The Duality Revealed in Carrie

The Duality Revealed in Carrie

The main goal of this paper was to reveal the dual qualities exhibited by Carrie Meeber, the heroine in Sister Carrie (1900). Dreiser often describes her as passive, amoral and helpless. However, this paper tried to find another side of her character. Timid and passive Carrie becomes quite active and adventurous when she has to cope with difficult situations in New York. She is brave enough to challenge a new career that requires dramatic art and strong desire. Also, Carrie is described as a character without any moral or intellectual growth, but at the same time she learns quickly and reveals a sympathetic, impressionable nature with good potential for growth. The immorality expressed in Carrie is driven by her survival instinct or by Dreiser's own experiences and naturalistic beliefs. Therefore, in spite of her seemingly flat character, there is evidence of other qualities revealed in Carrie such as active, sympathetic, and longing for a better life in a materialistic society. Carrie is a mixture of qualities explicit and others only hinted at.