Carrie Meeber is nothing more than "a lone figure in a tossing, thoughtless sea". In Sister Carrie by Theordore Drieser, Carrie is portrayed as a very out of the box protagonist. In the novel, Carrie is sent away by her parents to Chicago, seeking money and work. She is immediately seduced by Drouet and abducted by Hurstwood. She escapes Hurstwood but is still tied to her final fate. She's not like any other protagonist; she is greedy, naive and cruel.
In the beginning of the novel, Carrie expresses her dislike of country living. She wants money and material belongings. "Money was something that was a power in itself." Carrie saw money as a power object and she would do anything to climb her way up this mountain of "power". It seems as though country living has given Carrie a very twisted view of what money is and what it can do to your life and that, in turn, has made Carrie a very greedy person.
After arriving in Chicago, Carrie is immediately impressed and blinded by the flashy belongings of Drouet. "He reached down in his hip pocket and took out a fat purse. It was filled with slips of paper, some milage books and a roll of green books." Carrie mindlessly follows Drouet and his line of money and in the end gets cheated by him and becomes nothing but a mistress. Her mindless following of a man in a flashy suit with a wad of cash, portrays Carrie as being very obviously young and naive.
Carrie is also portrayed as a cruel, merciless girl who will crush anyone below her. After leaving her family and sister behind, she never goes back to visit them. Further, Carrie mercilessly abandoned Drouet and Hurstwood. When she finally finds good work in New York and starts making money, she refuses to give any money to help out the family. "Her need of clothes-- to say nothing of her desire of ornaments-- grew rapidly...". She was uncaring of how her actions affect those