NPR: Your Turn: Carrie Meeber

Your Turn: Carrie Meeber

From Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser
Nominated by Natalie Pappas

Nothing is certain, but I'm about 99.9% sure that Theodore Dreiser didn't create Sister Carrie as a heroine. In the book of the same name, Carrie moves to the big city of Chicago, cohabits with a traveling salesman, runs away with the embezzling manager of a bar, and becomes a chorus girl. She ends up "amid the tinsel and shine" of Broadway, basking in fame but still searching for something, dreaming about "happiness [that she] may never feel."

Why do I admire Carrie? She could have put herself out of her misery a la Madame Bovary or Anna Karenina. But she didn't. She kept going, she refused to accept poverty, she got her own job and became something unique -- maybe not something praiseworthy, even in Dreiser's eyes -- but the girl had some things going for her: determination, independence and spunk!

Tags: Independent Women | Literature

4:44 PM ET | 01-31-2008 | permalink

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Your Turn: Carrie Meeber

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