “girl
of the street” as the title of the novel indicates.
III. THEODORE DREISER: SISTER CARRIE
Sometimes I see myself as a hoop in an arc,
Reaching over from one phase of existence to another
Theodore Dreiser
A very similar novel to Crane’s was written by Theodore Dreiser in the
very beginning of the 1900s, dealing with city life, success and failure, and collapse
of man’s dreams.
Dreiser, a skilled reporter who is fascinated by the lures of the city
questions the matters of existence and the nature of man. Life, for Dreiser, is made
27
up of a variety of interesting and incomprehensible forms. According to him, the
author’s business “is to say what he knows to be true and to abide the result with
patience” (Dreiser, 1998; 179). Dreiser’s first novel Sister Carrie presents the
working and lower-middle class life in Chicago and New York with the story of
eighteen-year-old Caroline Meeber.
3.1. Dreiser’s Naturalistic Philosophy
After the civil war, with the growth of industrialization, Americans’ life
became complicated. Free people were replaced by the people who surrendered to
machines. Close family relations, kinship, mutual assistance were not prevalent in
the lives of American society. Instead, people were the slaves of the machines. They
could determine their lives not only according to their own free will but also to those
around them. Man was desperate in the process of industrialization. Because the
more industry expanded the less living space was left to the people. In addition to
that, with the floats of people to the cities, people were not as free as they used to be.
They had to continue their lives according to established rules, schedules, timetables,
and the machines. This mechanization of the society directly found response in the
people’s lives.
Theodore Dreiser was one of the writers who was influenced by this
mechanization and lack of emotion in the lives of people and saw the truth that the
nature of human being is not appropriate to live in accordance to specific social
conventions but to his instincts and desires. For Dreiser, “the man is essentially an
animal, impelled by temperament, instinct, physics, chemistry-anything that is
irrational and uncontrollable”(Sherman, 1998; 192). In his article “The Naturalism of
Mr. Dreiser,” Stuart Sherman clearly explains Dreiser’s philosophy:
It appears that the ordered life which we call civilization
does not really exist except on paper. In reality our so-called
society is a jungle in which the struggle for existence
continues, and must continue, on terms substantially
unaltered by legal, moral, or social conventions. The central
truth about man is that he is an animal amenable to no law
28
but the law of his own temperament, doing as he desires,
subjects only to the limitations of his power. The male of the
species is characterized by cupidity, pugnacity and a simian
inclination for the other sex. The female is soft, vain,
pleasure-seeking creature, devoted to personal adornment,
and quite helplessly susceptible to the flattery of the
male...Such is the Dreiserian philosophy (Sherman, 1998,
191).
This evaluation of Sherman clearly explains Dreiser’s point of view about
human nature. At that point city has a function to reveal the real side of human
nature. Cities are the places full of tempting effects. Their glamarous lights, their
continous movement, their amusement activities, and their dynamism penetrate to
people’s lives in one way or another. This kind of environment, which is called
“civilization” by many people, shapes man’s life. Dreiser’s aim, as a realist writer, is
to present the representations of the life of the man in a contemproray, civilized
society. And his heroine Carrie Meeber meets this contemprorary society after a
short time she gets on the train to Chicago.
Another naturalistic element in the novel is the author’s voice.
The
author’s voice shapes the novel which is very important and dominant in Sister
Carrie. Dreiser often uses his own comments on the incidents that take place in the
novel. This is a typical trait of naturalism, where the author is gaining back his
control over the characters and their actions. The characters and their actions are
determined, and they do not have much free will. Many actions take place by
accident, by chance. Carrie’s fate is determined by her gender, by her environment,
and by the cities where she lives and also by people who she is surrounded by.
3.2. Carrie’s Meeting the City and The Material World
The novel begins with Carrie leaving the Colombia City and boarding a
train for Chicago. She is going to live with her sister in the city and find a job there
without having a specific goal, thus she will be in the place where she has always
heard from others so far. Yet, it was not anything “social” that takes her to Chicago,
29
but her nature. It may be a desire for a change, an instinct of movement or just an
adventure that moves her.
In the period of Carrie’s travel from country to city, Chicago and New York
were adding millions of immigrants to their population. By 1890, the majority of the
population of the major urban areas consisted of immigrants: 87 percent in Chicago,
80 percent in New York, 84 percent in Miwaukee and Detroit (Current, 1959; 526).
The historical information about the rise of industrialization in Chicago city was also
given by the writer, himself, in the novel.
In 1889 Chicago had the peculiar qualifications of growth
which made such adventuresome pilgrimage, even on the
part of young girls, plausible. Its many and growing
commercial opportunities gave it widespread fame which
made it a giant magnet... It was a city of over 500.000 with
the ambition, the daring, the activity of a metropolis of a
million...The sound of the hammer engaged upon the erection
of new structures was everywhere heard. Great industries
were moving in. The huge railroad corporations recognized
the prospects of the place...Streetcar lines had been extended
far out into the open country...The city had laid miles of
street and sewers through regions (Dreiser, 1981; 16).
From the description of the writer above, the scene of the Chicago city at
the time of industrialization, which is also the setting of the novel, is given to the
reader. Apart from the scene of the setting, the ruling theme of the novel is also given
to the reader. In the very beginning of the novel, one can easily find out that
materialism is the dominant theme in the novel. The theme is personified through
Carrie with her desire for a fine home, clothes and everything else money can buy.
Dreiser’s powerful emphasis on materialism can be seen in his description of the
items that Carrie has in the very first paragraph. Carrie appears firstly with her
belongings not with her emotions and thoughts. Carrie was “with a cheap imitation
alligator skin satchel holding some minor details of the toilet, a small lunch in a
paper box and a yellow leather snap purse, containing her ticket and four dollars in
money”(Dreiser, 1981; 3).
30
Urbanization was not the only outcome of industrialization. Materialism
also dominated America in the following years of the 1900s. American economy
began to be shaped by large corporations, trusts, and monopolies. Cities were the
centres of the industrial boom. The technological innovations and the expansions of
factories in the cities directly affected the inhabitants of the cities as well. The
majority of the people had to join the workforce. As a crucial outcome of this
transformation in the structure of the American society, consumerism and
materialism increased. As the country experienced an extraordinary economic boom,
the outlook of America has changed. People began receiving higher wages, and there
was a sudden increase of spending and consuming. The progress of the automobile
industry, radio and motion picture production, and advanced technology made
consumption possible for everyone. In his historical research Current says:
In cities, the emergence of the great department stores helped
to transform buying habits and to turn shopping into a more
alluring and glamorous activity. Marshall Field in Chicago
created one of the first department stores—a place
deliberately designed to create a sense of wonder and
excitement (Current, 1959; 534).
The naive heroine of Dreiser, Carrie, was not aware of this material world
until she met a man named Charles Drouet on the train. It was Drouet who
introduced the world of materialism to Carrie. Because it was Drouet’s “fat purse,
shiny tan shoes and new suit” that influenced Carrie at first sight.
