A brief analysis of the embodiment of consumerism in Dreiser's works
From the end of 19 to the beginning of the 21th century, with the rapid development of capitalism, consumerism began to have a far-reaching impact on American society. People's thoughts have undergone subversive changes contrary to traditional thoughts, and their desire for material things is even stronger, which is fully reflected in Dreiser's works. This paper will analyze the background, concrete embodiment, causes and characteristics of consumerism in Dreiser's works.
keywords: consumerism Dreiser's works reflect
summary of the early 19th century to the 21th century, with the rapid development of capitalism, consumerism began to have a proven impact on American society. People's thoughts and contrary to traditional ideas to produce disruptive change， the desire for material more strongly， and this change in Dreiser's works are to be fully realized。 This article will work in the background Dreiser consumerism， embodied， causes and characteristics were analyzed。
keywords: consumerism works reflect dresser
from the end of 2119 to the beginning of the 21th century, consumerism began to have a far-reaching impact on American society, and people's thoughts also changed greatly. It is under the influence of this trend of thought that people begin to pursue material things gradually, and money is the best embodiment of material charm. John Jay Chapman once analyzed the profound influence of American economy and culture on American society. He believed that the leading force of American social life was not politics, but commerce. His so-called business culture refers to consumer culture.
the characteristics of consumerism and its influence on Dreiser
what we usually call consumerism refers to people's consumption concept and values. People who hold this consumption concept and values often consume material wealth and natural resources without scruple and restraint, and regard consumption as the highest purpose of life. They embody their lifestyle, status and superiority through the consumption and possession of things.
Consumerism's consumption concept and values lie in luring or encouraging people to spend lavishly. Its moral standard is to build luxury houses, buy expensive clothes and attract and occupy the most beautiful women. Consumerism ideology has had a far-reaching impact on American society, and people's thoughts have undergone fundamental changes. Puritanism ethics in the American moral field for centuries has begun to be spurned; Bohemian, flaunting wealth and enjoying it to the fullest have become fashionable, and conspicuous consumption has been established as the symbol of leaders.
Dreiser lived in the era when consumerism began to prevail. At that time, the United States was in the monopoly stage of the rise of capitalism. The rapid development of capitalist industry has brought unprecedented prosperity of commodity economy and material life to American society and people, but industrial development has also destroyed the natural environment for people to live, especially the capitalist values have begun to corrode people's hearts. Money worship is pervasive in society, and people are almost morbidly dependent on material and wealth. As a realistic writer, Dreiser, on the one hand, agrees with Spencer's agnosticism very much, and often suffers and hesitates for the smallness of people living in the universe, trying to find the practical significance of life; On the other hand, he is an active hedonist, who has been pursuing pleasure all his life. When he was a teenager, he often dreamed of being rich and luxurious. After he became famous, he constantly bought luxury goods such as cars and villas. Therefore, he was called a "greedy materialist" by literary historians (in Robert Spieler's words).
While Dreiser was editing the magazine The Descriptor, hedonism began to spread, which also provided him with opportunities for enjoyment. When he finished the first draft of Jenny Girl, he developed a lover relationship with a female reader named Lillian Ross. With the publication of other works, Dreiser began to gain fame and fortune. The success of the novel not only brought him a high reputation, but also brought him great economic wealth. Since then, Dreiser's life has been pure and naked hedonism. However, because Dreiser is good at showing the social background and psychological activities of the characters through a lot of details in his works, and the description of the characters is also vivid, his novels not only have the sense of reality of life, but also vividly reproduce a historical era. With his unique writing perspective, he rewrote the era of American literature indulging in idealism. His works have brought a strong impact on American literature and a deep shock and reflection to American society by profoundly exposing all kinds of dark sides in American social life.
Second, the embodiment of consumerism in Dreiser's works
The influence of consumerism is well reflected in Dreiser's main works.
