嘉莉妹妹英文读后感

　　嘉莉妹妹英文读后感

　　Theodore Dreiser, born in Terre Haute, Indiana, USA, was raised in poverty and in a German-speaking environment. He left home for Chicago at age 16. After a period of odd jobs and a year at the University of Indiana, he became a Midwestern newspaper reporter and, in New York after 1894, a magazine feature writer. In 1892, married Sara White, but their marriage wasn’t happy, so they have been separated since 1909 and never officially divorced

　　Sister Carrie （1900）， his first and still highly regarded novel, was withheld from general distribution because of it was supposed amoral, and its commercial failure plunged him into financial distress and mental breakdown. Some reasons which caused the difficulties of publish can be seen from the social background of the society of that time. At the time, United States is experiencing a rapid social change, it was transforming from free capitalism transition to the monopoly capitalism. The whole American literature was indulged in idealism, many writers preferred to describe the optimistic aspect of life. The novel is regarded as entertainment products; works is full of illusory ideal and covered by romantic color. The exploiter and exploitee lived a completely different life. The ugly phenomenon in the society was not reflected in literature works. In Sister Carrie, Dreiser truthfully reveals the dark side of the social life, and that’s the reason why the author constantly suffered from persecution. The novels have been classified as "banned", and can not be published in the America.

　　Sister Carrie is about a young country girl who moves to the big city where she starts realizing her own American Dream, first as a mistress to men that she perceives as superior, and later becoming a famous actress. It has been called the "greatest of all American urban novels."

　　The personal life of the writer has very close relationship with his work Sister Carrie. There are some similarities between the author and the heroine. First, the heroine was born in a poor family just as same as the author. That’s why the author can know so clearly about the psychological activity of the poor girl Carrie and described it in such delicate words. Second, it can be seen from the novel that the place where the girl chase her dream was Chicago. The author also has gone to the same place to fulfill his dream. So he saw what Carrie saw. For instance, how the rich men lived, how they enjoy their life, what was the poor’s life like, with such a living experience, the gap between the rich and the poor was so truly reflected before our eyes. Third, they all once are earning meager support from menial jobs. Forth, they all have the same dream. Dreiser has admitted that he was once chased after the pleasure from material things, but he despised it afterwards. Carrie’s life was always surrounded by her chasing for a better material life. At the beginning, she left her hometown and came for her sister. But when her sister’s living couldn’t attract her anymore, she went to the salesman Drouet, then Hursthood and at last the theater. Except the heroine, the character Hursthood was not so happy in his marriage life, so was the author. Hursthood was suppressed and looking for something new, thrill and beautiful. Maybe Hursthood’s mental state was just like the author’s during that period. Sven Hanson, Minnie's husband, of Swedish extraction and taciturn temperament. As we all know, Dreiser’s father was a Swedish, a severe rigid and distant man. We can slightly suppose that the character of Sven Hanson was originated from his father.

　　As for Carrie, there’s such a sentence in the book: “In Carrie—as in many of our worldings do they not?— instinct and reason, desire and understanding, were at war for the mastery. She followed whither her craving led. She was as yet more drawn than she drew. ” This seems tells us that the currency of the society is an overwhelming power that pushes one to do something and defines the view of value for the people. I think this sentence is the perfect description for Carrie and all her stories, every choices she made just show us how suitable this description is for her. Through the heroine, the author tries to reveal the human nature nakedly before our eyes. When Sister Carrie ran out of her sister’s home without any money, she met Drouet and he gave her ten soft dollar bills. On the one hand, she felt ashamed because she has been weak to take it. But on the other hand, her need was so dire, she was still glad. That’s the contradiction of her nature. After she met Hursthood, she was attracted by him. On the one hand, she felt guilty. But on another, she was longing for a better life. And it’s also the same situation when she left Hursthood when he became poor. As for Drouet, the book tells us in regard to his pursuit of women, he meant them no harm, because he did not conceive of the relation which he hoped to hold with them as being harmful. He chased women not because he was a cold-blooded, dark, scheming villain, but because his inborn desire urged him to that as a chief delight. That’s the contradiction of Drouet’s nature.

　　Most people say Sister Carrie’s story is a story of her American dream comes true. But I disagree with it. Carrie does have her dream come true, finally she lives a rich life and is admired by others. But what is American dream? It is a set of ideals in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward?social mobility?achieved through hard work. While from the book I can’t see a hardworking girl. When Carrie’s looking for a job, she is so timid and can only see the material things that workers get instead of the pain they bear. After she get a job of making shoes in a factory, she does feel happy at first, but soon facing the easy money from she does want to do this work anymore. Of course, as a girl, in such a society, with such economic situation, she might not have so many choices. But, although Carrie did something not so good, I still can not hate this character. Because she’s so real, she just follows her nature to live her life. She’s beautiful and smart, if she is born in a wealthy family, then she will not depend men to live. But no one can choose where to be born; destiny seems just so unfair sometimes. The most pity thing I think is that although Carrie lives a rich life at last, but she doesn’t find the true meaning of living. But the true meaning of life is always obscure; nobody knows exactly what it is. So why bother to think about it, just live our life good.

