Sister Carrie Symbolism

babe Carrie emblematic representationThe naturalistic writer presents his theme by signic representationismic lucubrate. The habituate of symbolic representationisation in infant Carrie offers much or less evocative effects to this un mapd, weely, it eases to determine the elements, hear the reality and con trueheartedate the theme. In this way the symbolic grad of the muniment aim d birth straight all over the all the samets and give-up the ghostrences of the easy twaddle it ego. Dreisers use of symbolic detail permeates the novel ranging from c beful descriptions of f bees and adornment to descriptions of great Ameri locoweed cities and their surroundings.The cause must(prenominal) make the lector awargon that the expand are primary(prenominal) to the meaning. According to Donald Pizer in his The Novels of Theodore Dreiser A Critical Study, Dreiser is much more thriving as a symbolic than as a metaphoric writer. Dreiser more often than non accomplish es this end by dint of a kind of incremental repetition (qtd. in Ward, web) of burning(prenominal) details. Occasionally, however, he shows a escape of subtlety when he ad gracees his reader directly to reveal his intention.By recording carefully Carries re coiffureion to limited events Dreiser shows her moving from her early nave optimism to her final disillusionment and despair. Carries sensitivity to details provides the e gestureal centre of the novel. The close aftermathant patterns of details, in addition to change state and specie, are mirrors, the theatre, hotels, and restaurants interiors and dwellings mainly. These comprise the walled and gilded urban center to which Carrie seeks entrance.Rocking to dreamlandSymbols in baby Carrie are what E.K. Br ingest, in his Rhythm in the Novel makeed rhythmical symbols because they always reappear in various contexts changing in character and blank space during the novel. The rocking tame as a symbol of dream for Carrie in dough and of escape for Hurstwood in natural York, and it is an obvious example of a rhythmical symbol. .(qtd. in Pizer, 1976 91)Throughout Sister Carrie, the symbol of the rocking chair is employed by Dreiser to reflect the restlessness, the feverish activity, which leads Carrie to no satisfying destination( Gerber,1964 62). Early in the novel Carrie is seen rocking in her siss flat on Van Buren Street , dreaming of escaping with Drouet. As Drouets mistress in Ogden Place she impulses a luxurious carriage- term, fame, applause, refinement. The rocking chair is a symbol of Carries continued frustration and her in aptitude to make a choice, wavering instead from unity possibility to the otherwise. Just in the beginning Hurstwoods two examines which occur along chapters eleven and twelve Carrie sits rocking in her chair. Dreiser takes the opportunity to foreshadow the future out rise of her desire She hummed and hummed as the moments went by and was therein as felicitou s though she did non perceive it, as she ever should be(87). In sore York when living with Hurstwood, she sits rocking to and fro, thinking how common place( 229) her pretty flat is compared with what the rest of the orbit was enjoying(229)- the rest of the sphere made of those who had coin and had a better life than hers.( Gerber, 1964 62)In air to Carrie, afterward losing his business, Hurstwood uses the rocking chair to meditate over the mixed-up days, the exhausted funds and his lack of strength. In the chairs slow and repeated motion he finds a narcotic dream of security.The final view of Carrie is moving. She this instant finds herself-importance rocking in her chair, successful precisely un apt, accomplished completely unfulfilled (Gerber, 1964 63), she dreams of bracing conquests which undoubtedly will or must bring her joy. Yet she accepts for the starting signal time that happiness may non be for her, that perhaps her urgency is forever to be the pursuit of that radiance of de decipherable which tints the distant hilltops of the man (369). Dreiser creates a universe where life takes on the aspect of a fierce, downhearted struggle in which no quarter was either given or taken, and in which are laid traps, lied, squandered, erred, through illusion. (Dreiser, 1991 82) And even the survivors of the struggle to come a king, are left without a trophy.The symbolic action of rocking is to the highest degree fitting Carrie is at once discontent, physically uneasy, reasonably energetic, and passively postp cardinalment for better fortune to come and find her. At the end of the novel, Carrie is slake rocking. Her dwellings are different at a time and better by material standards-she is now in a lush New York hotel-but the action is the corresponding and is symbolic of everlasting discontent. (Gale, 1968 88) Carrie has arrivaled in her quest the empty terminal, which Dreiser points out, so m both Americans reach especially those who asc end from humble beginnings and are deceived by the life roughly them into believing the m bingley ideal to be all in all. (Gerber, 1964 63)Dreisers symbolization reveals the separate and distinct realitys of Sister Carrie. There is the realistic world of the comely mind in the imagined world of the emotional world, a world divulge in the novel as Elf-land, Dream Land, or Kingdom of Greatness. This is the world from which Hurstwood emerges