Carrie’s first meeting with the city was not only an excitement but also a
fear. On the one hand, she was dreaming the crowded streets, colorful lights of
Chicago city with excitement; on the other hand when she arrives the city, a sense of
fear fills her soul, because she was alone in this grand but threatening city. It was
wonderful for “a child, with genius imagination” to dream of the streets, glamor,
lighted chambers, theatres, and parties, yet it was also a “ kind of terror,” since Carrie
was “away from home, rushing into a great sea of life and endeavour. She could not
help but feel a little choked for breath—a little sick as her heart beat so fast”
(Dreiser, 1981; 10). With these descriptions the writer prepares the reader in the
31
beginning of the novel for the ambivalent mood of Carrie which will continue during
the novel.
Although the city meant colorful streets, entertainment, and freedom in
Carrie’s dreams, it was not that kind of city but an industrial and mechanized one:
Sister Carrie gazed out of the window. Already vast net
works of tracks—the sign and insignia of Chicago—strecthed
on either hand. There were thousands of cars and a clangor
of engine bells. At the sides of this traffic stream stood dingy
houses, smoky mills, tall elevators. Through the interstices,
evidences of the stretching city could be seen. Street cars
waited at crossing for the train go by. Gatemen toiled at
wooden arms which closed the streets. Bell, the rails
clacked, whistles sounded a far off (Dreiser, 1981; 10).
It was not only the structure of the city that disappointed Carrie. The life at
her sister’s house was another one. As soon as she arrives at her sister’s home, “she
felt the cold reality taking her by the hand. No world of light and merriment, no
round of amusement” (Dreiser, 1981; 11). She was irritated by the dullness and
“stay-at-homeishness” of her sister’s family. Because they were not going out at
nights, they were not aware of the amusements of the city that Carrie had been
longing to see.
In addition to Carrie’s first meeting with the industrial city, and the dull life
at her sister’s house, the days which she applied for various jobs were another
disappointment for her. All these days, Carrie met the unfriendly side of the city. She
was refused by many of the employers. As she was rejected in a helpless mood, she
realized that “the entire metropolitan centre possessed
a high and mighty air
calculated to overawe and abash the common applicant and to make the gulf between
poverty and success seem both wide and deep” (Dreiser, 1981; 17).
From another point of view, these long walkings on the street while
applying for job helped Carrie recognize herself, to know what she wanted or did
not want. Carrie always paid attention to the clothes or looks of the people she met,
32
instead of their personality or feelings. Her only interest consisted of money, fine
clothes, and enjoyment. Money meant for Carrie “something everbody else has and I
must get, something that has a power in itself” (Dreiser, 1981; 62).
In fact, all these negative experiences were steps for Carrie, in her selfrealization process. In the beginning of the novel, Carrie came to Chigaco to find a
job and have a better life, but she was not satisfied when she found one, because long
working hours at a factory did not offer her the ostentious life of the people she met
on the streets. The only way to attain her dream was the material power which
“requires less mental and physical strain”(Dreiser, 1981; 38). Engaged with these
conflicting feelings, Carrie found herself in the alluring life of Chicago, that neither
her sister’s home nor the job at a factory could give her. She was not alone in that
adventurous beginning. Carrie left her sister’s home and began to live with Drouet
as his mistress. It was again Drouet who introduced Carrie the promises of the city,
just as he introduced the material world to her on the train.
It is seen that Dreiser presents Carrie as an intelligent woman, because she
could change the disappointments in her life into opportunity. She could see the
offerings of the city and use them for her benefit. Yet it is undeniable that instincts
and desires are the main factors that determine Carrie’s choices. “In Carrie, instinct
and desire were in part the victors. She followed whither her craving led. She was as
yet more drawn than she drew” (Dreiser, 1981; 74).
3.3. Dreiser’s City Image
The novel Sister Carrie can be read as a novel of seduction, desire, and
capitalism. However, Dreiser’s novels are mostly shaped by the setting rather than
characters or themes, because it is the setting that creates the theme. Two cities are
dominant in the novel: New York and Chicago. They do not only constitute a simple
environment for the characters but they also influence their inhabitants in various
ways.
33
New York and Chicago revealed the supressed desires of the main
character, Carrie. Chicago was the first city that Carrie had ever met, and she felt that
life was “better, livelier and sprightlier. She boarded a car in the best of spirits
feeling her blood flowing pleasently” (Dreiser, 1981; 29). It is seen that to be in
Chicago gave Carrie an absolute ease, because in Chicago she began to discover her
skills, her desires, and her inner world. She listened to her instincts and fulfilled them
by means of the opportunities of the city. On the other hand, if she had still been in
her small hometown, Colombia City, she could have never behaved like that. She
could not have left her home with a man, and could not have shared the same house
with a man that she was not married; because small towns, unlike big cities, are
dominated by social conventions and one cannot go beyond them. One has to
determine his/her dreams, and ideals in accordance with these conventions. For that
reason, Colombia City was not a suitable place for a girl like Carrie who was ready
to pursue her desires regardless of its outcomes.
On the other hand, Chicago was the city of promise, luck, wealth, and
freedom for Carrie. Although she faced various obstacles after arriving in Chicago,
her youth and her curiosity helped her to survive. It was easy for her to survive, since
she had no morals, no limits. She went along with anything and anybody who came
to her, if it was anything profitable for her. Even though Dreiser claims that “Carrie
was again the victim of the city’s hypnotic influence, the subject of the mesmeric
operations of super intelligible forces”(Dreiser, 1981; 78), in fact she was not
helpless. She chose to leave her sister, who was the only member of the family she
had in the city, just because she found the life with Drouet more promising and
enjoyable. Her endless longings for material wealth, fame, and entertainment made
her a great consumer. More briefly, Chicago with its offerings created a character in
Carrie who can sacrifice anything in order to attain a materially powerful life.
Actually, Carrie did not only consume the men around her financially but also
emotionally. She abused Drouet’s love for her. Although Drouet supported Carrie
both financially and socially, and he made her gain experience, Carrie used these as
means to reach her aspirations. She left Drouet when he had nothing more to offer.
34
Above all, she left Drouet for another man who seemed more promising and
attractive.
At that point George Hurstwood, the manager of one of the best restaurants
of the city, appears as another step for Carrie in her rise. As soon as Carrie meets
Hurstwood, she compares him with Drouet and finds Hurstwood more appealing.
Hurstwood was a man of who was more clever than Drouet
in a hundred ways. He was more successful...He was mild,
placid, assured, giving the impression that he wished to be of
service only—to do something which would make the lady
more pleased (Dreiser, 1981; 93).
The most important reason of Carrie’s attraction to Hurstwood lays in the
last sentence above. This passage shows how Carrie turns out to be a selfish woman.
She only cares for her desires and benefits while ignoring the other people’s desires.
She looks for a man that will do anything she wants so that she would easily and
quickly fulfill her wishes.
Moreover, she paid her attention to the same thing again when she first met
Hurstwood just like she did when she first met Drouet on the train.
His clothes were particularly new and rich in appearance.
The vest was of a rich Scotch plaid, set with a double row of
round mother-of-pearl buttons. His cravat was a shiny
combination of silken threads. Hurstwood’s shoes were of
black calf, while Drouet wearpatent leathers (Dreiser, 1981;
94).
Carrie’s unsatisfied hunger for the material is given in these sentences. The
author also emphasizes Carrie’s unsatisfied nature:
She longed and longed and longed. It was now for the old
cottage room in Colombia City, now the mansion up on the
Shore Drive, now the fine dress of some lady, now the
elegance of some scene. She was sad beyond measure, and
yet uncertain, wishing and fancying (Dreiser, 1981; 116).
