Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Sister Carrie, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Urban Life and Decay
Morality and Instinct
Wealth and Class
Summary
Analysis
The barn that Hurstwood works in is “exceedingly shorthanded” and his fellow workers are all “queer, hungry-looking men, who looked as if want had driven them to desperate means.” Hurstwood overhears from several men that despite the militia, a worker was hit “in the ear with a cinder.” The narrator relates that “Hurstwood hearkened without much mental comment.” The men continue to talk and Hurstwood overhears that one once worked in a paper factory and the other had a job in Newark. Hurstwood feels “a little superior to these two—a little better off,” as these men are “ignorant and commonplace, poor sheep in a driver’s hand.”
Hurstwood has fallen into a crowd with “queer, hungry-looking men,” hinting that he himself may be edging on looking queer and hungry. He has fallen quite a long way from his time in Chicago—his appearance is no longer suave and fine. The fact that Hurstwood shows no reaction to news of violence indicates just how indifferent toward life he has grown. Hurstwood views himself as superior to the other workers—he hails from a higher socioeconomic background—although he has little reason to, given his current state.
Themes
Hurstwood’s turn on the platform arrives and “the instructor [takes] it for granted that no preliminaries [are] needed.” The instructor’s directions are simple and Hurstwood feels “sure he could do as well [as practiced motormen], with a very little practice.” However, Hurstwood soon realizes that the job is not so easy and practices from morning until one o’clock in the afternoon. He grows hungry and cold. For lunch, Hurstwood has only dry bread and contemplates the “miserably disagreeable” state of the job.
Hurstwood’s false sense of knowledge comes from his perception that he is superior to the other motormen. Because of this elitist viewpoint, he does not realize that though common, these men have skills that he does not have. Hurstwood previously worked a job of relative leisure; now, he is slaving away with time for only a short lunch break. His conditions have vastly changed.
Themes
After eating, Hurstwood spends most of the afternoon waiting before practicing again. When evening comes, Hurstwood decides to spend the night near the barns to save time and money. He eats in a “cheap restaurant” and sleeps in a cot with a group of other men, “[making] the best of a bad lot by keeping on his clothes and pushing away the dirty covering from his head.” That night, he has a pleasant dream: “He had been back in Chicago in fancy, in his own comfortable home. Jessica had been arranging to go somewhere, and he had been talking with her about it.” Hurstwood awakens to a cold and bitter reality.
Hurstwood now does everything on the cheap. His dream about life in Chicago hints that he misses that life—he misses his uncaring son, his superficial daughter, and his unbearable wife. The horrible nature of his current situation is beyond what he could have imagined in Chicago. Running away with Carrie has proved a disastrous decision—it marks the point at which everything in Hurstwood’s life began to go downhill.
Themes
The foreman tells Hurstwood to eat breakfast, as the “car won’t be ready for a little while.” Hurstwood hesitates, then asks for a meal ticket. After breakfasting on “some fried steak and bad coffee,” Hurstwood waits on the platform. Unbeknownst to him, the strike situation “had taken a turn for the worse” and the strikers are now violent. Hurstwood gets on the car with two policemen. The foreman leaves Hurstwood with a warning: “Don’t stop for any one who doesn’t look like a real passenger.”
Hurstwood now relies on the charity of others—he lives off of Carrie’s earnings and uses meal tickets. Hurstwood’s uncertainty of what he is going into with regards to the strike parallels how he was uncertain of what he was getting into by running away with Carrie. In both cases, Hurstwood does not realize that he is walking into a disaster.
Themes
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Hurstwood feels cold and the officers are condescending. As the car proceeds, protestors emerge and insult Hurstwood. At the first stop, the crowd grows violent and the officers and protestors begin to beat each other. The officer directs Hurstwood to move some stones off the track so that the car can proceed. The crowd insults him as he works. After Hurstwood gets back on the car, the crowd begins to throw rocks. Hurstwood considers this to be an “astonishing experience” and resolves the finish the job: “The fact that he had suffered this much now rather operated to arouse a stolid determination to stick it out.”
The officers are now condescending to Hurstwood because of his poor looks—the old Hurstwood would have commanded their respect with his imposing appearance and fine manners. Hurstwood encounters a new world with the strike—this world is vulgar and full of physical violence. It is the opposite to the world of his saloon back in Chicago. Hurstwood’s determination indicates that he is still a man with gumption. Although he has lost his family, money, and pride, Hurstwood has not lost his capacity to be stubborn.
Themes
For the rest of the trip, protestors continue to yell insults but no longer attack the car. Hurstwood is relieved upon reaching the barns; however, he is soon sent out again. Hurstwood is cold and distressed. Thoughts of Carrie’s insults keep him going. Hurstwood makes three trips and returns to a miserable dinner. One of the barnmen, pitying Hurstwood, lends him “a pair of sheepskin gloves” and for once, Hurstwood is “extremely thankful.”
Working as temporary motorman is akin to an endless cycle of torture. Each trip entails insults and the danger of a beating. The fact that Carrie’s insults keep Hurstwood going shows that he is determined to prove her wrong—he is determined to show her that he can obtain a position and earn money.
Themes
During the second trip Hurstwood “[runs] into a crowd […] that had blocked the car’s progress with an old telegraph pole.” The protestors are violent, and a young Irishman directs a blow at Hurstwood, who “[ducks] and [catches] it on the shoulder instead of the jaw.” Hurstwood’s resolution begins to waver. Hurstwood encounters another mob near the end of his course. After being knocked off the car by a “wrathful” young woman, “kicks and blows [rain] on him.” Hurstwood is cut and becomes “very cold and frightened.”
Hurstwood is hardly accustomed to the world of mobs and violence; consequently a few hits and insults are enough to cause his determination to waver. The fact that he can be knocked off the car by a young woman shows that he is now physically weak. Hurstwood is easily affected by his surroundings—if the environment makes it difficult for him to stay, then he will crumble. Hurstwood is too inexperienced with hard labor and violence to endure working as a motorman.
Themes
After being grazed on the shoulder by a bullet, Hurstwood decides to return home, exclaiming, “this is too much for me.” He braves the “blinding snowstorm” to the ferry and “[trudges] doggedly on” until he reaches the apartment. Hurstwood cleans up and eats, then sits down to read his newspaper, finding it “a wonderful relief.” Hurstwood reads about the riots in Brooklyn with “absorbing interest.”
By this point in the novel, Hurstwood craves comfort above all else—the former manager has become idle. He is willing to brave a snowstorm in order to achieve comfort. His evenings with the newspaper are an escape from a harsh, uncomfortable reality—reading is his only source of joy.
Themes
