Name: Sister Carrie
Author: Theodore Dreiser

How you explore Sister Carrie on Literah

The cast, the places, the objects, the plot, and the author’s own words — each one a card in a feed you scroll on your phone. One at a time, at your pace, in any order you like.

Built for your phone. Literah is designed for mobile, so your worlds travel with you. On a laptop it shows a QR code to carry the world to your phone.
A feed, not a wall of text. 21 characters, 30 places, 14 objects and 8 plot beats, each its own card with its own illustration.
The author’s own words. 34 passages of Sister Carrie sit in the feed verbatim, exactly as Theodore Dreiser wrote them, each with a short reading of what it is doing. The map is ours; the prose is always the book’s.
The same scroll, a better world. The gesture you already give away to feeds, spent on Theodore Dreiser instead.

9:41

The Cast

Caroline Meeber

Main

A young woman in a plain travelling dress sits beside a small purse, watching the Chicago landscape approach through the railway window.

Locations

Columbia City

small town

The town Carrie leaves behind stays with her as a measure of everything she is chasing.

Passage

With four dollars and fragile hopes, Carrie leaves home for a future she cannot imagine.

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The Author’s Pen

Carrie Leaves Home

When Caroline Meeber boarded the afternoon train for Chicago, her total outfit consisted of a small trunk, a cheap imitation alligator-skin satchel, a small lunch in a paper box, and a yellow leather snap purse, containing her ticket, a scrap of paper with her sister’s address in Van Buren Street, and four dollars in money. It was in August, 1889. She was eighteen years of age, bright, timid, and full of the illusions of ignorance and youth. Whatever touch of regret at parting characterised her thoughts, it was certainly not for advantages now being given up. A gush of tears at her mother’s farewell kiss, a touch in her throat when the cars clacked by the flour mill where her father worked by the day, a pathetic sigh as the familiar green environs of the village passed in review, and the threads which bound her so lightly to girlhood and home were irretrievably broken.

Reading

Everything Carrie owns fits in one sentence, and Dreiser wants us to weigh it: a cheap satchel, a boxed lunch, four dollars. This is the very start of the novel, the moment a country girl leaves home for Chicago, and the smallness of her possessions tells us how little she has to fall back on and how much she is gambling. Her grief is real but oddly thin, a catch in the throat as the train passes her father's mill, and Dreiser notes she is not sorry to lose anything she actually had. What she is really leaving, before she knows it, is the version of herself that belonged at home.

World Index

The Plot

A Waif Amid ForcesThe Narrow Life and the Easy LifeDependence and the First StageThe Safe and the TheftFlight and DeceptionDiverging FortunesWages and CollapseAscent and Disappearance

The Cast

Caroline MeeberGeorge HurstwoodCharles DrouetRobert AmesMinnie HansonSven HansonJulia HurstwoodJessica HurstwoodLola OsborneMrs. VanceMr. VanceGeorge Hurstwood Jr.Mrs. HaleMrs. MorganShaughnessyMr. QuincelMr. MilliceCuster Lodge Amateur CompanyNew York Theatre Managers and PerformersStreetcar Strike WorkersBowery Unemployed and Homeless Men

Locations

112 West Thirteenth Street FlatAvery HallBackstage Dressing RoomsBowery Lodging Houses and Cheap HotelsBroadwayBroadway TheatreCarrie and Drouet’s Chicago RoomsChicagoChicago Commercial DistrictChicago Opera HouseChicago Railway StationChicago Theatre WorldChicago-Bound TrainColumbia CityFitzgerald and Moy’sGrand Opera HouseHurstwood Family HomeMinnie and Sven Hanson’s Van Buren Street FlatMontrealMontreal HotelNew York CitySeventeenth Street RoomsSeventy-Eighth Street FlatShoe FactoryStreetcar Depot and Strike RouteThe BoweryTheatrical Employment Offices and Stage DoorsVance ApartmentWarren and Hudson Street SaloonWellington Hotel Suite

Objects of Note

Business Ledgers and Account BooksCarrie’s Farewell Note to MinnieCarrie’s Travel Trunk and PurseDrouet’s Business CardFashionable ClothingFitzgerald and Moy’s SafeFitzgerald and Moy’s Stolen FundsMoneyNewspapers and Theatrical NoticesRailway TicketsRocking ChairStreetcarTheatre Costumes and MakeupUnder the Gaslight Script

Core Concepts

Appearance Becomes Social PowerAscent and Decline Occupy the Same CityCompromise Hardens into ConsequenceDesire Outlives AttainmentMobility Often Depends on Unequal KnowledgeMoney Reorganizes IntimacyPerformance Reveals and Constructs the SelfPublic Recognition Cannot Supply MeaningSocial Identity Can DisappearThe City Turns Desire into PressureWork Does Not Guarantee Belonging