35
As Gerd Hurm says, Dreiser’s Chicago is the world of change. The
concepts of movement and evolution are dominant in the novel. A number of
geographical, ideological, social, and economic changes occur in the novel. In
geographic terms, it is Carrie’s migration from a small town to Chicago, and her
movement to New York with her lover. In economic terms, it is Carrie’s rise from a
shop girl position to the world of fame as an actress. In social terms, it is Carrie’s
transition from “inner-directed to the outer-directed personality”(Hurm, 1991; 133).
Finally in ideological terms, it is the replacement of Protestant work ethic by the
Survival of the Fittest.
Another characteristic of Dreiser’s city for Hurm is its presentation of the
middle-class:
Despite its claims to represent the city as a whole , Sister
Carrie only depicts the segment of the middle class.
Interpretations which saw Dreiser present a generic modern
city usually took two related standpoints. They ignored the
fact that other modes of living existed in the metropolis and
elevated the middle-class segment to embody an inherently
metropolitan life-style (Hurm, 1991; 141) .
Dreiser focuses on the “middle-state” not only on social class bases, but
also in every mode of life. He refuses and criticizes the extremes, while speaking in
favor of the “middle-state.”
There is nothing in this world more delightful than that
middle state in which we mentally balance at times,
possessed of the means, lured by desire and yet deterred by
conscience or want of decision. When Carrie began
wandering around the store amid the fine displays, she was
in this mood (Dreiser, 1981; 67).
3.4. Carrie’s American Dream
“Every great culture has had a myth to concretize its goals and give it a
momentum”(McAleer, 1968; 29). For Americans, conviction of destiny and the
36
desire for material prosperity has constituted the myth of American Dream.
However, its meaning has varied for many. For some it was a religious freedom, for
some it was a personal freedom, for some it was money, job or love. Carrie’s dream
was the city at the beginning. To be in the city, walk in the crowded streets, and
wander at the big shopping centres were the things she wanted. When she fulfilled
her simple aim, and began to live at her sister’s home, Carrie did not stop desiring.
To be in the city did not satisfy her. She wanted to wear the expensive clothes she
saw on the shopwindows; she wanted to join the entertainment activities; she wanted
a job at which she did not have to work hard. In short, she did not only want to be in
the city but also benefit its oppurtunities. City introduced Carrie the smartly-dressed
people she had never seen, the luxurious restaurants where she had never walked in,
and the gorgeous halls she had never been to before.
According to McAleer, it is this subtle myth that Dreiser speaks of when he
implies the pseudo-morality which combines the acqusitiveness and righteousness
(McAleer, 1968). Through his tragic protagonists, Dreiser condemns the American
Dream as a destructive illusion, since his both protagonists are destructed. While
Carrie is destructed morally, Hurstwood’s is a physical one. To illustrate the
foolishness of American Dream, the author portrays his tragic protagonists as the
“unequipped individuals” who struggles to adopt and attain the goals of American
life futilely. McAleer does not see Sister Carrie as a novel of defense of the
compromises which a country girl makes to win her way in the big city, but as a
bitter accusation of the success goals Carrie Meeber pursues under the name of
American Dream (McAleer, 1968).
Alan Trachtenberg defines city as a “mystery”. For him, all these alluring
elements of city in fact hide a mystery beneath it.
To be sure cities have always baffled the stranger with their
labyrinths of streets and lanes, moving crowds, noisy market:
each is inner places closed to the outsider. Concealment is
inherent in cities. But, with the new developments in the
nineteenth century, mystery deepened beyond initial
appearances and developed into a pervasive response. The
37
veiled lives of outcasts and criminals also contributed a large
share to the sense of urban mystery...Its whole reality hidden
within denser crowds, closed off much the way older vistas
are now blocked by taller, inexplicable buildings
(Trachtenberg , 1982; 138).
But Carrie was too young and naive and also too selfish to discover the
hidden mystery behind the tall buildings. Her only concern was the clothes and the
entertainment, and nothing deeper.
Carrie from the beginning of the novel seems to be the representative of
consumer, materialistic society, and she seems possessed by the inanimate. Carrie is
dull, and, as she struggles to succeed by letting Drouet take care of her and give her
his money, she hardly agrees with the fact that he has helped pull her out of poverty.
Once she is able, she throws him away in order to be with Hurstwood. Even the fact
that she owes her success to Drouet and Hurstwood seems unimportant to her. It can
also be seen at the end of her road to fame, when she is receiving social invitations
from millionaires and famous figures, that she sees herself as being to good for any
of them, she sees herself as being too good for the company of any man. This
aggressive, self-centered nature of Carrie can be seen as a departure from the
traditional role of a woman. However, it can be said that Carrie is not stupid. As
materialistic and shallow as she seems to be, she is intrigant as well. She knows how
to get what she wants, how to manipulate others into giving her what she wants, and
there is something about her that the men of the novel find irresistible.
The two cities in the novel, New York and Chicago, is portrayed in a very
detailed style. Dreiser draws a fascinating picture of the city, while describing the
streets, restaurants, and buildings as if they are the characters of the novel. According
to Chistophe Den Tandt, Dreiser portrays the urban scene as a place of “glamor and
sublime mysteries” in order to lessen the fears raised by the change of locale (Tandt,
1998). This positive view of the city makes the newcomers more optimistic. But as
soon as they encounter with the unfriendly side of the city, as Carrie did while she
was looking for job, their optimism leaves its place to anxiety, later to alienation and
finally to isolation. In cities the relations among people are not intimate as they are in
38
the countryside. Moreover, in the counrtyside finding a job is not as diffucult as it is
in city. In short, life in country is more peaceful and real. Hurm makes a remarkable
comparison of the city and country. For him, healthy country is associated with care,
shelter, humanism whereas the corrupt city is the place of uncertainity, inhuman toil,
and disillusionment (Hurm, 1991; 82).
What was the thing that Carrie could not find in her hometown but found
thoroughly in Chicago? Most probably, it was freedom. No one knew her in Chicago,
thus nothing could became an obstacle for her in pursuing her wishes. Her sister was
the only family tie in the city. But a life with her sister did not please her. Carrie was
a “hungry heroine” according to Blanche Gelfant. Gerd Hurm refers to Gelfant’s
comments on American urban fiction in his book:
In an overview of twentieth century American fiction,
Blanche Gelfant examines the city’s “hungry heroines”, that
is women who oppose the passivity and domestic orientation
expected of them. Several novels indicate that the modern
metropolis provides women with the opportunity to escape
the narrow environs of the home and family. All the
confusions of urban life imply freedom for these urban
heroines. Mostly it is a thirst for experience, knowledge and
art that these heroines quench in the city. The pattern—as
Gelfant admits— is often associated with middle-class
women. It is no surprise that her favorite heroine , Carrie
Meeber, lives and moves in the middle-class cities (Hurm,
1991;101).
“In the case of Carrie, the sight of wealth and merry life of the city had
awakened in her a desire to reach something higher and to live better.” (Dreiser,
1981; 138). Carrie, the “hungry heroine” always wants to jump higher, and have
more. When she first arrives in Chicago, she lives with her sister while longing for a
life offered by Drouet. Later, she begins to live with Drouet while longing for a life
offered by Hurstwood. Afterwards, she lives with Hurstwood while longing for a life
offered by Ames, another man that she meets in New York.
