Moral and psychological corruption in american city: Theodore Dreiser: "Sister Carrie" and Stephen Crane: "Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets"

From its foundation till present, city has always been a focus for human desires and dreams, a place of possibility, success and threat in American history. Especially, after the Industrial Revolution of nineteenth and twentieth centuries, cities were the living spaces of a large number of people due to their promise of high standard of lifestyles in various areas such as employment, social, cultural, and entertainment. The aim of this study is to examine the problems brought by urbanization and their reflections to the literary texts. Furthermore, this study questions the psychological and moral transformations of individuals caused by this significant social change in American society. These transformations of both individuals and society will be presented through the works of the realist and naturalist writers Stephen Crane and Theodore Dreiser. Throughout this study, the novels of Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets by Crane, and Sister Carrie by Dreiser will be the main sources for demonstrating the moral, social, and psychological corruption caused by urbanization. In the first chapter, the term American Dream and its dominance in American history will be examined in relation to realism. It also gives a historical information about the urbanization process in the U.S. Moreover, the views of the two important urban sociologists?, Louis Wirth and Georg Simmel, will be presented by referring to their remarkable articles. The second chapter will be an analysis of the novel Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets by the realist writer Stephen Crane. In order to understand the novel better, various literal, social , and historical perspectives will also be given. As far as the third chapter is considered, it aims at analyzing another realist writer?s novel: Sister Carrie by Dreiser. Finally, by putting the element of city and its effects on individuals in the centre in these two novels, different and the similar points of these city novels will be concluded. Key Words: 1) Industrialization 2) Urbanization 3) Moral and Psychological Corruption 4) City Life 5) Sociological Change.