1 The embodiment of consumerism in The Financier
In the novel The Financier, Dreiser shows a complicated attitude towards the new consumption consciousness. Although he deeply criticizes the crazy plunder of Cowperwood's capital and all kinds of immoral behaviors, he can still see that he is in favor of the new consumption consciousness, and at the same time he also acquiesces in the cross-border behaviors arising from these consumption consciousness. Through the description of Cowperwood's life of controlling Chicago's railway system, which was extremely powerful and decadent, the novel created a typical image of a capitalist, and at the same time created an abominable negative model. Cowperwood's life is the epitome of the development history and evil history of American capitalism from free competition to monopoly to capital export. The scene of lobster eating cuttlefish in the novel makes Cowperwood realize that life is a big fish eat small fish's struggle to "live by others", and it is a cruel process of winning and losing. Money makes the mare go, and money has become the object of Cowperwood's worship and pursuit. In addition, in the novel, the traditional female image has also been completely subverted. Traditional women think that women's responsibility is to be wives, mothers, husbands and children. However, under the influence of consumerism, women's thoughts are no longer simple. The hedonism brought by consumerism makes women realize that they should not live as sadly as before, but should enjoy life. Therefore, they pay more attention to the relationship with men and the pursuit of material things and enjoyment. In The Financier, Cowperwood had an improper relationship with many women, and he himself regarded women as consumer goods, which was the embodiment of social consumption consciousness at that time. The description of sexual promiscuity in the novel is also used to show people's attitudes towards life, love and marriage under the influence of consumerism. Stimulated by consumption desire, men have regarded women as consumer goods, even though women are also consumers.
2 the embodiment of consumerism in Sister Carrie
In Sister Carrie, Dreiser also shows the influence of consumption consciousness and expresses people's desire for consumption. The novel transcends the traditional style in writing style and describes the attitude and behavior of the protagonist Carrie to society and family morality, which shows the author's dissatisfaction and criticism of the social system, but we can't think that Dreiser is a social critic and Sister Carrie is attacking this evil and dark society. On the contrary, Dreiser did this not only to subvert the capitalist society, but to adjust the contradictory relationship within the ideology of this society and cheer for the progressive ideology in line with the new economic development, with the aim of ideologically consolidating the capitalist system at that time. After losing her job, Carrie didn't want to go back to that poor village and live a poor life. She lived with Drouet, a salesman, out of the pursuit of material and pleasure, and later became Hurstwood's mistress. Although this kind of life was not what Carrie wanted, and some decisions were made by her under pressure, external force was only an indirect reason. Not wanting to live a poor life was the fundamental reason why Carrie chose to live a degenerate life, and her choice was, in a way, also consumed. In a society where consumerism prevails, Carrie's body has also become a commodity, and she has learned to sell herself more expensively. After having wealth, Carrie's heart is desolate and her spirit is empty, which is the final result of her blind pursuit of material things. However, Carrie's consumerism is not naked, and she can finally get out of these setbacks, and she finally has a melancholy and profound thinking about material life, which may be exactly what Dreiser thinks. When Dreiser wrote Sister Carrie, Darwin's theory of evolution and the theory of survival of the fittest were prevailing, and the ideology of production was gradually replaced by the ideology of consumption. Daniel Bell pointed out that mass consumption led Puritan ethics to give way to consumer hedonism. This kind of consumer hedonism advocates a life style of enjoyment and satisfaction. Dreiser was also deeply influenced by these thoughts. Therefore, Sister Carrie also shows a contradiction, that is, on the one hand, the novel shows Carrie's pursuit of progress and positive progress, which has aroused the sympathy and approval of readers; On the other hand, it also shows a strong criticism of the illegal and immoral behavior of characters similar to Carrie. Therefore, we can't simply classify Dreiser as a social critic or a conservative who insists on the existing system, but should regard him as a pair of contradictory unity, that is, a writer who shows a complicated attitude towards the emerging consumer ideology. On the one hand, he agrees with the behavior representing the new consumer ideology, on the other hand, he is afraid that it will destroy social stability, so he advocates restraining them.