In Carrie’s long journey to reach her dreams, three steps guided her. At the
bottom, there were toilsome jobs. Carrie found a job at a shoe factory, but soon she
39
realized that working long hours without amusement was not the life she dreamt of.
At the next level, there was Drouet who was an important figure in encouraging
Carrie for her artistic career. It was Drouet who supported Carrie both financially and
socially. Moreover, he was the first figure who morally corrupted Carrie. By offering
her twenty dollars, Drouet had the right to use Carrie’s body. On the other hand, by
accepting the money, Carrie sacrificed her innocence for the material power. In a
way, Drouet awakened Carrie to her self-realization. One step above Drouet, there
was Hurstwood who seduced Carrie with his all-knowing air and expensive clothes.
Lastly, at the peak of Carrie’s ambitious climbing, there was Carrie herself, as a
famous and admirable actress.
By reaching at the peak as an actress, Carrie seems to fulfill her dream. She
has a lot of money, people admire her, she has an elite lifestyle. Yet, on the other
hand, her inner self was destroyed. As Philip Fisher noted “her self, her inner
emotional being, is what is sold to the ticket buyers” (Fisher, 1982; 266). At that
point, Carrie’s characteristics were effective: Her youth, hopefulness, hallowness, her
lack of attachment to anybody, her detachment from family, the man Drouet, her
sister and her passivity are all effective in Carrie’s rise.
In his article “Acting, Reading, Fortune’s Wheel” Fisher emphasizes
Rousseou’s assumption which claims that the more successful one is at acting, the
less one has a sentiment of self. He goes on explaining the statement:
The essence of acting, of course, representing what one is
not, simulating anger one does not feel, weeping tears at
twenty past nine night after night, convincingly representing
a miserly landlord one night and a benign and courageous
doctor the next. To value and foster the skills of the actor is
to reward those able to be not themselves, not feel what they
really feel and therefore, to strike at the heart of a social
order based on full individual being and public selfrepresentation (Fisher, 1982; 267).
Carrie became a successful actress , since she could adjust to the changing
roles easily. She could imitate everything perfectly and that is why she always
40
became what other people wanted her to be. Her desires arouse from other people’s
desires, especially from Drouet. She acted as Drouet’s mistress and wife. She
imitated whatever Drouet desired in a woman. Carrie was the representation of
masculine desire. She was never allowed to express her own desires-except for her
simple desire for clothes. Thus, role-playing dominated and actually became Carrie’s
personality. She excluded all social feelings and moral values from her life such as
loyalty, friendship, and family bonds and became obssessed with material
aspirations. While she gained material power, she lost her self, her personality, and
her values. The author demonstrated this uneasiness of Carrie in her dialogue with
her own conscience.
There she heard a different voice, it was only an average
little conscience, a thing which represented the world , her
past environment, habit, convention in a confused and
reflected way.
“Oh, thou failure” said the voice.
“Why?” she questioned.
“Look at those about,” came the whispered answer. “ Look
at those
who are good. How would they scorn to do what you have
done.
Look at the good girls, how will they draw away from you
such as
you, when they know you have been weak. You had not tried
before
you failed (Dreiser, 1981; 89-90)
It is very clear that Carrie’s self is fragmented and her psychology is
damaged. However, her obssession with the material gain once more confronts her
conscience. The only thing she cared for is the good clothes. She says: “Oh! My nice
clothes , I have nice clothes and they make me look nice. I’m safe. That world is not
so bad”(Dreiser, 1981; 91).
In sum, Dreiser draws Carrie as a symbolic figure for American Dream. She
must sacrifice her innocence, naivity, and freshness in order to make progress. Yet,
Carrie’s
insatiable desires show the futility of American Dream. She is never
satisfied and pleased with her life. Dreiser’s sentences about Carrie’s dreams also
41
underlines this sense of futility. “She had dreamed a dream and it had not come true.
She wondered at her own solitude these two years past—her indifference to the fact
that she had never achieved what she had expected” (Dreiser, 1981; 325). Briefly,
presenting Carrie as an unsatisfied figure who never finds out what she is seeking
throughout the novel, Dresier makes his reader discover that human nature requires
something more meaningful, more satisfying than the futile American Dream.
3.5. Rise, Fall, and Awakening
Till the second half of the novel, Chicago city has been the setting of the
novel. From the second half on, the setting changes and the main characters struggle
in a more dangerous jungle, New York.
New York city has always been a great subject of American writing. But
New York is so busy with something more important than writing which makes New
York writers feel temporary, ignorable, and despicable (Kazin, 1981; 82). Kazin
argues that the ever accelarating pace of New York, its historic anger, its extremes of
culture and deprivation, ostentation, and misery leave its people mute, not even
aware of a greater life that goes on far away from them (Kazin, 1981;82).
Dreiser uncovers all the dilemmas of New York city bringing out its
wilderness beneath the surface. While the author uses realistic techniques in
presenting the reader the details of city life that drift its characters into despair and
death, he also suggests a discontent with the promises of the city and questions its
dominance on people’s lives and its value system. The dark sides of the city bring
into the doubts about industrial and commercial centres and their adverse effects on
those living in them. For instance, during the novel Carrie has been to three different
cities; Chicago, where she firstly met a city, Montreal, which was a very short
experience in Carrie’s life, and New York, that carried Carrie to the actress position.
In each one, Carrie’s arrival to these cities is accompanied by hope, but the author
changes the reader’s impressions with his doubts about her destination. For instance,
42
Carrie’s first arrival in Chicago is given as, “the approach to a great city was a
wonderful thing to the child”(Dreiser, 1981, 10). Carrie was longing for the streets,
colorful lights, the theatres, and the parties. Soon after drawing Carrie’s city image,
Dreiser shows the industrial side of the city where thousands of cars, engine bells,
dingy houses, smoky mills, and elevators exist. Dresier’s juxtaposition of the two
different sides of the city gives clues about the disappointment that will be
experienced in the future. Similarly, when Carrie arrives in New York, she was
amazed by the marvellous view of the city.
Walk among the magnificient residences, the splendid
equipages, the gilded shops, restaurants, resorts of all kinds.
Scent the flowers, the silks, the wines, drink of the laughter
springing from the soul of luxurious content...Little need to
argue that of such is not the kingdom of greatness, but so
long as the world is attracted by this and the human heart
views this the one desirable value which it must attain, and
will this remain a realm of greatness (Dreiser, 1981; 305) .
But soon after portraying New York with this description, Dreiser reveals
the threat beneath this beautiful picture.
It is like a chemical reagent. One day of it, like one drop of
the other, will so affect and discolor the views, the aims, the
desires of the mind, that it will thereafter remain forever
dyed. A day of it to the untried mind is like opium to the
untried body. A craving is set up which shall eternally result
in dreams and death. Aye, dreams unfilled—gnawing, luring
idle phantoms which beckon and lead, until death and
dissolution dissolve their power (Dreiser, 1981; 305) .
By juxtaposing these two totally different scenes, Dreiser makes the reader
question the promises of the city once more and prepares the ground for the collapse
of his character in this threatening atmosphere.