The Author's Pen

The City's Cunning WilesA Voice In Her EarDrouet Shows His CardCold Reality Taking Her HandThe Drag of PovertyThe Gulf Between Poverty And SuccessShame at the DoorNo Sympathy At HomeCarrie Leaves a NoteHer First Thrill of PowerRecognition Across the CrowdCarrie at RehearsalBuoyed Up to PerformThe Feelings of the OutcastThe Open SafeThe Safe Clicked ShutCarrie Summoned Into the CabHurstwood’s Urgent DeceptionHis Own ErrorHurstwood Meets an Old FriendCarrie Settles in New YorkHis Approval of ActorsThe Lot Is SoldAshamed to Belie AppearancesCarrie Enters the PlayhouseHurstwood Hired at the BarnsThis Is Too Much For MeCarrie Leaves HimCarrie’s First NoticeThe Frown That Won ThemComfort and InactivityMen of a TypeLonely in Success

Plot point 01

A Waif Amid Forces

A satchel, four dollars, and a stranger’s business card are all Carrie has to meet the city with.

Objects of Note

Carrie’s Travel Trunk and Purse

A small trunk and a purse hold nearly all Carrie owns as she reaches Chicago.

The Cast

George Hurstwood

Main · Hurstwood household

A well-dressed manager stands alone before an open iron safe, one hand holding a thick stack of bills.

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Sister Carrie

Theodore Dreiser

The cast, locations, objects of note, core concepts, and selected passages in the Author’s Pen - at your own pace.

One of 128 classics in the Literah library

The Sister Carrie feed, as it appears in your mobile

The plot of Sister Carrie

The story beat by beat, as Literah maps it.

A Waif Amid Forces
The Narrow Life and the Easy Life
Dependence and the First Stage
The Safe and the Theft
Flight and Deception
Diverging Fortunes
Wages and Collapse
Ascent and Disappearance

The author's pen in Sister Carrie

The passages themselves, Theodore Dreiser's own words, as Literah maps it.

Carrie Leaves Homech. 1
The City's Cunning Wilesch. 1
A Voice In Her Earch. 1
Drouet Shows His Cardch. 1
Cold Reality Taking Her Handch. 1
The Drag of Povertych. 2
The Gulf Between Poverty And Successch. 2
Shame at the Doorch. 3
No Sympathy At Homech. 6
Carrie Leaves a Notech. 7
Her First Thrill of Powerch. 7
Recognition Across the Crowdch. 7
Carrie at Rehearsalch. 16
Buoyed Up to Performch. 19
The Feelings of the Outcastch. 19
The Open Safech. 23
The Safe Clicked Shutch. 23
Carrie Summoned Into the Cabch. 27
Hurstwood’s Urgent Deceptionch. 28
His Own Errorch. 29

The characters of Sister Carrie

Who is who, as Literah maps it.

Caroline Meebermajor
George Hurstwoodmajor
Charles Drouetmajor
Robert Amessupporting
Minnie Hansonsupporting
Sven Hansonsupporting
Julia Hurstwoodsupporting
Jessica Hurstwoodsupporting
Lola Osbornesupporting
Mrs. Vancesupporting
Mr. Vanceminor
George Hurstwood Jr.minor
Mrs. Haleminor
Mrs. Morganminor
Shaughnessyminor
Mr. Quincelminor

The locations in Sister Carrie

Where it happens, as Literah maps it.

Columbia Citysmall town
Chicago-Bound Traintrain
Chicagocity
Chicago Railway Stationrailway station
Montrealcity
Montreal Hotelhotel
New York Citycity
Minnie and Sven Hanson’s Van Buren Street Flatflat
Chicago Commercial Districtcommercial district
Shoe Factoryfactory
Carrie and Drouet’s Chicago Roomsfurnished rooms
Fitzgerald and Moy’sresort and saloon
Hurstwood Family Homehouse
Chicago Theatre Worldtheatrical district

The core concepts in Sister Carrie

What the book keeps returning to, as Literah maps it.

Desire Outlives Attainment
The City Turns Desire into Pressure
Appearance Becomes Social Power
Money Reorganizes Intimacy
Performance Reveals and Constructs the Self
Compromise Hardens into Consequence
Mobility Often Depends on Unequal Knowledge
Work Does Not Guarantee Belonging
Social Identity Can Disappear
Ascent and Decline Occupy the Same City

The objects of note in Sister Carrie

The things that carry meaning, as Literah maps it.

Carrie’s Travel Trunk and Purse
Drouet’s Business Card
Fashionable Clothing
Theatre Costumes and Makeup
Money
Fitzgerald and Moy’s Stolen Funds
Fitzgerald and Moy’s Safe
Under the Gaslight Script
Carrie’s Farewell Note to Minnie
Railway Tickets
Newspapers and Theatrical Notices
Business Ledgers and Account Books
Rocking Chair
Streetcar

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How you explore Sister Carrie on Literah

The plot of Sister Carrie

The author's pen in Sister Carrie

The characters of Sister Carrie

The locations in Sister Carrie

The core concepts in Sister Carrie

The objects of note in Sister Carrie

Explore Sister Carrie. And 127 more.

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