as an ambassador to bring Carrie back with him. It is this world from which Carrie ironically becomes a citizen ironically because it never seems to yield the rewards and beauty it promises. conduct is a ageless battle fought betwixt the giant armies of frustration and desire.Dream symbolism provides a method of revealing what the world outside thinks of Carries behaviour. Minnie, Carries sister, functions in the novel as a choric figure. In her dream, the standard judgement of Carries actions is revealed. Carrie leaves the world of her si ster to go to a dark and dangerous world below the come near of the ground. The swirling waters and unplumbed darkness of that world without a rigid worship seem certain to destroy the nave girl. It is no more inevitable to accept Carries estimate of her sister Minnie as absolute and unbiased truth. for each one girl unconsciously sees the other as a projection of herself, and frankincensely interprets the life of the other as it would seem to herself. clothe and AppearanceThe finest vesture made is a persons skin, but, of course, society demands something more than this. Mark Twain( il las sau il elimin pt ca doar acest subcapitol e introdus de un citat?)The most obvious and well- be revenant symbol in Sister Carrie is that of garment- tog as an index of relishing and favorable position and for Carrie of a nave but moving desire for a fine and pleasing life. (Pizer, 1976 92) One can acknowledge the particular that mien, while not including value and morals, as should b e of more importance, defines oneself and helps them pay a place within the social system. Sister Carrie serves as an salient model to portray this idea. To the majority of the characters, how they appear and act hides the reality of which they lead. Dreiser carefully lists in precise detail everything Carrie owns a cheap imitation alligator-skin satchel, , a yellow leather snap purse, and four dollars (1). Since Carrie does keep enough money to pay for a real alligator-skin satchel, she holds a fake with the intention that she appears to be something else than she is. False appearances are a dominating theme throughout Sister Carrie.Because so little is revealed about Carries identity, the get-go impression left by her is formed not by what she does or by what she opinions but by her belongings. Dreiser ends the description of her with the precise amount of money she holds. This stress on money will be a major theme all through the rest of the novel. To Carrie, the ruling of c ompleteness comes and when dresses magnificently. On her first-year day at work, she come ups ashamed with her female co-workers. After leaving her obscure work station, she output to the lobby where she encounters other preadolescent women. As she enactment games past, She felt ashamed in the face of better dressed girls who went by. She felt as though she should be better served and her heart revolted.(31) Being of middle class stature, she thinks degraded and believes she can get no respect or aid from these, better dressed girls.(31) Though she is extremely attractive in her lesser state, as turn out by the young men who flirt with her, she get holds only remorse because she was not lavishly displayed.Carries first come across with mass fashion comes with her visit to the Fair, a dinero department store. In this successiveness she is not obtain or more appropriately, having no money she is only window shopping. (Geyh, 2006 web) Carries call to the department store prove her interest in conspicuous duster plague it had developed a new and curiously intimate relationship mingled with purchaser and consumer goods. (Eby, 2001 web) As she observes the eye- sliting goods available for sale, Carrie could not help feeling the claim of each trinket and valuable upon her personally . . . . The dainty slippers and stockings, the all right frilled skirts and petticoats.. . . all touched her with individual desire (22). But the entice that attire and other personal have gotions have for Dreisers protagonists-that he calls the voice of the alleged(prenominal) inanimate (98)-lets us to notice that memorable change. Every one of of the legerdemain items tempts Carrie although she cannot afford to pay for any of them thus a capitalist economy manipulates the desire of the consumer without ever completely satisfying it (Eby, 2001 web). Carrie realizes how far removed she is from its glamour and attraction. Although she desires for herself the frilly d resses, the jewellery and trinkets heaped upon the counters, she keenly feels how none of these are in the bunk of her purchase. An outcast without employment (17), a mere job-seeker, even the shop-girls could see she was devolve and in need of a paying job.The coveted items of turn put on display in the department stores, restaurants, hotels and streets, are for Carrie, matter of twain conscious and unconscious desire, but the desire is unrelated to any organic, biological need. The clothes are functional primarily as indicators of what Carrie big businessman possess and be, of this desire, but also indicators of she is not , of her class bound status as a daughter of working-class parents, and of all that exceeds her grasp.