Sister Carrie

Author: Theodore Dreiser

One-sentence summary: A young woman from a small town moves to Chicago in the late nineteenth century in search of a job and a new life and meets two men who will change her life indefinitely.

B.A.D. Girls Book Rating: 7

Our favorite thing about it: We really loved the author’s insightful commentary on human nature and desires.

Our least favorite thing about it: There were superfluous parts to this book that we felt weighed it down and could have been eliminated without affecting the story and message of the book.

Main Topics of Discussion: Youth and Beauty, Job Seeking, Employment, Nineteenth Century Culture, Vanity, Human Nature, Choices and Decisions, Relationships, Morality

Our favorite quote: “People in general attach too much importance to words. They are under the illusion that talking effects great results. As a matter of fact, words are, as a rule, the shallowest portion of all the argument. They but dimly represent the great surging feelings and desires which lie behind. When the distraction of the tongue is removed, the heart listens.” (p.120)

Notes: We had a lot to say about this book for two reasons. First, it was a lengthy book. As stated above, we all felt that there were parts that we had to wade through. And secondly, there were so many topics and facets to this story. In fact, there were almost three main characters.

In the first part of the book we discussed Carrie’s job search and how we identified with it and how it painted a perfectly hopeless picture of her situation. We moved from that to discussing Drouet and what we thought of him as a person. We were a little divided on his character. There was no doubt that he was a shameless flirt and liked women. However, most of us thought that he had a good heart and good intentions where Carrie was concerned but was just very emotionally immature and clueless. Others of us believed that he was not entirely faithful to Carrie and was not good for her at all. But all of us agreed that, whatever his intentions, he probably changed Carrie’s life in the most tangible way. Without his care and money, she would never have even met Hurstwood and in all likelihood would have returned to her family in the country.

We discussed what we believed to be a seminal moment in the book: Hurstwood’s stealing the money from his bar. We all thought the description of motives and thought here was superb and more than any other decision in the book, was expertly described and detailed. We couldn’t believe that Carrie would decide to stay with him except that her situation back in Chicago was bleak.

A great deal of our discussion surrounded the latter part of the book and the dwindling relationship between Hurstwood and Carrie. We all agreed again that Dreiser’s depiction of Hurstwood falling from high society to homelessness and all the mental stages of that decline were written very well. For all of the characters, we found it hard to come to a consensus about what we thought of them because they were so multi-faceted. One minute you would agree with their decision and like them more for it, and the next minute, they would seem despicable for another thought or decision.

So many of the motives and decisions in the book were made (by all characters) based on money, comfort and vanity. Dreiser’s true story was about the common desires, needs and impulses we all have as humans and his descriptions of such we thought were brilliant.

Memorable Meeting Moments: Rachel received her birthday books, we all drank tea from our “initial” mugs (except Becky!), and we talked the voice right out of Becky!