- Year Published: 1900.
- Pages: 557.
Sister Carrie Summary
SHORT SUMMARY
Sister Carrie has two main characters – Carrie Meeber and George Hurstwood. Whereas Carrie is pretty ordinary, she rises from her low income-earning status to become a lucratively paid actress and comediennes of her time. George, on the other hand, falls from his upper middle-class status to living on the streets.
Neither of these characters changes their fate through vice or virtue. Rather, random circumstances play a hand in their destinies. Their failures and successes also have no identifiable moral value, placing Sister Carrie at a clear departure from the literature of its time.
In the novel, Dreiser touches on various experiences and themes. These range from the comforts of the upper middle class to the grinding poverty of the masses. Similarly, Sister Carrie focuses on the present – with the characters plunging right into the narrative without the audience learning much of their histories.
This writing strategy allows the author the freedom to alter the identities of the characters. However, they all reflect modern American experiences as heralded by the capitalist economy.
Through this development, the reader catches glimpses of the mass rural to urban migration that was atypical of the time. In Sister Carrie, the author aptly captures the thrill and excitement that these experiences engendered.
LONG SUMMARY
Caroline Meeber, one of the two main characters in Sister Carrie, leaves her native Columbia City home and heads to Chicago. Although her life is one of regrets, tears, and fears, she is determined to use the big city in her favor.
During the train ride, she encounters Charles Drouet, a traveling salesman whose flashy clothes and laid-back demeanor are a mark of the influence and wealth Carrie hopes to earn in