As it was mentioned before, New York city is the prevailing city from the
second half of the novel, which means the main characters will appear differently
from how they are in Chicago. Because each city structure has different
characteristics, each city will reflect these characteristics on its inhabitants.
43
Chicago’s character is more positive. It is a city of luck, and promise for Carrie. On
the other hand, Hurstwood is a wealthy manager and thus means something for
Carrie in Chicago. But New York’s character is different. It is a city of lies, fall,
isolation, and deceptive wealth which is not for everybody. It is a “city with a wall
about it” where surviving is much more diffucult than in Chicago. “Hurstwood was
nothing in New York”(Dreiser, 1981; 305). Dreiser compares New York City to an
ocean “which was full of the whales and common fish must need disappear wholly
from view, remain unseen”(Dreiser, 1981; 305). He also makes a comparison of the
two cities:
In Chicago whose population still ranged about 500.000, the
Armours, Pullmans, Palmer, Fields had not yet arrived.
Millionaires were not numerous...The attention of the
inhabitants was not so distracted by local celebrities in the
dramatic, artistic, social, and religious fields. In Chicago the
two roads to distinction were politics and trade...In New
York, the roads were any one of a half-hundred and each had
been diligently pursued by hundreds, so that celebrities were
numerous...Already the great money kings had arrived—
Vanderbilt, Gould, Russel Sage (Dreiser, 1981; 304-305).
It is seen that New York is much more attractive and developed than
Chicago in various ways.
Another comparison of these different settings is presented by Philip Fisher.
He claims Carrie to be the only dynamic and unsettled figure in New York, in a
world where everyone else represents terminal points, levels, and places at which
she must arrive. For instance, Hansons, Carrie’s sister and her husband, Drouet,
Hurstwood have a static life. They all reached at some levels in their lives. They have
got married, they have got jobs, and responsibilities. Therefore they are all tied to
something. Unlike these static figures, Carrie is in a continous motion. She is looking
for job while experiencing the offerings of the city at the same time. She is meeting
new people. She is always looking for something new and better, she never stops.
Fisher goes on defining Chicago socially as:
44
..a social comedy of mobility sketched between honest,
hardworking immigrant toilers whose lives are decent and
respectable, grim and pleasureless, and upper levels of
managers of night clubs large enough to have five
bartenders. That is the complete social range (Fisher, 1982;
271).
On the other hand “New York is not an extension of this social scale into
both higher and lower possibilities, it is an entirely new world, one that is a symbolic
simplification into either-or choices”(Fisher, 1982; 271). It is an absolute world
between youth and age, not-yet and has-been, celebrity and nobody, light and
darkness, Broadway and Bowery. Moreover, Carrie is not the only dynamic figure in
New York on the contrary the city itself is dynamic.
In the novel, New York is presented through Carrie’s and Hurstwood’s
eyes. For Carrie, New York is the place of possibilities and pleasures. Her material
desires which started in Chicago increased in New York, because life in New York is
wealthier. Once Carrie meets her neighbor Mrs. Vance in New York, she enters the
world of consumption and dissatisfaction once more. As soon as Carrie meets
someone wealthier than herself, she becomes dissatisfied with her life.
She became restless and dissatisfied, not exactly with
Hurstwood, but with her life. What did she have? Nothing but
this narrow, little flat. The Vances could travel, they could do
the things worth doing, and here she was (Dreiser, 1981;
341) .
Carrie’s remark that “admirable, great city is so fine when you are not
poor” suggests that city is not a pleasant place when one has no money. This is true
for Hurstwood. The wealthy manager of Chicago loses all his money, which he stole
while leaving Chicago, and maintains his life as a poor beggar. Therefore, poverty in
the city is presented through Hurstwood’s eyes. As Hurstwood walks in the streets,
unemployed and homeless, he realizes the huge wall between the poor and rich.
Dreiser describes how Hurstwood is left out of the “walled city”.
45
He began to see it as one sees a city with a wall about it. Men
were posted at the gates. You could not get in. Those inside
didn’t care to come out to see who you were. They were so
merry inside there that all those outside were forgotten and
he was on the outside (Dreiser, 1981; 338).
It is the people who construct the city. Therefore each person experiences
the city differently depending on his/her social status, expectations, and economic
power. If people have high social status or other advantages such as youth, beauty,
and energy like Carrie, they can participate in most of the pleasures city offers.
Others who do not have these advantages like Hurstwood, an old and poor homeless
man, confronts the humiliating side of the city. Briefly, the author wants to
emphasize the fact that while the industrial economy produces wealth for some, it
also causes poverty for many.
In New York, the two main characters experience extreme transformations.
Hurstwood was an attractive, self-assured, married man with children. He was a
wealthy manager of a saloon in Chicago’s metropolitan scene. But from the time he
stole money from his saloon in order to run away with Carrie, Husrtwood’s moral
collapse, which will turn into a bodily collapse later, begins. He could not set his
business in New York as he had anticipated, on the contrary, he was refused by
everybody whom he applied for job. Each day, survival in New York was getting
much more diffucult and each day he was approaching his inevitable collapse. He
was not only losing his economic power but also Carrie’s liking. Carrie thought that
“he was not so handsome, he was gloomy. The lines at the sides of the eyes were
wrinkled. Naturally, dark of skin, gloom made him look slightly sinister. He was
quite a disagreeable figure”(Dreiser, 1981; 349).
This rapid change of Carrie’s opinions about Hurstwood indicates that
Carrie finds him attractive when he has money. Therefore, it seems that Carrie is
attracted to Hurstwood’s expensive clothes and his air which his economic power
gives him rather than his personality or his love. But Hurstwood is unshaved and in
dirty clothes after he begins to fall. This collapse of Hurstwood is an expected plot in
New York. It is the “plot of decline” which, according to Fisher, governs the New
46
York city. For Fisher, the plot of decline focuses on strength and weakness, freshness
and exhaustion. In addition to that, behind the plot of decline the characteristics of
Darwinism can be seen: struggle, survival, and extinction. These three processes are
true for Hurstwood. He struggled to live with Carrie, whose vitality he admired; he
stole money, he left his family, he put everything he had into danger. Then, he was
able to survive for a short time by hiding his name and his life story, by working at
toilsome jobs in New York. However, nothing could prevent him from committing
suicide in the end. As a result of all the alienating, isolating, and misery experiences
he had in his short life in New York, his moral decay, which began with his theft,
turned into a physical decay and finally to death. “ Carrie began to see that he was
gloomy, and taciturn, not as a young, strong and buoyant man. He looked a bit old to
her about the eyes and mouth now”(Dreiser, 1981; 342). Whereas the hard life in
New York city led Hurstwood to decline, it led Carrie to rise. Briefly, the fall of
Hurstwood gave way to rise of Carrie.
The author also gives his own theory about the rise and fall in these lines:
A man’s fortune, or material progress, is very much the same
as his bodily growth. Either he is growing stronger,
healthier, wiser, as the youth approaching manhood; or he is
growing weaker, older, less incisive mentally as the man
approaching old age. There are no other states. Frequently,
there is a period between the cessation of youthful accretion
and the setting in, in the case of the middle-aged man, of the
tendency toward decay when the two processes are almost
perfectly balanced and there is little doing in either direction.
