Theodore Dreiser was a naturalistic fictional writer. His writings reflected some of the background he had as a child. He was born into a family of thirteen children and failed to provide for them financially (Norton 566). As reflected in his books, Dreiser felt like a failed man due to the fact that he could not provide financially for his family. As described, "He served as the prototype for the failed men who appear so frequently in his books " (Norton 566). In his fictional writing of Sister Carrie, the character Hurstwood was an example of a failed man for not being able to give Carrie the materialistic lifestyle that she desired. Dresier's family moved from house to house and suffered from poverty, insecurity, and internal divisions (Norton 566). Dreiser's novels were depictions of his actual life as evidenced by the quotation, "Dreiser's novels are direct projections of his inner life as well as careful transcriptions of his experiences, especially those involving his unstable family " (Norton 566). Sister Carrie provides evidence making it known that it revolves around naturalism.
Sister Carrie is a text with groundings of realism, but takes an interesting shift towards naturalism. Dreiser gives the reader insights into characters and becomes clear that they are not only creatures of the natural world but also of the environment. (Dreiser). He has to take a step further and speak of freewill and desire, which are not matters of nature and feeling but rather the environment, which makes it evident to be a naturalistic story (Dreiser). Carrie Meeber, the main character was filled with good fortune and she started out wealthy. Though she was wealthy, she eventually finds herself elevated by the lowest status into ranks of wealth. Her character descriptions render a very naturalistic message by their correlation with internal traits and motivations (Dreiser). Sea imagery is shown throughout the text in order to prove the naturalistic point pointing out the internal and external conflict (Dreiser).