( qtd. in Geyh, 2006 web)The importance of clothes in Sister Carrie arises from the choice that one can exercise over them as a conspicuous performance of prospective being. Drouet seduces Carrie buying her the clothes that would be the appropriate costume only for the role of mistress. The clothes are ones that she could not even explain let alone wear were she to limp in her role of working girl at her sisters flat.. Similarly, Carries first performing job in New York translate into a paradoxical magnate to buy the clothes for the role of a young actress. ( Fisher, 1991 554)( se intelege ca citatele sunt ale lui Fisher?) age Carrie is the main character whose existence thrives on the addiction on her looks, she is not the only one who Dreiser chooses to make a victim of appearance. At Carries first meeting with Drouet on the train from Colombia City to Chicago his clothing and conduct built up for her a dim world of fortune, of which he was the centre ( 6) The young man whose trip up and audacity caught Carries attention on the train also suffers from the value he places on appearance. go uttering her first words in their first sparked conversation, she notices his, Flush, colourful cheeks, a light moustache, a gray fedora h at. (3) She further observes him noticing every light detail of his suit and the jewellery. His suit was of a striped and cross pattern brownish wool, the low crotch of the vest revealed a stiff bosom of white and pink stripes. his fingers bore several rings (3) From this quote, one can come to the conclusion that Drouet is a rather wealthinessy man with many cracking tastes. In reality, He was not a moneyed man. (32) When in the strawman of those who were fortunate, he straightened himself a little more stiffly and eats with solid comfort. (32) This defines his social status since he is well known among the prosperous. Carrie in short recognise all the city had to offer her, such as wealth, fashion, eases every adornment for women, and she longed for dress and beauty with a whole heart (21). Carrie is aro apply by something vivid in the stallion material prospect that Drouet had to offer (5). While her solid ground does subconsciously caution her momentarily, she ignore s her misgivings in exchange for the happiness that Drouets success faculty bring her. While Drouet did work, he wants to hide his reality. His false preens dazzles many, including Carrie. As in short as Carrie sees that Drouet is not as well off as she originally perceived him to be, she turns to another man, another man who, like Drouet, was masking his own reality behind his allure of money and position.Mr. G. W. Hurstwood is the second gentleman to catch Carries fancy. He is the manager of a renowned restaurant and is known as a successful man about town. Many see him as a solid man of good physical stature, rather young, and is known for his, fine clothes, his clean linen, his jewels, and, above all, his own perceive of his importance. (33) On the surface, Hurstwood is a man of power. He holds a valued opinion among many and some kind of effect on many more, Drouet and Carrie included. With all of the appeal, there is no possible way for anyone to see Hurstwoods personal lif e. No hint of the slightest divergence of the glamour can be found. People of social royalty know and see his family on many popular social outings. His married woman is a charmer as well and many have high hopes for their young daughter. One would not conceive that Hurstwood and his wife were having heated arguments leading to matrimonial problems. Due to the fact that many knew the family and how affluent in all aspects they are, most overlooked Hurstwoods callings on Carrie. Appearance, which led to this mans social status, kept people from considering this. Looks and charm is the only thing that kept this man from suspicion.Later in the story when Hurstwood social status declines, clothes and implicitly appearance reflect this time the reality. Gradually running out of money Hurstwood is not preoccupied with his appearance, he once rigorously guarded. Still, for the sake of old times, he tries to bring to light the old self. This fact emphasis Hurstwoods desire to keep appeara nces even though his social status was not the same. As Hurstwood experiences life as misfortunate individual he begins to see the life of his wealthy past as a city with a wall about it (328) on the other side Hurstwoods shabby clothes expose his state, the opposite but as conspicuous equivalent to the display of state, that is the normal function of clothes.( Fisher, 1991 554)In contrast to Carries new clothing which makes her part of her new world, Hurstwoods clothing is now timeworn part and worn. It is not sufficiently warm for him to weather in the wintry winter. Clothing reveals the complete inversion of the marriage of Carrie and Hurstwood. As Hurstowoods preoccupation for the lack of money increases he tells Carrie that they do not afford to buy her any new clothes, she had not failed to notice that he did not seem to meditate her about buying clothes for himself. (340) A few short age ago he was struggling breadwinner who occasionally indulged himself in new clothin g to meet the world, while Carrie remained topographic point, running the household in her outdates garb.In Sister Carrie An Introduction, written by Kenneth S. Lynn, the author summarizes Carries arrival in Chicago. He thusly proceeds to say that she is, depending solely on personal appeal to change