Carrie arrived in Chicago with almost nothing but ambition and the belief that the big city held possibilities her small hometown could never offer, regardless of what claiming them might cost.
2Reading· 오늘의 본문
We · Yevgeny Zamyatin · 1924
Carrie's arrival in Chicago was a triumph of ambition over circumstance. She had nothing, yet believed the city held everything. Her initial struggles in the factory and dingy apartment were just the price of entry. Success, when it came through Drouet and then Hurstwood, was measured in fine clothes, admiring glances, and a seat at the theatre. Yet, sitting in her elegant apartment, a strange emptiness crept in. The applause from the stage felt distant, the silks against her skin, just fabric. The city had given her the life she craved, but in grasping it, she wondered what she had truly wanted all along. The desire that propelled her from home now left her curiously still, questioning what lay beyond the next acquisition.
B2 · 128 wordsavg 25.6 w/s
Dreiser's narrative meticulously charts Carrie Meeber's ascent from provincial obscurity to metropolitan prominence, yet its true focus is the hollowness that scaffolds this rise. Her journey to Chicago, fueled by an inchoate ambition, posits the city as the ultimate repository of possibility. However, each achieved desire—material comfort, social standing, theatrical acclaim—functions not as a terminus but as a catalyst for further, more elusive wanting. The novel dissects the mechanics of aspiration, revealing its inherent insatiability. Carrie's success on the stage, the apparent pinnacle of her dreams, is rendered ironically vacant; the applause is an external validation that fails to resonate internally. Dreiser suggests that the very engine of desire, which propels the search for a 'bigger life,' ensures its own dissatisfaction, leaving the individual in a state of perpetual, quiet yearning, even amidst apparent triumph. What makes Sister Carrie endure as a work of literature is precisely this refusal to offer easy consolation — it demands that readers sit with the discomfort of a world that does not resolve neatly, and find their own position within it.
C1 · 170 wordsavg 34.0 w/s
3Vocabulary· 핵심 어휘 & 연습
ambition
야망, 포부
Carrie arrived with almost nothing but ambition to drive her forward.
possibilities
가능성들
She believed the big city held possibilities her hometown lacked.
regardless
~에 관계없이
She was determined to succeed, regardless of the cost.
claiming
(권리 등을) 주장하다, 얻으려 하다
She was focused on claiming her place in the city.
cost
대가, 비용
She rarely considered the emotional cost of her ambitions.
Activity 1 · 빈칸 채우기5 questions
1. Every hour of D-503's life was carefully ____ by the Table of Hours.
2. The ____ of privacy did not exist in the One State.
3. Individual names were ____ and replaced with numbers.
4. The glass walls guaranteed there was no ____ for citizens.
5. The State was ____ declared to represent perfect happiness.