Given time enough, however, the balance becomes a sagging
to the grave side (Dreiser, 1981; 338).
While Hurstwood was falling day by day, Carrie was climbing in the
economic ladder fast. She soon found a job in a theatre club and became a wellknown actress. It was Carrie who was providing for the house and it was Hurstwood
who was dependent on Carrie. Meanwhile, Carrie realized that if she went on living
with Hurstwood under these circumstances, she would not be able to fulfill her
hopes, “hopes of freedom and money-drain”, but she would decline with him as well.
Carrie thought that “when a man becomes an obstacle to the fufillment of a woman’s
47
desires, he becomes an odious thing in her eyes” (Dreiser, 1981; 395). Seeing
Hurstwood as an obstacle in her way to rise, Carrie left him and became the famous
face of the billboards, newspapers, and magazines.
With the rise and the fall of these characters, Dreiser wants to point out to
another important theme: reversal of gender roles. Carrie's and Hurstwood's
movement in opposite social and economic directions draws attention to the
destruction of the traditional assumptions about male and female roles in society.
Clare Virginia Eby defines these roles, or the traditional spheres of man and woman
in her article:
According to nineteenth century ideal (which still has many
advocates), woman's proper "sphere" in the home allowed her
to develop her innate nurturing tendencies while exercising her
influence in an appropriate fashion: by directing the moral
development of her children and husband. Correspondingly,
man's "sphere" was the public world, particularly the
marketplace, where his competitive tendencies could be
channeled to benefit his family and society as a whole
(www.library.upenn.edu).
Carrie was providing for the house by working out and coming home at late
hours, while Hurstwood was staying at home, and getting money from Carrie for
shopping or other housework. What Dreiser calls the "beginning of the new order"
occurs when Carrie starts earning the money while Hurstwood begins to do the
shopping. In that sense, Carrie’s leaving Hurstwood was a revolt not only against her
husband but against the traditional roles that women supposed to follow.
As a historian Barbara Welter describes the nineteenth century ideal woman
of the white middle class in her article “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860,”
that the "True Woman" was expected to be pious, pure, domestic, and submissive.
Welter says:
The attributes of True Womanhood, by which a woman
judged herself and was judged by her husband, her
neighbors, and her society could be divided into four
48
cardinal virtues – piety, purity, submissiveness, and
domesticity... Without them.... all was ashes. With them she
was promised happiness and power (Welter, 1966).
However, a competing model for femininity emerged in the U.S. around the
1880s. The "New Woman" typically had a career and was economically independent.
Frequently, these New Women associated themselves with members of their own sex
rather than those in conventional marriages. Talia Schaffer defines the typical New
Woman in her article:
New women were middle-class women who agitated for
changes in etiquette. They wanted extended proffessional
oppurtunities: employment and independent accommodations
and transportations. Finally, they insisted upon a code of
absolute honesty in sexual matters: information about
venereal disease, and alternatives to marriages (Schaffer,
2002)
It is seen that between these two definitions of True Woman and New
Woman, Carrie fits in the second definition, since she never appears as a pious, pure,
domestic or submissive woman all through the novel. On the contrary, she has
premarital sex with men, and after gaining her economic independence, she leaves
Hurstwood and begins to live with one of her girlfriends. Thus, Dreiser’s heroine can
be seen as a transitional figure moving from the Victorian True Woman model to the
modern New Woman. It is seen that Dreiser feels sympathy and affection for his
female character, and writes against his culture’s gender stereotypes. Thus, he allows
Carrie to rise above all the hindering forces of social determinism.
Towards the end of the novel, although Carrie reached at the position she
had been longing for, she still felt something missing in her life which money could
not provide. She realized that the money brought her nothing.
The metropolis is a cold place socially. The world of wealth
and distinction was quite as far away as ever. She could feel
that there was no warm, sympathetic friendship back of the
easy merriment with which many approached her. All seemed
49
to be seeking their own amusement, regardless of the
possible sad consequence to others (Dreiser, 1981; 444).
She begins to see the hallowness of the wealthy life in the end. Yet, it is
ironic that the situation she criticizes with these sentences is actually what she has
done since she came to Chicago. She looked only for her amusement regardless of its
possible consequences to Drouet and Hurstwood.
Having reached at the position she has always desired by means of her
youth, energy, and vitality, Carrie had nice clothes to wear, everybody admired her,
and she had all the material oppurtunities. At that point, a third man, Bob Ames
introduced her to an entirely different world. After the two men in Carrie’s life,
Drouet and Hurstwood who were the represantatives of materialism, Ames brought
Carrie the real happiness and goodness. He led her to higher ideals. Carrie could see
what she has ignored in her life only after the philosophical talks with Ames. The
following sentences of Ames helped Carrie to see the big emptiness in her life which
cannot be filled with expensive clothes or stage lights:
Some people get the idea that their happiness lies in wealth
and position... The world is full of desirable situations, but
unfortunately we can only occupy one at a time...Your
happiness is within yourself wholly if you will only believe
it...If you have powers, cultivate them. The work of doing it
will bring you as much satisfaction as you will ever get. The
huzzas of public don’t mean anything (Dreiser, 1981; 483).
These statements of Ames at first dissappointed Carrie, since she had never
been concerned with her spiritual world till that moment. Ames taught Carrie that
spiritual relief, inner wealth, and humanitarianism are the most important values in
one’s life. That means, Carrie will not be satisfied unless she discovers the innerrelief. Dreiser gave Ames the function of changing Carrie’s destination from
American Dream to self-fulfillment. Ames fulfilled this function by touching
Carrie’s inner discontent and teaching her that if she is led by instinct alone, she
might never attain satisfaction.
50
At the end of the novel Carrie begins to question her material triumph and
redefines her goals and seeks for a unity with Nature. She realizes that her job
offered her no chance to fulfill her dreams, but drifted her to isolation and alienation.
Since that moment, the forces of universe which have encouraged Carrie for material
wealth, in fact, have drifted her to a wrong ideal (Gündoğdu, 1999; 50). The scene at
the end of the novel in which Carrie sits on her rocking chair and questions the
missing thing in her life demonstrates her awakening to the reality that materialism
does not bring happiness. The author’s portrayal of Carrie at the end of the novel also
proves that neither money nor applauses could satisfy her.
She felt very much alone, very much as if she were struggling
hopelessly and unaided...All her nature was stirred to unrest
now. She was already the old, mournful Carrie—the desireful
Carrie—unsatisfied (Dreiser, 1981; 487).
McAleer attributes Carrie’s failure not to her but to society. He says:
“Carrie has failed to find happiness in the attainment of these goals not because she
has forfeited her virtue, but because the goals themselves are unworthy; the fault,
then, is not hers but society’s”(McAleer, 1968; 83). She has never created
oppurtunities for herself, she was just drawn into them. The forces of nature and
society misdirected her. Her ambition was not a calculated but an unplanned,
instinctual one. Carrie has first been with Drouet, then with Hurstwood not because
she was an oppurtunist but because the forces of environment led her to that way.