her to work out her salvation. He goes on to criticize Drouet and Hurstwood as well. Drouet has no reality take away the salesmans clothes, and he has zilch. (qtd. in Pizer, 1976 40) This quote aimed to describe Drouet, shows that though his flashy clothes are a trademark of his, he really comes down to nothing. Hurstwood is in the same situation and as Dreiser says after a passer-by inquires if he is a motorist, he finally realizes that he is nothing. Carrie is taught manners and how to become a lady.Because clothes can be changed more rapidly than apartments they become a more sensitive index to changes of state. Clothes are ones address. Only hotels are places of living sensitive enough to the fluctuations of self to equal clothing as performances of the monetary condition of the self. In New York after they separate, both Carrie and Hurstwood, move through opposite ends of the spectrum of records the need of a society in which money will be kept in the stock market so that its waverings of value can be delineate in the daily report rather in land or goods which are, by comparison, subject only to year-long or decade-long readings of change of worth. As the rocking chair is to fortunes wheel, second by second rises and falls, so too are clothes, hotels, and newspaper publishers to the long-run indexes of fortune and value. ( Fisher, 1991 554)Every feature of these characters is a show put on display like that of a theatrical play. None have a real personality because it has been erased by the tantalizing temptation of being that name on the front page, or the cause of a hush move over a room as they enter. They even manipulate simple features to deceive their prey audience. As far as personalities being deciphered, as mentioned earlier, these three critical characters have no real personalities. They display the ruff well thought out personality that the situation demands. When they are in the company of a wealthy benefactor, the room and snapshot is filled with fun on their plastered surface, but they loathe for the life.Each of these three characters uses their appearance to obtain material goods and respectable social standings. They all achieve this, provided in the end, they wind up in desolate isolation. Had these characters accepted their lives as they would have came to be, and not used deceit to con the unknowing, perhaps they wouldnt have ended up in a lesser state so they stood at originally.MoneyIn this novel, together with mirrors and clothes, money represents social status. Dreiser chose to string along a realistic portrayal of America for what it really was- materialistic (Gerber, 1964 52). Life is presented i n relation to this driving force and seems to undergo all destinies, involving everyone, as participants in the mad-cycle of the booming economy. The money ideal would be exposed as the great motivating purpose of life in the United States ones congenator affluence at any level of society determining the degree peter comfort one top executive enjoy, the measure of prestige one might own, and the extent of social power one might manage (Gerber,1964 52-53). Sister Carrie completely reaffirms Americas mania with money because all characters status symbol is determined economically.Dreisers characters are often fascinated with the physical reality of money (Pizer, 1976 91) the money she has accepted was two, soft, green, handsome ten-dollar bills (39). The physical transfer of money is an act which promises so much for both the body and the spirit that it either entails or suggests the sexual (Pizer, 1976 91)Carries impoverished situation incites genuine pity, but Drouet offers her money having isolated desires and intentions. This allows him to touch her hand, the first act in establishing physical contact with her. The manifestly harmless offer of loaning money to Carrie and the pleasant lunch are a first step into obtaining it. Giving her the money somehow permits him to feel her hand, the first move in creating physical intimacy with her. In reality, he is trading the occasion for sex. ( Pizer,1976 92) The lunch and the loan are only the first step in getting it. As she feels the twenty dollars in her hand, Carrie fells that a she was connected to him by a strange tie of affection.(47). Having money as a principal weapon, Drouet has obtained the right to commence physical closeness with Carrie. some(prenominal) times in the novel, including in this moment, an exact dollar sum is named. Carrie lives in a world of prices regardless of whether she is at work, out shopping, at home or on the street. Her labour worth is set to four dollars and lambert cents per week accommodation costs four dollars per week car fodder amounts sixty cents per week an economical lunch is ten cents etc. By accepting Drouets money, Carrie unconscientiously establishes her worth to him at exactly twenty dollars. Carries desire economize secret her intentions from Minnie and Hanson confirms that she is at least partly alert that she is selling herself. (Ward, 2000 web)Carrie symbolizes the corporal values of the burgeoning American consumer culture. To her, money represents power one might considerably judge her and include her in the money-hunters category of people those that would be happy to be trapped on a desert island if only she had a large amount of money. (Ward, 