"If a person fails mentally, that is a failure. Some people think that their happiness lies in wealth and status. They searched everywhere, and when they saw the illusion of joy passing, they stopped and lamented. They forget that if they are happy, they will not get anything else. The world is full of desirable places, but unfortunately, we can occupy a place for a while. Most people occupy one position, but keep it out of the way for a long time in search of other positions. ”
"Sister Carrie" is a novel by the American realist writer Theodore. Dreiser's masterpiece. Set in the United States, where capitalism was rapidly developing and consumer consciousness prevailed in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the novel tells the story of a rural girl, Carrie, who travels alone to the materialistic metropolis to pursue her dream of gorgeous life, and experiences two unsustainable relationships with salesman Duroé and hotel manager Hesworth, and finally becomes a well-known actress.
Image source: The movie "Carrie Sister"
Among them, Carrie and Hessworth's emotional experience is the most wonderful and ironic. Carrie's appearance takes a surprising turn in Hesswo's life, from a steady and confident hotel manager to a poor and despicable beggar with a deformed personality. What's going on in between? What is the cause of Hessworth's life tragedy?
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > The price of maintaining a decent material life is the suppression of the spiritual life</h1>
As a well-known hotel manager, Hessworth is undoubtedly successful in the eyes of outsiders: decent work, elegant demeanor, innocent reputation, stable family.
Yet only he himself knew that all this was just a vain illusion he had painstakingly created. Because in order to maintain his social status, it is necessary to have such a perfect persona, and the corresponding price is to be careful and cautious everywhere to round out the lies he has created, and even suppress the true feelings in his heart.
Externally, Hessworth has a shrewd set of rules for people. All interpersonal interactions are carried out on the premise of calculated interests in advance, and everyone wears a mask of hypocrisy, pretends to be enthusiastic, and plays an empty and boring game.
Internally, in the family Hessworth is like an outsider. He had no feelings for his selfish and cold wife, and even quarreled as a waste of time, but maintained the most basic name of the couple; he had no interaction with his two children and became an invisible father. His presence does not cause any waves in the family, and he has become a tool for providing money, material and social status for his wife and children, rather than relatives.
There is such an evaluation of Heswolf's current life in the book, which also lays the groundwork for his tragic road.
"Here, the mood is not comfortable enough, not enough enthusiasm. This is maintained by habit and social opinion. Over time, the relationship must become more and more boring, until it becomes a fire, and it is easy to catch fire and burn everything. ”
In Heswer's heart, he was often disgusted by this cold and selfish life, but this emotion was soon diluted by the sense of superiority and material pleasure brought about by the sensations, so that the sense of spiritual emptiness was repeatedly left behind and ignored.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > a desperate gamble after being awakened</h1>
If no variables appeared, Hesworth's life might be like a backwater, but Carrie's appearance shattered the apparent calm.
Herworth had gone to see the novelty of Duloet's mouth with a good look, but he found himself fascinated by Carrie's simple freshness, youthful vitality, and the novelty of exploring the unknown in his eyes. She was completely different from the cold, selfish, selfish, vulgar powder carved out of a mold, and instantly stirred his dying heart.
Carrie's seduction to Hessworth is fatal, even if she is unconscious. A middle-aged man who has experienced vicissitudes seems to have regained the feelings of a teenager who has just opened his love sinus and is thinking about the twilight. Once some things have an object of comparison, then its shortcomings will be ruthlessly magnified, how beautiful Carrie is, how disgusted her wife is, and the previous reluctance will become unbearable.
There is no impermeable wall in the world, and after the love affair is exposed, the wife uses his reputation and future as a chip to carry out the final economic blackmail against Hessworth with revenge, and this tough method offends Hesworth's last dignity as a man.
So in the dilemma, he engaged in a fierce ideological struggle, and finally trembled and stole the hotel's money and planned to take Carrie away. It was like a gamble on his future and reputation, and his only chip was to get spiritual solace and self-righteous happiness from Carrie.
The appearance of Carrie awakens Heswer's long-suppressed spiritual needs and his desire for happiness bursts forth. However, this desire is like a beast in a cage, and once released, it is like a flood of floods, rushing down.
Hesworth, bent on getting rid of his confinement, freedom, and happiness, made a desperate bet under the persecution. From a secular point of view, this is not the rational behavior of a decent middle-aged man in the middle class, but like the rebellion and stupidity of an unworldly teenager.
<h1 class = "pgc-h-arrow-right" > helpless after stepping out of the comfort zone of class</h1>
Hessworth and Carrie fled to new York, an unfamiliar place, a more materialistic and class-defined metropolis.
In terms of career, when people reach middle age and are free from the protection of class, Heswer does not have the scrappy passion of young people and the quality of poor people to bear hardships and stand hard work for their livelihood. From a respected big man everywhere in Chicago to a small person who was not literate, the frustration caused by this huge psychological gap continued to accumulate on every small thing, and finally crushed his original lack of enterprising.
So after suffering a series of blows from the bankruptcy of hotel partnerships, the failure of entrepreneurship, and the lack of access to a job, he adopted an evasive attitude and blamed all the reasons for his failure on the eyeslessness of others and the coldness of the environment. From the arrogance at the beginning, to self-hatred and self-pity, and finally to complete abandonment, every day he hid in his room indifferently and read the newspaper, and lived with the most basic material conditions for survival.
In terms of feelings, first of all, there is no real love between Hesworth and Carrie, they can't even talk about the most basic understanding of each other, and the mutual they see is only a beautiful projection of their own fantasy life. Carrie seeks the material pleasures of high society in Hesswo, and Hessworth seeks youthful vitality and spiritual comfort in Carrie, and they attract each other and take what they need.
The feelings between them are actually maintained by the material basis, so when the comfortable romance created by the superior material disappears, the reality of chai rice sauce vinegar tea is highlighted, and the gap is also expanding bit by bit, and finally they hate each other, ending with Carrie abandoning Heswo.
Since then, Hessworth has gone from being a decent manager to a poor man with nothing, and finally ended his life with his own hands.
< h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > epilogue</h1>
Hessworth's tragedy lies in the emptiness of spiritual life. Money, status, fame, and love have ruthlessly abandoned Hessworth, causing him to encounter an unprecedentedly fatal spiritual crisis. In this spiritual game, Hesworth did not have enough spiritual strength from within to support and overcome his encounters. On the contrary, he is sensitive and fragile, fleeing into the wilderness, not daring to face the cruelty of real life, curled up in the glorious memories of the first half of his life and refusing to come out.
Zhou Guoping said in "Three Awakenings of Life": People living in the world must make choices and decisions, and they will also encounter doubts, difficulties, and setbacks, all of which need the support of strength, and among all forces, the most indispensable thing is the inner strength, that is, awakening. Those external forces, such as the power, money, and status you have acquired, may make you beautiful, but only the inner forces can make your life meaningful.
The inner strength is the wealth of spiritual life, which is the source of motivation for our life to move forward. When we are in a comfortable environment, spiritual abundance makes us feel happy and happy; when we are in a difficult environment, spiritual abundance makes our soul transcend physical encounters, not be tormented by blessings and misfortunes, and live well in the present.