A similar point of view to McAleer’s is Alfred Kazin’s. According to
Kazin, Carrie is a construction of society; she captivates Drouet and ruins Hurstwood
unconsciously (Kazin, 1984; 243). He justifies Carrie with these words:
Carrie is innocent—in that sense she is lacking. Naively
wrapped up in her own life, she is unable to imagine
another’s. This may be the fate of “modern” people whose
personalities are constructed by “want” and fulfilled by
“society.” This, as much as the selfishness sanctioned by the
market system, Dresier may have had in mind when he said
that the whole atmosphere of Carrie’s first factory was one of
the hard contract (Kazin, 1984; 243).
51
It is remarkable in the novel that from time to time Carrie and Hurstwood
appear spending long hours rocking in the rocking chairs. Especially, when they need
to think, or confused, or want a change in their lives, they rock on the chair. When
Carrie comes to her sister’s home and finds the life there boring, she rocks and thinks.
When Hurstwood is unemployed, he rocks long hours thinking. Similarly, when
Carrie begins to dislike the life with Hurstwood “she was rocking and beginning to
see” (Dreiser; 1981, 337). It is seen that the motion of rocking gives the characters the
ability to “see,” to see the unpleasantness in their lives. However, they can do nothing
to change the situation because of the powerful environmental forces.
This symbolic rocking motion is the subject of Philip Fisher’s article
“Acting, Reading, Fortune’s Wheel: Sister Carrie.” Fisher parallels the rocking chair
to the Ferris Wheel, “a wheel in Chicago Fair which is 250 feet diameter that raised
fairgoers in tiny cabins high into the air to let them view the fair as a whole” (Fisher;
1982, 259). For Fisher, it is a bridge that begins and ends at the same point, it moves
itself rather than the people in it. Furthermore, he argues that people getting on this
wheel always have the pleasure of rising and the fear of falling, just like Carrie and
Hurstwood. Carrie dreams of rising while rocking at her sister’s small house whereas
Hurstwood worries about losing while rocking. Fisher claims the rockers to be the
“in-betweenness” position. He explains the term “in-betweenness” as such:
The rocking chair permits the rockers to be in motion and yet
never to leave the same place, to be outside the house and yet
still in the domestic space, to participate in the street life
without leaving the family, to enter the world and yet to be
protected from it (Fisher; 1982, 260).
In parallel to Fisher’s argument, at her sister’s house Carrie “drew one small
rocking chair up to the open window, and sat looking out upon the night and the
streets in silent wonder” (Dreiser; 1981, 15). While rocking, she longed for being out
among the people on the streets, and eating at expensive restaurants without
participating in it. In the following chapters, although Carrie reached at her
aspirations that she was dreaming in her rocking chair, she could not escape from “in-
52
betweenness” position, since she could never find real happiness and never appeared
as fully satisfied figure throughout the novel despite her economic wealth.
Fisher goes on evaluating the rocking motion in Sister Carrie:
The rocking chair, like the Ferris Wheel, displays none of the
linear motion of progress and exploration but rather rising
and falling. The world of Dreiser’s Sister Carrie is composed
of images of motion, of which the most profound are not
horizontal motions of train rides, carriage excursions, trips
to Europe, but instead the tragic and vertical motions of
rising and falling: the motion of the rocking chair (Fisher;
1982, 260).
As far as Fisher’s views in his article are considered, the themes of “rise”
and “fall” appear as one of the dominant themes of the novel. By portraying Carrie as
a rising and Hurstwood as a falling figure, Dreiser demonstrates that his characters
are not static, but dynamic just as the societies, and these dynamic societies have the
power to make the characters rise or fall.
Consequently, Theodore Dreiser has written Carrie’s story as a complaint
against the goals of American Dream and its damaging influence on characters.
Although the novel focuses on Carrie’s life story, the real victim of American Dream
is actually Hurstwood, beacuse Carrie was able to survive in a jungle-like
environment by turning the oppurtunities on her own advantage. It was Hurstwood
who was exposed to the ruining effect of American Dream, not Carrie.
Sister Carrie is a powerful novel in portraying the materialistic society. Its
characters perfectly represent a world which is hallow and spiritually poor, and
focuses solely on exterior, superficial qualities. Such a world justifies the suicide of
Hurstwood and dissatisfaction of Carrie and shows that living a shallow life can
ultimately lead to a collapse.
53
CONCLUSION
Man and society had a double position in that they were products both of
“nature and design, of instinct and of reason.”(Mellor, 1977; 210). Briefly, both man
and society are shaped by instinct and reason. Mellor sees nature as the environment
in which man competes for space, and for sustenance or economic survival (Mellor,
1977). Especially, in order to survive in an urban environment, one has to adjust to
the environment. As Mellor asserted, although the city’s environment is man-made,
it possesses a natural order which provides conditions of interdependence and the
basis for the cultural organization of its moral order (Mellor, 1977; 210). Unless one
adjusts to this natural and moral order, s/he will either be destroyed physically or
psychologically.
National Resources Committee in Washington published an article entitled
“The Problems of Urban America” in 1937 in which they mention the diffuculties the
urban societies confront. These diffuculties can easily be seen in the two novels
analyzed in this study. According to that research the main threats in an urban
community are grouped under 7 categories.
The first group of threats is poverty and inequality. Although the living
standards increase in the cities, there still exists a large number of individuals who do
not have enough means to survive. It is argued in the article that “in contrast to their
rich fellow citizens, the poor are poorer in the city than they are elsewhere”(743).
The huge difference between the two settings of the novel Maggie: A Girl Of The
Streets, Bowery and Uptown New York is a good example for the inequality in the
same city.
The second threat is insecurity and unemployment. As an outcome of
poverty and inequality, insecurities dominate the cities. What’s more, unemployment
increases due to the overcrowdedness of the cities. City workers lose their jobs easily
or they have to work for very low wages. For instance, when Carrie arrived in
Chicago, her desperate searches for job concluded with refusal.
54
The third threat is vulnerability of city life. It is stated in the article that in
the time of events such as disaster, epidemic, war, flood, storm, and accident, city
can be a hazardous place. Their effects can be serious and destroying.
The fourth threat is family and community disorganization. Cities have a
disintegrating force on family ties. Committee claims that “anonymity of human
relations in the city further contributes to the weakening of family and community
ties”(745). For instance, Carrie easily left her sister in order to live with Drouet,
although her sister is the only family tie of her in the city. That is because city’s
oppurtunities such as freedom, amusement, and wealth attracted Carrie more than
family.
The fifth threat is dirt, smoke, and waste. Industrial and urban waste are the
major polluting effects of the cities. Crane’s gloomy description of the setting of his
novel, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, is full of filth, dirt, and smoke and it can be a
good example for this threat of cities.
The sixth threat is insanity and suicide. In urban societies people suffer
from mental diseases more than in rural areas. All the adverse effects of the cities
presented above cause misery and alienation in man’s life. When someone cannot
keep up with the city life, s/he either commits suicide or maintains a mentally
disordered life. In the two city novels, for instance, tha main characters commit
suicide. In Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets, the New York City drifts Maggie to
prostitution and later to death. In Sister Carrie, on the other hand, Hurstwood loses
his career, his love, his wealth and he commits suicide.
Finally, the seventh threat is delinquency and crime. As a result of
unemployment and inequalities, the loosers in the city rebel by committing crime.
