《嘉莉妹妹》(1900)是德莱塞的处女作，这是一部以欲望为主题的小说，女主人公嘉莉被描绘成一位深陷欲望泥沼的角色，在德莱塞看来，人类像动物一样受着欲望的驱使而不能自拔.嘉莉妹妹悲剧命运的形成一定程度上是物欲导致她一步步沦陷。
本文意在用著名的人本主义心理学家——亚伯拉罕·哈洛德·马斯洛提出的需要层次理论来阐述嘉莉妹妹的欲望升级。作者试图在仔细阅读文本的基础上，通过引用小说女主人公嘉利妹妹的语言和心理独白，观察她的行为举止,分析嘉莉在不同时期的追求，以一个独特的视角诠释她“欲望心理”不断升级从而帮助我们提高自我认识。通过对嘉利的欲望不可满足性的剖析来帮助人们探讨人生快乐的源泉和真谛。
Abstract:
Sister Carrie as Theodore Dreiser’s first publication,is a novel with desire as the theme, the heroine Carrie is depicted as a victim of desire. To Dreiser,human are driven and controlled by desire just like animals. In Sister Carrie, the forming of Carries tragedy is partly because she is driven by the material desires and that makes her degenerate step by step.
This thesis aims to use the 'hierarchy of needs ' theory, which was put forward by Abraham Harold Maslow, a famous humanitarianism psychologist, to explore Sister Carrie's desire growth, On the basis of carefully reading the whole text and by quoting some character's speech, minds and by observing her behaviors, I would like t o give an analysis of desire in Sister Carrie based on Maslow’s Hierarchy of"Needs Theory" in different period. In such way, I hope though this thesis, which analysis Sister Carrie's endless desire,can help us gain profound self- knowledge. It aims at sizing up and criticizing Carrie with the purpose of helping find out the origin and true meaning of happiness in life.
Key words: Sister Carrie, desire, insatiable, hierarchy of needs, implication
Introduction
Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) is one of the most important and controversial American novelists in the early 20th century. Dreiser has been considered as one of the three literary giants in modern fiction as Hemingway and Faulkner. His critically acclaimed novel chronicle American life in all classes, especially the social status and people' s desire. Coming from the bottom of the American society, Dreiser is the first one to describe the real American citizen life. He is called pioneer of American contemporary fiction and is considered as the great master of American realism. Through his works, he revealed the deepest instinct of human and presented a bitter criticism of modern industrial society. His critically acclaimed novel chronicle American life in all classes, especially the social status and people’s desire. The characters in his novels mostly come from the bottom of the society, and during their degeneration driven by their selfish interest and desire, they are also deeply influenced by the privilege and limitation of the social class. That leads to their misfortunes at last.
Sister Carrie tells a story of a 18-years country girl who manages to come out of poverty and becomes rich. Carrie gets rid of the days when she desperately wants to buy things but has no money. Finally she enters the world of upper class where she is embraced by money and attention. She rise to material success by first becoming a mistress to men who she perceives as superior and later as a famous actress. At the end of the novel she sits on the chair feeling hollow and lonely. The things she always looks forward to haven't brought her happiness and sense of achievement. She envies rich people and desires everything that she doesn't have while others do. She is so impulsive that desires lead her astray. After getting in hand everything she wants, she becomes heartless and desolate.
By reading many literary criticisms on Sister Carrie, I have found that nearly all of them have discussed the desire problem in this novel. In fact, the desire of the characters in Sister Carrie has been an indispensable topic whenever we refer to this world—renowned novel. However, among so many scholars who are interested in the research of Sister Carrie, seldom has ever dealt Carrie's desire with A. H. Maslow's 'hierarchy of needs' theory. Though some scholars have referred to this theory when they are commenting on Sister Carrie, they haven't ever put it into details, neither have they pointe