　　嘉莉妹妹英语读后感

　　Having read the book Sister Carrie written by Theodore Dreiser,a very complicate feeling struck me,for the society,the people in America in the late 19th century.We can see clearly about the decadent and hypocritical moral principles of the bourgeois.They pursue only position,authority and money.Pleasure is their honest companion.

　　The society was developing rapidly and the people's living standards were also improving.Yes,the prosperity appeared.But on the other hand,the gap between the poor and the rich was strengthened.While some people were playing and drinking,the other people were working,even begging.Behind the happiness,hiding much misery.Facing all of these,I am confused whether I should happy about the development of the society or I should sad about the cruel.

　　But I know I will give much sympathy to all of these people,no matter they rich or poor.I am sorry that the rich have lost their good morality,their sympathy and I think they are blank in their spiritThe poor,of course,are busy all the day for supporting themselves and their family,no time enjoying the life.All of them are the sacrifices of the society.

　　In this book,,only Sister Carrie can present us all of these.At first,she was poor.She had to work hard,but only made ends meet.She admired the pleasure, quick to understand the keener pleasures of life, ambitious to gain in material things.You know, Of an intermediate balance, under the circumstances, there is no possibility. The city has its cunning wiles, no less than the infinitely smaller and more human tempterTheir beauty, like music, too often relaxes, then wakens, then perverts the simpler human perceptions.Then, not only did Carrie feel the drag of desire for all which was new and pleasing in apparel for women, but she noticed too, with a touch at the heart, the fine ladies who elbowed and ignored her, brushing past in utter disregard of her presence. She realized in a dim way how meant for women, and she longed for dress and beauty with a whole heart.Her craving for pleasure was so strong that it was the one stay of her nature.

　　She would speak for that when silent on all else.As a result,she left her sister,following Chas.H.Drouet,a salesman.So she has the beautiful room,has the satisfied dress and so on.For a pereid of time,she was happy and satisfied.But drived by the desire,Sister Carrie wants more. In Carrie-as in how many of our wordings do they not?

　　instinct and reason, desire and understanding, were at war for the mastery. She followed whither her craving led. She was as yet more drawn than she drew.When she went to the theatre with Drouet that spectacle pleased her immensely. The color and grace of it caught her eye. She had vain imaginings about place. and power, about faroff lands and magnificent people. When it was over, the clatter of coaches and the throng of fine ladies made her stare. CARRIE WAS AN APT STUDENT of fortune’s ways-of for Time’s superficialities. Seeing a thing, she would immediately set to inquiring how she would look, properly rated to it.

　　Be it known that this is not fine feeling, it is Not wisdom. The greatest minds are not so afflicted; and On the contrary, the lowest order of mind is not so disturbed. Fine clothes to her were a vast persuasion; they spoke tenderly and Jesuitical for themselves. When she came within earshot of their pleading,desire in her bent a willing ear. The voice of the so——called inanimate!If we can say,then she falls in love with Hurstwood,maybe pursuits something in spirit which cannot get from Drouet who seeks the enjoy all day and only cares about himself.With the developing of the story,we can see Carrie going through some difficulties,eloping with Hurstwood.But at last,in New York,Carrie became an actress by chance and turned out to be one of New York's most popular actresses.Nevertheless,she was not quite happy but felt lonely and void.To the result,I am thinking,maybe this is inevitable.This is the fate in that society.

　　In the novel,too much gave me a deeply impression,especially the enormous change of Hurstwood.From the manager of a saloon to a beggary,Hurstwood had stolen money from the safe in order to elope with Carrie,but finally committed suicide.What is the reason,who is wrong.Perhaps nobody knows,we cannot say Carrie or his families leading to this.Maybe this is the so-called destiny.But still seems to some deceiving ourselves.

　　Let us have a look at the other people,the families of the Hurstwood,his wife and daughter,only love the vanity and seek the pleasure.They are cold and selfish.We cannot find the happiness that belongs to a family,Hurstwood cannot feel the warmAnother person,Drouet, He loved fine clothes, good eating, and particularly the company and acquaintanceship of successful men.He has vanity and ambition. He might suffer the least rudimentary twinge of conscience in whatever he did, and in just so far he was evil and sinning.He also loves women. Drouet had a habit, characteristic of his kind, of looking after stylishly dressed or pretty women on the street and remarking upon them. He had just enough of the feminine love of dress to be a good judge-not of intellect, but of clothes.

　　He saw how they set their little feet, how they carried their chins, with what grace ands sinuosity they swung their bodies. A dainty, self-conscious swaying of the hips by a woman was to him as alluring as the glint of red wine to a toper. He would turn and follow the disappearing vision with his eyes. he would thrill as a child with the unhindered passion that was in him. He loves the thing that women love in themselves, grace. At this their own shrine, he Knelt with them, an ardent devotee.He lost the higher dreame.