Maggie’s brother Jimmy’s continual fighting on the streets in Maggie: A Girl Of The
Streets shows how much delinquency was dominant in cities at that time.
55
Both novels Sister Carrie and Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets clearly reflect
these problems which dominated the U.S. after the growth of industrialization.
Besides the urban problems, these two novels also demonstrate the psychological and
moral transformations of the two women in these growing cities.
In their struggle to adjust to their new urban environment, the heroines of
both novels, Carrie and Maggie, experience some transformations. Both women
come to the big city from small settlements, Carrie is from the Colombia City,
Maggie is from the Bowery slum, where the life is not as diffucult and chaotic as in
the big city. The most important difference between the two women’s aim in their
living in a big city is that Carrie comes to Chicago in order to live with her sister by
the guidance of her instincts. On the other hand, Maggie comes to New York because
she has no other choice when she is exluded by her family and her lover.
Although the first confrontation with the city was exciting for both Carrie
and Maggie by means of all the attractive elements of the city, living in it was
diffucult for both of them, since it was an entirely different world. Here James
Baldwin’s impressions about the city and country would be similar to the heroines’.
Baldwin describes the simple life in a country:
You wake up whenever its that you wake up, and you look at
the sky. It’s there, and it gives you some idea what kind of a
day you are going to have, and you walk on the ground. It’s
there, and you go about your duties: You have your lunch,
you take a walk, you know that at a certain moment the sun is
going to go down. You close the shutters, turn on the lights,
have a drink, make love, go to sleep. And everday in the
country is like that (Baldwin, 1981; 134).
After this scene of the country, he gives a description of the threatening
city:
The city involves a divorce from reality. There is something
terrifying about being forty stories in the air and looking
around you, and you see nothing but walls, skyscrapers. If
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you are on the ground, and want to see the sky, you must
make an effort (Baldwin, 1981; 134).
By giving the different structures of country and city, Baldwin asserts that
city separates people from the sense of reality as well as from each other. When the
separation from each other starts, isolation and alienation also start in one’s life. The
first separataion in these heroines’ lives is separation from their families. But the
difference is that while material hunger separates Carrie from her family, love
separates Maggie from hers.
At that point, a big difference occurs in these women’s sentimental life.
Carrie leaves all the men in her life in order to reach her aspirations after getting
what she needs. Unlike Carrie, Maggie leaves her family in order to have a happy life
with her “knight.” Thus, Maggie appears as a much more sentimental, naive, and
dreamy girl than Carrie. Whereas Carrie cleverly benefited all the oppurtunities
offered to her in order to reach a material success without questioning, “under the
trees of Maggie’s dream gardens, there had always walked a lover” (Crane, 1995;
16). For that reason, their different characteristics and expectations prepared a
different future for them.
After separation from their families, whether it is voluntary or obligatory,
Carrie and Maggie had to face the hardships of city which is a totally new and
threatening environment for them. Carrie was able to adjust to her new environment,
the culture of Chicago and New York. It may be because of her imitation skill or her
ambitious personality. Whatever the reason is, Carrie was able survive economically
in her new environment. On the other hand, Maggie’s new environment drifted her to
prostitution. Maggie’s social conditions, poverty, and degradation in addition to her
romanticism accelerated her decline. Different from Carrie, Maggie had morals and
values. For that reason, she could not endure the psychological and moral distress
that prostitution caused in her life, and she committed suicide. If she had not
committed suicide, she could have gained a material success just like Carrie. But
wealth through an immoral life was not suiting Maggie’s dreams. Thus, she could
survived neither economically nor physically.
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Besides the economic survival, the authors Theodore Dreiser and Stephen
Crane question the moral survival of their heroines in the urban environment.
According to Donald Pizer, naturalists write within the formula of pessimistic
determinism (Pizer; 1998, 185). However, this argument is true for Crane but not for
Dreiser. Whereas Dreiser portrays a morally blind heroine and chooses to be positive
about her by carrying his heroine to an economically powerful position, Crane draws
a portrait of a heroine whose morality and values have priority in her life, and
prepares a tragic end for her. Briefly, Dreiser’s affection for Carrie Meeber contrasts
with Crane’s indifference to Maggie Johnson. Therefore, Crane is more pessimistic
than Dreiser about the survival of females in an urban environment.
Although Dreiser clearly shows Carrie’s immoral behaviours during the
novel, Carrie remains unawakened till the end of the novel. She could not see her
mistakes, and still thinks of the missing thing in her life in her rocking chair at the
end of the novel. Even though Carrie learns from Ames that there are more valuable
and meaningful things in the world than money, she could not reach at a full
awakening. On the other hand, Maggie commits suicide shortly after she begins to
live as a prostitute, because she could see the immorality in her life.
Not only the writers’ portrayal of the heroines but also their approaches to
the characters and the events happening in the novel are different. Whereas Stephen
Crane was in little sympathy with his slum characters and prefers a detachment from
them, Theodore Dreiser puts himself among the characters in the novel, and makes
subjective comments from time to time. For instance, he sees Carrie as a victim and
accuses her environment. But Crane just narrates the events as “a literary observer, a
personal reporter of city scenes” (Trachtenberg, 1982). On the other hand, by using
the subject “we” from time to time, and including his own comments in the novel,
Dreiser gives his message more clearly than Crane. As Alfred Kazin asserted,
“Dreiser was not capable of separating himself from the system he protested, while
Crane really stood outside” (Kazin, 1984; 263). As Trachtenberg argued Crane aimed
58
at accuracy, not compassion (Trachtenberg, 1982; 145). This difference in narration
makes Crane’s work more picturesque than Dreiser’s.
As far as the settings are considered, it is clearly seen that Crane’s
environment is loaded with more despair and gloom than Dreiser’s. Although the
novels mostly focus on the same city, New York, the authors differ in their
standpoints. Whereas Crane approaches to the city from the eyes of a slum figure,
Maggie, and mostly gives brief information about her surroundings, Dreiser’s novel
starts with his heroine’s arrival at the city. Thus, the reader never learns Carrie’s
background and her environmnet in her small hometown Colombia City. Moreover,
Dreiser approaches to the city from the eyes of urbanites, Carrie, Drouet, and
Hurstwood. Although Carrie was not born in city, her easy adaptation to city life and
her endless materialism makes her an urbanite.
Despite the different narrative techniques and women characters of these
writers, they have also some points in common. They both choose the life among
poor and homeless as their subjects and take up the issues that were a social taboo.
Their characters are unable to assert their own free will against the natural and
economic forces. They reflect the historically changing period of the U.S. with all its
harsh realities in their works. The shift from an agricultural society to an industrial
one, the curruption of the traditional values, and the rapid urbanization process are
the subject matters brought into in these novels.
Sister Carrie and Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets are the representations of
the life of a man in a contemporary society. They are also the significant works of the
periods in which they are written, since they can reflect the sociological, cultural,
and economical changes of the period realisticly by focusing on the human
behaviour. Theodore Dreiser and Stephen Crane reflect this change by questioning a
number of social issues such as the conflict between country and city life, adaptation
to urban environment, rise and fall, materialism, moral and psychological decay in
their works. The two naturalist writers successfully depict the role of instincts in
59
man’s nature and the environmental forces in man’s life by choosing a threatening,
mysterious, and a jungle-like setting, namely city, for their works.
60
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