America's Duality

The United States between 1870-1900 was categorized by rapid economic growth accompanied by a wealth of social conflict. America was a duality. With the rise of large industries came a harsh realization for many Americans entering the workforce. The American Dream had been tainted by the birth of a larger, industrial America—an America built in factories rather than fields. On the backs of icons such as Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, and others of the like, power became synonymous with wealth. One’s buying power established his/her position in society. Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie and Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth advance the notion that Gilded Age America’s obsession with upward mobility and chasing the American Dream ultimately corrupts
It is to no surprise then that Mark Twain coined the post civil-war era in the United States as the Gilded Age. Led by cover boys Vanderbilt, Rockefeller, Morgan, Ford, Carnegie, etc., the United States seemed to be booming; however, upon closer investigation one can see the realities of this time period were not so simple. The rise of these industrial giants led to a stark duality upon American citizens. The rich continued to become even richer, and the poor became even poorer. The wealthiest two percent of America held more than one third of the entire countries wealth, while the top ten percent owned more than three-fourths of it. For the other ninety percent, times were extremely hard. People struggled to put food on the table for their families. Working conditions were brutal. Finding a way out of poverty was everything, and one’s social standing depended entirely on his/her buying power. It is in this social setting that both Sister Carrie and The House of Mirth take
Dreiser establishes Carrie as a woman blinded by her desire for material goods by drawing attention to every item Carrie purchases throughout the novel. Carrie allows this desire to consume her. She “passed along the busy aisles, much affected by the remarkable displays of trinkets, dress goods, stationery, and jewelry. Each separate counter was a show place of dazzling interest and attraction. She could not help feeling the claim of each trinket personally, and yet she did not stop.” (Dreiser 18). Carrie’s views on material wealth cause her to leave her job at the shoe factory, move out of her sister’s apartment (and into an apartment with Charles Drouet), have an affair with the married George Hurstwood, and ultimately run away with him. Her actions are governed not by morality or emotion, but by materialism. Ultimately Carrie rises to stardom and her American Dream is realized, but her material wealth is not all that she had hoped for. Her infatuation with material goods only leaves her wanting more and she never finds true happiness. Carrie’s story represents the darker side of the rags-to-riches story. Her transition from Wisconsin to Chicago is representative of America’s shift from an agricultural to industrial landscape during the Gilded Age. Her story exemplifies Americas shift from production to