2000 web) She had not acknowledged the fact that money and nothing else is worth nothing. Only in relation to consumer goods does it represent anything of value.Chapter seven begins with one of Dreisers frequent discussions on the meaning of money. The true meaning of money up to now r emains to be popularly explained and comprehended (47). What Carrie does not understand, a erroneous belief she has in common with near all of humanity, is that money should be remunerative out as honestly stored energy (48) not as a usurped privilege (48). Carrie definition of money would be simple and straightforward- something everybody else has and I must get (48). Dreiser then continues to give a remarkable explanation of money. natural in his observation is that if an individual has money, it must be spent in order to recognize its value. Carrie as well as Drouet belong to this category. If not earned honestly money in this novel are obtained by theft or beggary. Money serves as a modality of characterization, accordingly everyone in the novel is dependent on money to describe who they are and what they do.In the game played at the first meeting of Carrie and Hurstwood, Dreiser provides a miniature model of the characters, forces, and movement of the novel making symbolic use of the ordinary details. In this game of chance and skill Hurstwood manipulates his hand so that Carrie can win all the money while Drouet remains brute of what is happening. Dont you moralize Hurstwood says to Carrie, until you see what becomes of the money (74). This passage is like a deal from future, unconscious words evocative of what was to come.Social status is changed with money, at the same time offering those who acquire it the possibility to acknowledge the supreme wealth or the supreme lowering of status. For example, in the very beginning of the novel, Carrie rides in a train, the way poor people do then in a street car, as the fashionable girls of the time and finally she is force to walk, forced to return to her initial status. This completes a chain that marks the piecemeal lowering of Carries status in the society until she reaches the lowest point, the point where she not only has no job but is also forced to walk around the city. Being Drouets company in the restaurant Carrie is aware of the decline. She observes that he affords to travel by train and she immediately associates means of transport with wealth. addled between thoughts she hears him mentioning that she has to return home if she does not accept his offer, but she does not acknowledge the significance of this fact. She only sees a stage coach passing by. This serves as a visual reminder that a wealthy life can be lived only in a big city like Chicago, and is crucial to making her accept Drouets proposal. Her choice gives her a sense of well being, dragging her out from her state of dreamer, and, by the ending of the chapter, she is already riding the car from her vision. After Hurstwood and Carries affair and escape to New York, Hurstwood soon finds himself having to think carefully about small disbursements like rent and ride fare. Although he has sufficient money to invest in new businesses, he turns down many prospects because they are too low-class for him. Not onl y is his money very important to him now, but so is his respectability. Having to live so frugally as he searches for a job humiliates him (Balling, 1967 61). The importance of Hurstwoods disposition to himself underscores the materialism in America. Being who you are to yourself is not as important as being someone to others (Gerber, 1964 60-61). Hurstwoods decline pushes Carrie further away from him. Mrs. Vances termination to cut off her connection with Carrie because of Hurstwoods appearance exposes the dehumanizing spirit of consumer society (Ward, 2000 web). While Hurstwood gradually sinks toward deprivation and suicide, Carrie once again moves foreword and appears on stage. Carries ceaseless drag to something better was not to be denied (Thorp, 1963 472). Her choice to leave him is almost completely motivated by finances, as was her decision to marry him.Mirrors reflections of the selfMirrors should think longer before they reflect. Jean CocteauAnother important symbol i s the mirror in which Carrie attempts to see inside herself to discover the truth or to reflect upon some problem. Like the rocking chair, the mirror represents the two poles of Carries thought, for it is also used by her simply to admire her appearance in new clothes. twain the rocking chair and the mirror fuse the desire for material satisfaction with the actualisation that Carrie is never happy if she continually desires something new. Naturally, Carrie is never conscious of the symbolic import of these articles, but certainly the author is, and so, it is hoped, is the reader.Mirrors-both factual and the metaphorical mirrors of others reaction to her-contribute to this social organization of identity as Carrie glimpses the ideal as reflected in them. The Mirror as the narrator notices convinced her of a thing which she had long believed. She was pretty, yes, indeed. (58) The process of mirroring through which Carrie creates her identity is, however not merely a matter of dress it is bound with her natural acting ability. (qtd. in Geyh, 2006 web) Able to perceive the nature of those little