In Sister Carrie, Dreiser shows such a consumption and ideology that women, clothes and luxury houses have become symbols of status and power. Some critics think that Carrie is a morally corrupt woman, the author has forgotten her lofty social responsibility, and the novel has a great negative impact on people. Such comments have some truth, but they fail to see that Dreiser expresses the protagonist's pursuit of women, luxury houses and luxury goods by literary methods and artistic means, with the aim of showing his admiration for human instinct and enjoyment, and showing his approval and propaganda of the emerging consumer ideology. In this sense, Sister Carrie is not only a criticism and subversion of the capitalist system, but also a propaganda, because the pursuit of comfort and enjoyment will undoubtedly stimulate the further development of the economy, which is also in line with the needs of capitalist economic development.
3 the embodiment of consumerism in Miss Jenny
In Miss Jenny, consumerism is more prominent. Dreiser, a writer who insists that "life is a tragedy", describes the tragic situation that a poor girl Jenny and a rich boy Lester fall in love and finally die alone.
In 1895, Dreiser started writing in new york and edited magazines. During this period, he often traveled between Chicago, St. Louis, Cleveland, Pittsburgh and other major cities, came into contact with different aspects of real life, and witnessed various evils such as slums, alcoholism, pornography, murder, kidnapping, robbery, etc., which made him further realize that the reality in the United States is by no means pastoral, but a "cruel and unfair reality" and a "process of destruction" He insisted that life is a tragedy and that life should be described according to its true colors. It can be said that Dreiser's second novel Jenny Girl, published in October, 1911, is another important work that he continues to describe life according to its true colors and boldly attacks American traditional moral standards and values. The greatest success of the novel "Jenny Girl" is that it truly describes the miserable life of American civilians at the bottom of society at the end of 19, and creates a moving image of Jenny, a worker's daughter who is hardworking, pure, straightforward and full of self-sacrifice, which is rare in previous American literary works. Because of Dreiser's vivid writing, the tragic ending of Jenny, the martyr of this money-rich society, won the sympathy of countless readers. However, Jenny's tragedy is also related to her pursuit of material and enjoyment. Some people say that Jenny was forced by life, but from Dreiser's description, Jenny chose to be someone else's mistress twice, not entirely because of the pressure of family and life, but also because she herself has a strong desire for material things. In the novel, she expressed her love for money more than once. It can be said that it is not only society and others that lead to Jenny's tragic fate. Lester, the hero of the novel, gave up Jenny because of the financial pressure from his father. The hero and heroine's choice of fate in the novel shows people's strong demand for material under consumerism. However, when he wrote Jenny Girl, Dreiser was just a "hazy socialist and humanitarian", and his thoughts were still influenced by the mechanistic theory and biological evolution theory of Thomas H Huxley and Herbert Spencer. He still believed that the law of the jungle and natural selection were irresistible natural laws. In addition, he also firmly believes in fatalism, thinks that fate is unfathomable and elusive, and is always suspicious and puzzled about the world and life, so the end of the novel is also covered with a layer of pessimism. But it also reflects the tragic consciousness that exists everywhere in Dreiser's works, which deserves the affirmation and appreciation of American critics.
Three summaries
After reading Dreiser's works, it is not difficult to find that Dreiser not only expresses consumerism, but also shows doubts and disapproval of profligacy. But on the whole, he is in favor of consumerism ideology, because it is consistent with the interests of the bourgeoisie. The purpose of the bourgeoisie is to stimulate consumption and then reap huge profits from it. Therefore, the consumerism in Dreiser's novels is a challenge to the traditional backward and conservative ideology, which is in line with the social needs of the rapid economic development at that time, because the economic development inevitably needs an ideology equivalent to it, and the emergence of consumerism just caters to this need.
references:
[1] donald pizer, ed. American Thaught and Writing：The 1891s。 New york and etal：The Houghton Miffin Company，1972。
[2]