Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser, and My

¶ … Sister Carrie" by Theodore Dreiser, and "My Antonia" by Willa Cather. Specifically, it will determine what each character's value system is by asking what things are most important to her and what things or values she spends most of the time seeking. Each of these characters has strong and determined values that guide them through their lives. These values are at the core of their being, and help the characters become real and compelling in the readers' mind. One character's values bring her contentment, while the other's do not, and this is the key difference between these two women and their values. One has values to be applauded, while the other has values that leave her wanting.

Antonia in "My Antonia" is a child of the land. She values life in the country and family, and these values stick with her throughout her life. She notes, "I'm a country girl...and I doubt if I'll be able to manage so well for him in a city. I was counting on keeping chickens, and maybe a cow" (Cather 309). This love of the land keeps her strong and healthy during the novel, but this core value also anchors her best friend Jim to his home and the land. He writes on a visit home, "She had only to stand in the orchard, to put her hand on a little crab tree and look up at the apples, to make you feel the goodness of planting and tending and harvesting at last. All the strong things of her heart came out in her body, that had been so tireless in serving generous emotions" (Cather 353). Antonia's values also represent the core values of family and land that serve as our country's foundation, and so, she serves as a model woman - one who is not afraid to be who she is, but still stands for the values that make a country and a people strong and great. It is clear author Cather admires Antonia and her values, for she creates the narration around her, and makes her the central character in the novel, even though she really appears infrequently. Just as her values are core American values, she is the core of the novel.

In "Sister Carrie," Carrie has far different values from Antonia. Carrie is selfish and driven by possessions. Her core values include only her own needs and wants, and while she sometimes feels guilty about this, she does nothing to alter her behavior or her values. She is a likeable girl despite her faults, but she does not recognize the value of friendship, which is why, in the end, she is so very dissatisfied with her life. Dreiser writes, "Though often disillusioned, she was still waiting for that halcyon day when she would be led forth among dreams become real. [...] It was forever to be the pursuit of that radiance of delight which tints the distant hilltops of the world" (Dreiser Chapter XLVII).

Cather's Antonia is the epitome of womanhood, while Carrie is more masculine in her desires and her ambition. In fact, her values might not seem quite so disquieting in a man, but in a woman, they seem cold and calculating. In addition, woven into the novel is the powerful draw of the city and all of its difficulties and evils. Carrie is drawn to the evils of the city like a moth to a flame, while Antonia recognizes the peace and contentment of the countryside, and draws strength from it. Carrie too is strong, but it is her avarice and greed that make her strong, rather than her moral character and values. In the end, Carrie is successful but unhappy, while Antonia is poor but strong and incredibly at peace with herself. Clearly, author Dreiser is making a commentary on the morals and mores of the early 20th century in his novel. He sees the cities bringing the country to ruin, and the mores of the people degenerating, just as Carrie's morals degenerate as she moves closer to her goals of possessions and fame.

Clearly, Antonia seems to have the most meaningful and fulfilling value system. She represents the heartland of America. However, in today's world, Antonia's values seem outmoded and difficult to understand. Carrie's values, on the other hand, seem more in tune with today's lifestyle of monetary gain and possessions above anything else. As Drieser notes, "As for Carrie, her understanding of the moral significance of money was the popular understanding, nothing more. The old definition: 'Money: something everybody else has and I must get,' would have expressed her understanding of it thoroughly" (Drieser Chapter VII). Carrie would have fit right in to our modern lifestyle of corporate greed and excess, and few people would have seen her as amoral or lacking in values. Drieser may have seen the roots of our current value system beginning in the early 20th century, and clearly, he did not approve. Carrie is the result of his disapproval, but she is far more realistic than he ever could have realized. Antonia seems archaic and bucolic if compared by today's standards, and this only indicates just what America has lost in values as she gains in the global economy.