Q.1
Carrie
Carrie’s driving force is the urge to begin her own life and become an independent grown woman. She is willing to achieve an economic success at all costs. She makes her first step I life and meets a traveling salesman in Chicago called Drouet. Carrie then falls in the saving hands of Drouet because she believed that this man could take care of her (Dreiser 13). Carrie was immediately impressed by Drouet’s dressing, and this proves that she is materialistic. Carrie chooses Drouet as her means of achieving success instead of working hard on her own. Carrie also wanted someone that she could depend on because she was not financially stable.
Drouet
He is the first man that met Carrie. When Drouet meets Carrie, he gets attracted to her and her invites her to live with him. His driving force was making Carrie his wife. He is loves Carrie, and he sympathize with her when he gets her in a poor condition. He wants Carrie to have a better life than the one she currently lives (Dreiser 15). This is because he cares about Carrie.
Hurstwood
Hurstwood is a friend to Drouet and he is also attracted to Carrie. He wants to snatch Carrie from Drouet, which he manages to do. After taking Carrie away from Drouet, he moves her to New York. However, Hurstwood’s financial status weakens and Carrie is obliged to search for a job in the theaters (Dreiser 18).
Minnie Hanson
She is the sister to Carrie and the first person that Carrie lived with while in Chicago. Her driving force is to serve her husband at all costs. She wakes up early in the morning to prepare tea for him and works hard for long hours during the day, just taking care of the house. Carrie does not like her sister’s lifestyle of being a housewife (Dreiser 21).
Q.2
Carrie goes to live with Drouet because of instincts and economic pressure. Her instincts tells her that she met the right man for her; a financially stable person who can advice her about life. She is also a poor woman who wants to begin her life, but she wants to depend on Drouet because he is a financially stable man (West 123). She is a schemer who wants to take advantage of Drouet, without having to work hard for her own wealth.
Carrie is living a double life just like Rachel in “A double Standard”. She wants to pursue her own career, and wants to cling to someone else’s life. He is offers herself willingly to both Drouet and Hurstwood because of their financial status. She appears to be a materialistic woman who changes her mind the moment she discovers a man of a better financial status (West 34). The only difference with Carrie is that she respects herself and does not sleep with Drouet, unlike Rachel. This is evident in the passage when Dresier says that she hated her sister’s life of serving the husband (Dreiser 46).
Q.3
Hurstwood’s thoughts of stealing money from the office were rambling until when the safe door shut itself. He did not have any other option, but to steal it because everything was already in a mess. With the money, he thought of escaping with Carrie and eliminating his wife.
This chapter illustrates determinism. Hurstwood had no intention of stealing the money at first, but when the safe door locked itself, he thought that he was already in trouble and had no option but to steal the money. This chapter indicates that all events and actions are caused by other conditions or actions. What made Hurstwood steal the money was the locking of the safe. He could not control himself because his indecision turned to action.
Q.4
Hurstwood suffers while in New York because he had sent back most of the cash that he had stolen. He was only left with $1300, which he wanted to for starting a business. Things did not go well when he bought a business stake from a bar. The landowner throws them out of the bar to build a new office. Hurstwood was left with only $700 in his pocket (Dreiser 213). He had to struggle to look for a new job that would sustain him, while in New York. He moves with Carrie in a smaller apartment in New York.
Carrie decides to look for a job in Broadway. Carrie soon gets a promotion to a better position and refuses to tell Hurstwood because she wanted to save money for her clothes. Carrie was more determined to work compared to Hurstwood who seemed lazy and careless.
Q.5
Dreiser believes that destiny is what is meant for someone in life. He believes that no matter what people do to you or events that unfold in your life, your destiny will come to pass. If an individual is destined to be successful in life, he/she will be regardless of the obstacles. Carrie’s destiny was to be a successful actor (Kazin and Charles 25). She passed through hell of a life before she reached there, from Drouet to her sister and to Hurstwood. Dreiser believes that will is different from destiny because will may never be achieved. Louisa May Alcotta has a different understanding of will and destiny because she believes that both will and destiny are the same (Alcott and Valerie 23). This is evident in her work “Little Women” because Meg got a job a King’s governess through will.
Works Cited
Alcott, Louisa M, and Valerie Alderson. Little Women. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994.
Internet resource.
Dreiser, Theodore. Sister Carrie. Raleigh, N.C: Alex Catalogue, 1990. Internet resource.
Kazin, Alfred, and Charles Shapiro. The Stature of Theodore Dreiser: A Critical Survey of the
Man and His Work. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1955. Print.
West, James L. W. A Sister Carrie Portfolio. Charlottesville: Published for the Bibliographical
Society of the University of Virginia by the University Press of Virginia, 1985. Print.
