Well, I liked it. Sad, and Carrie was a bit cold, but it was a fun read. The movie with Laurence Olivier was really sad!! ( )

I read this because the review said it was about a young girl who leaves home to go to Chicago to earn keep. This reminded by my aunt Sarah Alspaugh's story. I also referred it to cousin Heather Popovich. I read the whole book, but it did not give me much insight into my aunt's life. Carrie moved into a life of affluence. My aunt did not (she was a telephone operator, I believe).
( )

Dreiser does a lot of moralizing. He means well, with his moralizing, but I would wonder: "who died and put him in charge of every one's morals?" He is sexist, calling all young women"girls," "the little girl," "the little soldier," and various other patronizing terms. Towards the end of the book, his descriptions of the homeless people (all men! where are the homeless women?) are touching, sad, and bring to mind all the people in San Jose and San Francisco, crowded out by gentrification, living on the streets in 2019.

Some quotes:
P.38
"under better material conditions, this kind of work would not have been so bad, but the new socialism which involves pleasant working conditions for employees had not been taken hold upon our manufacturing companies.
"The place smelled of the oil of the machines and the new leather -- a combination which, added to the stale odors of the building, was not pleasant even in cold weather. The floor, though regularly swept every evening, presented a littered surface. Not the slightest provision had been made for the comfort of the employees, the idea being that something was gained by giving them as little and making the work as hard and unremunerative as possible. What we know of footrests, swivel - back chairs, dining rooms for the girls, clean aprons and curling iron supplied free, and a decent cloakroom, were unthought-of. The washrooms were disagreeable, crude, if not foul places, and the whole atmosphere was sordid."
This is Carrie's first workplace, when she comes to make her own life in Chicago.

P.212
"Hurstwood , being an older man, could scarcely be said to retain the fire of youth, though he did possess a passion warm and reasoning. It was strong enough to induce the leaning toward him which, on Carrie's part, we have seen. She might have been said to be imagining herself in love, when she was not. Women frequently do this. It flows from the fact that in each exists a bias towards affection, a craving for the pleasure of being loved. The longing to be shielded, bettered, sympathized with, is one of the attributes of the sex. This, coupled with sentiment and a natural tendency to emotion, often makes refusing difficult. It persuades them that they are in love."
If that isn't a sickening platitude. This is a description of why Carrie settled to live with a has-been like Hurstwood. ( )

too long ( )

A good novel for its time but dated and mostly of historical interest for the rabid reaction from the righteous sex police, who have now moved on to Huckleberry Finn and probably Ovid's Metamorphosis. Remarkably realistic characterizations, for the time. Women will likely appreciate Sister Carrie more than men do, suggesting another star. If that's not sexist. ( )