But, though she ultimately achieves her dreams, she is never happy, never satisfied. Hurstwood falls tragically and cannot seem to find his way back, while Carrie rises ever higher, without ever putting in much effort of her own. Soon, the powers of fate and destiny converge on Hurstwood & Carrie – their lives are linked and their livelihoods inverted. His wife and children are normal and healthy, although rather self-absorbed. At the start, he is a powerful, charming, and accomplished business man. Concurrently, the life of her second lover, Hurstwood, begins to deteriorate as of the day he meets her. Carrie’s life is filled with example after example of good fortune and coincidence, so that, without taking any real agency of her own, she finds herself elevated from the lowest levels of society (once forced to work in the harshest of factory conditions) to the ranks of wealth and stardom, on Broadway. While on the train into the city, she meets a man named Charles Drouet, and this encounter (characterized by Carrie’s adoration of his fancy clothes and well-to-do appearance) will set in motion Carrie’s entire future. In it, a small-town Wisconsin girl, Carrie Meeber, moves to Chicago to live with her sister and brother-in-law.

Theodore Dreiser’s Sister Carrie is perhaps the perfect example of American Naturalism. 4 – Plot/Story is interesting/believable and impactful (socially, academically, etc.)

Sister Carrie by Theodore Dreiser