Analyzing Jennie Gerhardt by A Point of Structuralism

【Abstract】Jennie Gerhardt is an American realistic fiction and is Theodore Dreiser s second long novel after Sister Carrie published. Theodore Dreiser is a pioneer of American realism and a naturalist so that his works are all almost related to peoples life in America， for example， The Financier， The Titan， The “Genius”， An American Tragedy and so on， these all reflect the real life of America through some stories. And how to use American structuralism to decode this story， which is a core of this paper.

【Key words】Jennie Gerhardt； Theodore Dreiser； America； structuralism

This story is written under the background of the rapid development of American capitalism and economic prosperity， which encourages the people to desire for money and worship， sacrificing thrift， self-control ability and some other good morals. Therefore in order to express the spurn of Theodore Dreiser he chooses the way of writing hence that Jennie Gerhardt is a true story of real life in America.

The novel Jennie Gerhardt exposes America contemporary corruptions through a new view，or the author takes a feminine perspective， a poor girl， as the protagonist to show several contradictions between proletariat and bourgeoisie， love and money， the poor and the rich. During the first half part of this novel， Jennie meets the senator Brander as a laundrywoman，at first glance，she considers Brander as a handsome man and this man also is attracted by Jennies beauty hence that they are fall in love with each other and have a sexual intercourse before getting married. But Brander dies because of an unexpected disease hence Jennie is left alone with a unborn baby， and during that time， this behavior of pregnancy before marriage is reviled by all people， finally her father William Gerhardt throws her out of the house. Then in order to bring up her daughter， Jennie looks for a work as a slavey in a rich family， because of which she meets another man， Lester Kane who is the son of another rich family. Finally， of course， they cant help falling in love， but for moral constraints from others discussion， external pressure from Lesters family， bourgeoisie thoughts of Lester， etc， they at last are unwilling to be separated hence Jennie is left alone. So at last Jennie doesnt get her happy life， which is thought as a failure. If to use structuralism to express these stories， it is as the following：

Now， how to analyze a literary work by a point of structuralism？ The features of structuralism respectively are unity， inward principle， synchronicity，and simplicity and so on， from being seen these features，structuralism focus on that we can regard one text as one unity to reveal deep structure from surface structure in a simply and understandable way. For Jennie Gerhardt， the above graph is a surface structure from which we can think that Jennie symbolizes the class of proletariat， and Brander and Lester are representative of the class of bourgeoisie， then judged from the literal structure， it is concluded that if there is a fight between bourgeoisie and proletariat ， the former always wins but the later is always loser， which hints that in America bourgeoisie controls proletariat as a capitalist country. At another aspect， Lester represents the high class with fame and fortune， and restrictions which hinder Jennie and Lester to get together symbolize superstructure. And in the relationship between them， the thoughts of superstructure influence Lesters decision and at last Lester abandons his sweetheart Jennie to get married with another rich widow in order to become richer， which shows readers the famous idea that economic base determines superstructure and superstructure influences economic base in reverse. And the following structure is the deep structure：

Seeing from the second graph， we can see that the center is bourgeoisie ， but in the first graph，Jennie representing proletariat is the center. Therefore Theodore Dreiser uncovers some bad things in America which puts bourgeoisie with fame and power in center through the view of a poor girl regarded as proletariat with no money and power， and this type of writing is neoteric.

Meanwhile， the difficulties and constraints faced by the girl represent some shackles of capitalist society， and the failures of her marriage symbolize Theodore Dreisers nonsupport for Jennies desire for fame and wealth. So the way of structural analysis demonstrates the whole frame of this work， briefly and intelligibly.

References：

[1]Theodore Dreiser.傅东华译.Jennie Gerhardt[M].上海译文出版社，1911.

[2]刘润清.西方语言学流派（第2版）[M].外语教学与研究出版社，2002.11.

作者简介：杨雪梅（1992-），女，湖北枣阳人，西南科技大学外国语学院在读研究生，研究方向：英语语言文学。