The Idea of Consumerism in Dreiser's Sister Carrie

Abstract

This paper explores the issue of income based division in social classes. In the analysis of cultural norms described by the author it appears that certain qualities of a character are customary. Dreiser implies that economics by itself has no impact on human qualities. Rather, it is the herd instinct that drives mentality of the majority in which one individual must stand out in certain quality over others in order to get more wealth. In the end, however, this aspiration appears to be setting the female character apart from the so much desired upper class. The isolation is not what the wealth is expected to bring, but it inevitably does, as the author conveys.