西奥多·德莱赛的《嘉莉妹妹》从问世之日就在当时的美国文坛掀起了轩然大波。小说真实地展现了生活中阴暗的、被遮蔽的一面,直面了人性的弱点,对19世纪末20世纪初美国都市的社会现实作了无情地披露。贯穿整部小说的是男女主人公赫斯特伍德和嘉莉的命运。赫斯特伍德的人生一直在走下坡路,从衣食无忧的酒店经理沦落为一无所有的乞丐直至无奈自杀的毁灭过程极具悲剧色彩。而嘉莉的命运从 Theodore Dresser’s Sister Carrie set off an uproar in the American literary world of his time. The novel truly shows the gloomy and obscured side of life, facing the weakness of human nature and making a merciless disclosure of the social reality of American cities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Throughout the novel is the fate of the hero and heroine Hurstwood and Carrie. Hurstwood’s life has been declining, from the well-being of the hotel manager reduced to nothing beggars until the destructive suicide destructive tragedy. And Carrie’s fate from