Vivid Heroine
——On Sister Carrie
Carrie was such an ordinary rural girl at the beginning of the story. Sitting on the seat of a bus, she couldn’t help feeling exciting at the sight of the metropolis’ spectacle. She was impressed deeply by large crowd on the avenue, the spacious square or tall buildings.
Far more different from other heroines, Carrie was not a plain pure angel like Snow-white, nor was she brave enough to be a heroine of revolutionist or even a reformer, nor was she so clever as to be a successful career woman who start from scratch.
What attracted her most, after her entering this huge metropolis was the incredible fineries, fashion shoes, smart handbags displaying in the shop windows, the jewellerys shining brightly behind the glass. She dreamed that one day, she could wear all of these, jogging gracefully into the most luxurious hotel with focused sights of admiration.
And this was not merely a dream. Because she had large eyes which can earn others’ sympathy, even love. She had wonderful figure which can win others’ hearts. However, anything she got, anywhere she reached, had not come from her ambition. Things happened, and then she accepted. That’s what she had just done — just to accept willingly from the bottom of her heart. She was not at all an evil woman who would give anything for the fortune or fame. However, she would give uo something for a better life when her instinct defeated her intellect.
That was Carrie, a girl had her own desire, a human being just like many others in the realistic world.
There’s one sentence written in chapter VIII:” When this jangle of free-will instinct shall have been adjusted, when perfect understanding has given the former the power to replace the latter entirely, man will no longer vary.” However, how many people can go that further.
And I want to quote another sentence to wind up my essay:
“In Carrie — as in how many of our wordings do they not? — instinct and reason, desire and understanding, were at war for the mastery.”