Commodity, Performance, and Social Identity in Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie

Commodity, Performance, and Social Identity in Theodore Dreiser's Sister Carrie

Theodore Dreiser's novel is an exemplary text of social identity's performativity. The crucial role of the commodity in constituting an individual's social identity clearly demonstrates how identity is discursively performed. Social identity is depicted as the value of commodified human subjects, which is not an innate value but a social product as commodities are according to Marx. This performativity of social identity is further reinforced by the novel's strong interest in theatrical and social acting. The commodity and acting in Sister Carrie, however, do not represent two different worlds, with the former's materiality opposed to the latter's illusoriness. They are both, instead, shown to be components of a social construct--that is, individuals' performance of their social identity. In Sister Carrie, the characters' sense of self is both constantly enacted as a theatrical role and based on money and the other commodities they possess.