S-a născut la Terre Haute, Indiana, într-o familie germano-americană strictă.
Sister Carrie is a work of pivotal importance in American literature, and it became a model for subsequent American writers of realism. His father had come to America from Mayen, Germany in 1844. Influenced by Herbert Spenser and Charles Darwin, Naturalists looked at their writings as a scientific experimentation through which they simply recorded their observations.
Theodore Dreiser is considered one of America's greatest naturalists, significant because he wrote at the early stages of the naturalist movement. In spite of Dreiser's documentary method of literary realism, he sometimes impregnates several details with symbolic imagery and develops his story through patterns of association. In my opinion, Dreiser made the sequence of events and the characters in Sister Carrie in detail so that the reader can feel and imagine what Dreiser is describing.
Sister Carrie was a movement away from the emphasis on morals of the Victorian era and focused more on realism and the base instincts of humans. His novels often featured main characters who succeeded at their objectives despite a lack of a firm moral code, and literary situations that more closely resemble studies of nature than tales of choice and agency. Between them they mark an inflection point in writing. Rather, he is among the very first American writers that dealt with realism. One of the foremost practitioners of American realism, Theodore Dreiser wrote novels and stories that explored such themes as the dangerous lure of urban environments, the conflict between Old World parents and their … Theatrical realism might employ any of the aforementioned subgenres to provide a more authentic grounding for the drama, the characters, and their choices. American literary naturalism and realism: writers such as Hamlin Garland, Mary Wilkins Freeman, Jack London, Theodore Dreiser, Frank Norris, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Stephen Crane, … Dreiser’s siblings had a reputation for beingtough, wild and flirtatious. Theatrical realism applies to dramatic works written for the stage.
Theodore Dreiser (1871-1945) [7110] H. C. White Co., Making Link Sausages–Machines Stuff 10 Ft. per Second (c. 1905), courtesy of the Library of Congress [LC-USZ62-50217]. It would be a grave oversimplification to state that this is a novel about "business". Theodore Herman Albert Dreiser (27 august 1871 – 28 decembrie 1945) a fost un scriitor naturalist american, cunoscut pentru modul în care trata realitatea vieții în operele sale. Theodore Dreiser's beginnings were not auspicious.
Although the movement was begun by French writer Émile Zola, it was largely through the perseverance of Dreiser that it became a force in America.