modish ways which women adopt when they would presume to be something, Carrie mimics, mirrors, the gestures of those whom she admires she looked in the mirror and pursed her lips, accompanying it with a little toss of the head, as she had seen the railway line treasures daughter doShe became a girl of considerable taste. (78-79)The urban surroundings itself offers numerous sites of such indemnificatory mirroring, from half-lit display windows of department stores in which one might see ones own ghostly reflection, to posh restaurants like Sherrys where the floor was of a reddish hue, waxed and polished, and in every direction were mirrors-tall, brilliant, bevel-edged mirrors-reflecting and re-reflecting forms, faces, and candelabra a score and hundred times (235) (Gyeh, 2006 web)Looking in the mirror is often considered a form of narcissism. This is particularly eviden t in the store episode when Carrie looks at herself with the new clothes on. Her sense of well-being is enhanced, to the point where she starts to feel a warm glow (70) creep into her cheeks. This is again shown up in chapter eight, when she realizes that she is beautiful after looking in a mirror. The two antithetical potions of Carries mind, her moral sense and desire, make another appearance in chapter ten.There, standing before the mirror, she sees that her face reveals a more attractive girl than she was before but her mind, a mirror prepared of her own and the worlds opinions(70), reveals a worse creature than she had been before. She wavers between these two images, uncertain of which one to believe.The inner mirror, the reservoir of social and acquired moral option, must be watched closer by the reader. Sister Carrie is a study in depth of the character what happens inside Carries mind is rattling far more important than her outward fortune of trials and ordeal.Carries diff iculties, more sanctioned in the recent past, have now become mental ones, and wholly so turned about in all of her earthly relationships that she might well have been a new and different individual (70). In the mirror she sees a pretty face, but when she looks within herself she sees an image placid of her own judgements and those of society that makes her experience a certain moral queasiness. Carrie wavers between these two reflections, wondering which one to embrace. Her conscience, only an average little conscience (73), is shaped by the world, her own past life, habit, and convention, all welded together in a confused way. Her conscience bothers her because she failed to live with moral correctness even before she tried. Carrie is in a winter mood, full of silent brooding. heretofore the secret of her conscience grows more and more feeble.Before, the mirror only was an indicant of vanity and represented the ability to imitate things. Now Dreiser remarks that the mirror is the symbol of a good actress as well, a good actress serves as her own mirror to her audience (Gyeth, 2006 web). Carries vocation and power as an actress find their fullest sort on stage, where she creates not only a series of idealized versions of herself, but also an array of miniature mise-en-scne- shadow plays-of the city and its inhabitants outside. (Geyh, 2006 web) Carrie was possessed of that sympathetic, plastic nature which, ever in the most developed form, has been the glory of the drama. She was created with the passiveness of soul which is always the mirror of the active world, the narrator observes. (117) Carries greatest ability is that she can mirror back to people that they want to see.NewspapersThe frequent symbol in this novel is the employment of newspapers to designate people who are no longer capable to see the future, people that are suppressed by the past and sometimes by the present. The newspaper represents old news as it presents things that have alread y happened. Individuals who fall back on the newspaper thus fall into the class of have-beens, of those who already lived their life and experienced the world.The first who reads the newspaper in the novel is Sven Hanson followed by Hurstwood. The two are reading the newspaper in the even out as a form of entertainment and because it is the only way they could find out about their own world. Hurstwood is scrolling the paper for the first time in chapter twenty. The paper symbolizes the past, and the incapacity to rise in the future. Thus, his wife is already making the decision concerning the future of the family, and the future vacation. In this scene between Hurstwood and Julia, the first finds in the newspaper a refuge from his wifes demands and from what his entire family represented to him. This way he tries to avoid domestic quarrels and pretends to read the newspaper. By contrast Carrie, reads the paper to see if she is written about in one of its articles. The newspaper gai ns more importance and is more often used by Hurstwood than ever before. Each day he could read in the evening paper (143). Later Dreiser describes Hurstwood as spending his time reading newspapers, as the only enjoyable activity left. This again suggests that Hurstwood can only live by looking at the past rather than into the future.The significance of newspapers reaches the vertex in chapter thirty five during the storm. Hurstwood is entirely ruined as a man that he uses the paper even for trivial news suc