Sister Carrie is a novel by Theodore Dreiser about innocence, the allure of wealth, love, and disillusionment. The novel tells the story of Carrie Meeber, who moves from the country to Chicago. After living in poverty for some time, she enters a relationship with the wealthy Drouet. Eventually she begins an affair with Hurstwood, with whom she runs away after the affair is revealed. Settling in New York, the couple become alienated, Carrie leaving Hurstwood to become homeless and commit suicide as she becomes a successful yet disappointed actress.
The Theodore Dreiser novel Sister Carrie can be viewed from a critical standpoint as a critique of conspicuous consumerism which pervaded metropolitan Americans during the late nineteenth century The central figure in the novel is one Carrie Meeber an eighteen year old girl traveling to the big city of Chicago in order to experience life A Wisconsin farm girl Carrie dresses true to her ordinary circumstances She wears a plain blue dress and old shoes and observes a demure lady like disposition