Hurstwood stole money from his employer and fled with Carrie to New York, sacrificing his respected position, his family, and his future for a woman who would eventually outgrow her need for him.
2Reading· 오늘의 본문
We · Yevgeny Zamyatin · 1924
Hurstwood stood at the peak of his world, a respected manager in a fine Chicago saloon. Yet, the polished wood and clinking glasses felt hollow. He had wealth, a family, a position, but it was a success without warmth, a life built on expectation, not passion. Meeting Carrie ignited a desperate hunger for something real, something that felt like living. Abandoning everything, he grasped at this new desire, believing it would fill the void. But in sacrificing his entire stable world for a fleeting feeling, he traded one form of emptiness for another, far more desolate one. His tragic fall began not in poverty, but in the hollow heart of his own prosperity.
B2 · 128 wordsavg 25.6 w/s
Hurstwood's trajectory in "Sister Carrie" serves as a profound dissection of the hollowness that can underpin conventional success and the catastrophic ends to which unbridled desire can lead. His position as manager of Fitzgerald and Moy's is the epitome of Gilded Age respectability, yet Dreiser meticulously portrays it as a gilded cage, a life of quiet desperation masked by material comfort. This inherent emptiness renders him susceptible to the potent allure of Carrie, who represents not just romantic passion, but a perceived escape from a spiritually bankrupt existence. His subsequent actions—abandoning his family, embezzling funds, fleeing to New York—are not merely crimes of passion, but the desperate thrashings of a man attempting to trade one void for another. The ultimate tragedy lies in the realization that his new life, built on theft and deceit, offers no more genuine fulfillment, propelling him toward a destitution that is as much moral and existential as it is financial. His fall is the inevitable conclusion of seeking to answer a spiritual void with purely material, and ultimately selfish, desires.
C1 · 170 wordsavg 34.0 w/s
3Vocabulary· 핵심 어휘 & 연습
abandoned
버리다, 포기하다
He abandoned his stable life in Chicago, hoping to find happiness with Carrie.
employer
고용주
He stole money from his employer, destroying his professional reputation.
fled
도망치다, 달아나다
They fled to New York under a new name, leaving their past behind.
sacrificing
희생하다
Sacrificing his future for love, he did not foresee the loneliness awaiting him.
outgrow
~을 넘어서다, 자라서 ~이 필요 없어지다
Carrie would eventually outgrow her need for Hurstwood, leaving him behind.
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.