Thursday, May 1, 2008
Sister Carrie

Oh I know you read the title and want to say "Sister Christian" but it's not, thank God. That is an 80s song I am glad not to hear anymore it bothered me so much!

The first edition of "Sister Carrie" was published in the year 1900. This fact alone intrigued me as I was reading because there are many racy elements to the story which I wouldn't have guessed for a writer during that time.

The story is about a girl named Caroline Meeber who is indeed a sister named Carrie. She moves from the country and into the city to live with her sister. She is a bit of a people watcher and I think her perceptions of the people around her are what interested me the most about the story. She would watch men and see what they were notiving about women. She learned how to walk, move, talk and behave to attract men by following those observations. However, she began resenting men for their easy ways. She also began to hold herself at a high esteem even though that knowledge caused a battle of wills within her. She saw people looking at her as though she was beautiful, but she didn't think of herself that way. She would literally argue to herself about these things.

Her journey and experience throughout the city, Chicago, is filled with drama. There are affairs, lies, secrets and misgivings which Carrie witnesses and takes note of. She ends up being asked to perform in a play and while trying for the role she finds herself morphing into someone else. Carrie easily picks up on other people's quirks and makes them her own.

Carrie ends up a mistress to the man who hired her and throughout the story she battles and argues with herself over this predicament. She knows George W. Hurstwood is married and has a daughter. She eventually does leave him and his life spirals downhill.

Though Carrie ends up a star, she doesn't end up happy.

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