The background of Sister Carrie is at the end of 19th century in America。 Actually, The background is in Chicago and New York, in 1889。 Just as the author depicted in the novel: “In 1889 Chicago had the peculiar qualifications of growth which made such adventure some pilgrimages even on the part of young girls plausible。 Its many and growing commercial opportunities gave it widespread fame, which made of it a giant magnet, drawing to itself, from all quarters, the hopeful and hopeless—those who had their fortune yet to make and those whose fortunes and affairs had reached a disastrous climax elsewhere。 It was a city of over 500, 000, with the ambition。 Its streets and houses were already scattered over an area of seventy-five miles。 Its population was not so much thriving upon established commerce as upon the industries which prepared for the arrival of others。 The sound of the hammer engaged upon the erection of new structures was everywhere heard。 Great industries were moving in。 The huge railroad corporations which had long before recognized the prospects of the place had seized upon vast tracts of land for transfer and shipping purposes。 Street-car lines had been extended far out into the open country in anticipation of rapid growth。”(Dreiser 2)。The author employs a typical “arrived metropolis” narrative mode。 From the 18th century realism to modernism in the 20th century, many authors often use this model to express the metropolitan luxury landscape, lifestyle, values and its powerful creation on inpidual reconstruction or rejection, accommodation or subjugation。 These novels show the process of inpidual urbanization and modernization vividly through depicting the success or failure of provincial youth。来-自~优+尔=论.文,网www.chuibin.com +QQ752018766-

Because it depicted social transgressions by characters who felt no remorse and largely escaped punishment, and because it used “strong” language and used names of living persons, it was virtually suppressed by its publisher, who printed but refused to promote the book。 Since its reissue in 1907, it has steadily risen in popularity and scholarly accepted as one of the key works in the Dreiser’s canon。 Indeed, though turn-of-the century readers found Dreiser’s point of view crude and immoral, his influence on the fiction of the first quarter of the century is perhaps greater than any other writers。