英语论文网

escape from the political, economic and religious persecution of the Old World, dreamed of building up a New World. That’s the beginning of the American Dream. America, a place where everyone had a fair chance in making it big; America, the land of the free and the home of the brave, set your sail and travel to the New World of wonder and where your wildest dreams come true. In the American Declaration of Independence, the founding father stated “old certain truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are life, liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.” This sentiment was considered the foundation of the American Dream. Everybody tried to struggle for freedom and welfare. After the independence of the U.S, Benjamin Franklin, one of the drafters of the Declaration of Independence, became both a spokesman and a model for the national character of later generations of Americans. He was the representative of the American Dream for his autobiography. Benjamin Franklin was often referred to as the First American and he was given this title with good reason and it proved him more as an American hero, especially a hero for American youngsters.
In the monopoly period, modern values had transformed the American Dream’s pure ideals into a scheme for materialistic power, and further, the world of high society lacked sense of morals and consequence. The disparity between rich and poor being serious, hedonism and money worship being overflowed, people would stop at nothing to get what they wanted. Benjamin Franklin’s way to wealth had been out of date. The American Dream had become the pursuit of material prosperity that people worked more hours to get bigger cars, fancier homes and the fruits of prosperity for their families, but they had less time to enjoy their prosperity. In Dreiser’s times, the content of the American Dream was to pursue more money and higher rank in society and it brought great hazards to the American society.
2.2 The Causes of the Twisted American Dream
2.2.1 The Cruel Social Background in Sister Carrie
The city has its cunning wiles, no less than the infinitely smaller and more human tempter. There are large forces which allure with all the soulfulness of expression possible in the most cultured human. In his first novel, Dreiser opted to paint a realistic portrait of America for what it really was—materialistic (Gerber 52). “The money ideal would be exposed as the great motivating purpose of life in the United States: one’s relative affluence at any level of society determining the degree creature comfort one might enjoy, the measure of prestige one might own, and the extent of social power one might command” (ibid. 52-53). Sister Carrie completely reiterates America’s obsession with money because there is not one character whose own status symbol isn’t determined economically (ibid. 53). 本论文由英语论文网 www.51lunwen.org整理提供
At the end of the Civil War, big business boomed and there was a preoccupation with “conspicuous consumption” (Ward 33). Capitalism roared and consumers began to see each other for what they thought they really were: money. Dreiser first describes his Carrie Meeber not by her opinions or actions, but by what she owns “a small trunk, a cheap imitation alligator-skin satchel ... and a small yellow snap purse” (Dreiser 54). Although Carrie cannot afford a real alligator-skin satchel, she owns a