　　No matter the result of these people is good or bad,I will feel sorry for them.They are the sacrifices of the society.We cannot only regard these as the destiny.Something else has led these.Of course, we also cannot say it is the fault of the developmental society.Maybe what we can do is keep ourselves with our best.

　　寂静的春天英文读后感

　　“There was a strange stillness. The birds, for example—where had they gone?” “The feeding stations in the backyards were deserted. The few birds seen anywhere were moribund; they trembled violently and could not fly. It was spring without voices.” “On the farms the hens brooded, but no chicks hatched.” “The roadsides, once so attractive, were now lined with browned and withered vegetation as though swept by fire. These, too, were silent, deserted by all living things. Even the streams were now lifeless.”

　　This is a strange scene described by Rachel Carson, who is regarded as “the mother of modern environmental protection movement”。 Silent Spring is her representative work which lighted the fire of environmental protection in America and the whole world. Before 1960s, no books or magazines talked about things like environment and ecosystem. Such a phenomenon means that environmental protection had not come to people’s mind and the social consciousness. Indeed, the main opinion in human society from the very past about nature is to “set war against” or “conquer” it. In fact, many of human’s progresses are made on the base of such opinion. Rachel Carson was the first person who doubted the correctness of the belief and brought the topic under focus.

　　In Silent Spring, Carson described a miserable village which was dying under the using of DDT. The village used to be prosperous and beautiful. “In spring, white clouds of bloom drifted above the green fields. In autumn, oak and maple and birch set up a blaze of color that flamed and flickered across a backdrop of pines. Then foxed barked in the hills and deer silently crossed the fields, half hidden in the mists of the fall mornings.” She thought that with the using of variety kinds of pesticide, especially DDTs, the village suffered enormous and irreversible damage and gradually withered and died. Soon it became just like the one described in the beginning. From her fine and smooth describing, I can even feel the groan of the town. Moreover Carson also sharply pointed out that the deep-seated cause for the environmental problem is the human’s arrogance and ignorance. So she asked people to correct the attitude toward the nature and reconsidered the developing path of human being.

　　Carson thought that because of the antibody and differentiation, pesticides would never be completely useful. On the contrary, those more and more poisonous medicines, because of the enrichment effect, would accumulate in humans’ body. It’s quite sarcastic that we hurt ourselves much badly while hurting the others. Then she analyzed many poisonous components in pesticides. Those are all unfamiliar names except DDT, such as chlordane, chloronaphthalene, compound 497, etc.

　　Those things really make me feel scared. We are on the top of the food chain, and it is such a perfect and fragile system. We human beings are just part of it and we depend on all of the creatures who stay on the lower positions. It is so hard and ridiculous to try to match the nature. ”Only in the state does man have a rational existence.” Every species have their value to be on this world. Then no one knows what would happened if we force them to disappear. For example, let’s imagine the food chain as a meticulously made castle built by billions of little blocks and we human beings are the top one. There might be several tiny blocks on the bottom which you think is useless and dispensable. But what would happen if we take them away? Perhaps nothing happened, and perhaps the whole castle ruined.

　　Destruction is always much easier than recovery, not counting those incurable ones. Humans always think that we are much cleverer than the other animals, so we become more and more conceited and firmly believe that we are the king. We didn’t see that the nature is so magical and knows how to revenge. The pay back is much more violent and cruel. We need balance and order. The nature has its own rule. Our aim is to use it and live in harmony with it. The ecosystem is so delicate that even a tiny disturbance could lead an unexpected consequence, just like the butterfly effect.

　　At the last chapter, some scientists came up with other ways to solve the pest problem----biotic control. There is now a strongly running tide of interest in chemical sterility. Those sterile insects are released and mate the normal ones so that they won’t have any larva and get extinct gradually. This “solution” seems to be reasonable and helpful, but thinking about it carefully, you’ll find that it is just another way to ruin the food chain castle. Not only spring, but also summer and autumn would be still and silent in the future.

　　It is lucky that Rachel still kept her mind clear. She didn’t agree with the way of conquering the nature. At the very end of the book, she wrote, “The ‘control of nature’ is a phrase conceived in arrogance, born of the Neanderthal age of biology and philosophy, when it was supposed that nature exists for the convenience of man.” This sentence can be regarded as the book’s theme topic which is widely quoted in all kinds of articles about environmental protection.

　　Carson is a great woman and fighter. When writing the book, she was suffering from huge pain of the operation for mammary cancer. After the book was published, the widely affect brought her not honor and fortune, but fierce attack from the chemical estate. She died only one year after the book’s publishing. On the spring of 1964, the great woman passed away, but Silent Spring made her voice never silent.

　　The 20st century was a time that technology and economy developed rapidly, especially the 40 years after Silent Spring was published. But every spring, when flowers bloom, trees sprout, and water begins to flow, we used to recall a woman and her enduring works. We opened the window, and wonder if the spring is silent today, if it will be silent tomorrow.