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Sister Carrie As A Moral Problem

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Brill1

The 1890s in America was a time of change for many Americans. Cities were starting to change rapidly due to industrial expansion and population growth.1 Many people felt the need to reinvent themselves to achieve a higher social status.2 This time period created a new generation of Americans who needed the instant gratification of material things without working for them.3 Through these actions, some Americans even began to discard traditional American mores and values that were once held so highly. Theodore Dreiser?s novel Sister Carrie is an example of the drastic changes happening in this time period. ?Sister Carrie from the beginning was discussed as a moral problem.?4 Dreiser?s first novel was almost ?consigned to limbo.?5 Society could not accept a novel that disobeyed the social values, mores, and rules of the 1890s.6 Also, society did not believe that the plot was realistic to the time period.7 This novel shows ??The division between the haves and the have nots of the country has come to seem particularly stark, and when traditional American mores governing the meanings and the purposes of wealth have largely eroded.?8 As the reader sees the development of American society in Theodore Dreiser?s Sister Carrie, there is a constant rejection of American mores and values by Carrie and those around her. In the novel Sister Carrie, material things and money are held extremely high. From the beginning of the novel we see Carrie begin to hold them up

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