I: The Magnet Attracting: A Waif Amid Forces explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Urban Modernity and Alienation

  Carrie's arrival in Chicago highlights the overwhelming and alienating nature of the city, described as having 'cunning wiles' and 'large forces' that allure and pervert the unsophisticated.

• Ambition and Desire

  Carrie is driven by 'self-interest' and 'ambition to gain in material things,' dreaming of 'some vague, far-off supremacy' as she ventures into the city.

• Social Class and Mobility

  The contrast between Drouet's fine clothes and purse and Carrie's shabby dress and worn shoes underscores class inequality and her desire for upward mobility.

Characters to notice

• Caroline Meeber

  Leaves home for Chicago at age eighteen, naive and ambitious, carrying only four dollars and her sister's address.

• Charles Drouet

  A traveling salesman who sits behind Carrie on the train, flatters her, shows off his purse and business card, and arranges to meet her again.

• Minnie Hanson

  Carrie's sister, who meets her at the Chicago station; she is described as lean-faced and commonplace, embodying the grimness of shift and toil.

Key passages

• “When Caroline Meeber boarded the afternoon train for Chicago, her total outfit consisted of a small trunk, a cheap imitation alligator-skin satchel, a small lunch in a paper box, and a yellow leather snap purse, containing her ticket, a scrap of paper with her sister's address in Van Buren Street, and four dollars in money.”

  Carrie Meeber set off for Chicago with only a few belongings and four dollars to her name.

  Establishes Carrie's poverty and vulnerability at the start of her journey.

• “The city has its cunning wiles, no less than the infinitely smaller and more human tempter. There are large forces which allure with all the soulfulness of expression possible in the most cultured human.”

  The city tempts and corrupts just as a seductive person might, using its beauty and energy to mislead the innocent.

  Introduces the theme of urban modernity and its dangerous allure.

• “A half-equipped little knight she was, venturing to reconnoitre the mysterious city and dreaming wild dreams of some vague, far-off supremacy, which should make it prey and subject—the proper penitent, grovelling at a woman's slipper.”

  Carrie is like an inexperienced adventurer, fantasizing about conquering the city and having it submit to her.

  Highlights Carrie's naive ambition and desire for power.

• “He took out a neat business card, on which was engraved Bartlett, Caryoe & Company, and down in the left-hand corner, Chas. H. Drouet.”

  Drouet gave Carrie his business card, introducing himself as a salesman for a Chicago firm.

  Marks Drouet's attempt to impress Carrie with his professional status.

• “Amid all the maze, uproar, and novelty she felt cold reality taking her by the hand. No world of light and merriment. No round of amusement. Her sister carried with her most of the grimness of shift and toil.”

  Carrie's romantic expectations of Chicago are immediately dashed by the harsh, workaday reality embodied by her sister.

  Contrasts the glamour Drouet represented with the drudgery of her sister's life.