美国文学简史完全笔记 Chapter 4

　　I. Background

　　1.Darwin＊s theory: ※natural selection§

　　2.Spenser＊s idea: ※social Darwinism§

　　3.French Naturalism: Zora

　　II. Features

　　1.environment and heredity

　　2.scientific accuracy and a lot of details

　　3.general tone: hopelessness, despair, gloom, ugly side of the society

　　III.    significance

　　It prepares the way for the writing of 1920s＊ ※lost generation§ and T. S. Eliot.

　　IV.     Theodore Dreiser

　　1.life

　　2.works

　　（1）Sister Carrie

　　（2）The trilogy: Financier, The Titan, The Stoic¹

　　（3）Jennie Gerhardt

　　（4）American Tragedy

　　（5）The Genius

　　3.point of view

　　（1）He embraced social Darwinism 每 survival of the fittest. He learned to regard man as merely an animal driven by greed and lust³ in a struggle for existence in which only the ※fittest§, the most ruthless, survive.

　　（2）Life is predatory, a ※game§ of the lecherous⁴ and heartless, a jungle struggle in which man, being ※a waif and an interloper in Nature§, a ※wisp in the wind of social forces§, is a mere² pawn⁵ in the general scheme of things, with no power whatever to assert his will.

　　（3）No one is ethically⁶ free; everything is determined⁷ by a complex of internal chemisms and by the forces of social pressure.

　　4.Sister Carrie

　　（1）Plot

　　（2）Analysis

　　5.Style

　　（1）Without good structure

　　（2）Deficient characterization

　　（3）Lack in imagination

　　（4）Journalistic method

　　（5）Techniques in painting