Sister Carrie: Chapter 4 Summary & Analysis

For two days after receiving her job offer, Carrie dreams about spending her money on “every joy and bauble which the heart of woman may desire.” Minnie is unaware of these thoughts. Indeed, in contrast to Carrie, Minnie spends her days doing housework and finding ways to save money. Hanson follows the same routine every day, and Carrie observes that his solemnity affects the atmosphere of the flat.

Hanson brightens a bit after Carrie tells him about her job offer. As Carrie cheerfully talks about her company at dinner, Minnie grows happier as well and tells Carrie to explore Michigan Avenue. However, Carrie relays a desire to see plays at H. R. Jacobs, a theater showing melodramas. The atmosphere immediately chills: Hanson and Minnie disapprove of engaging in activities that require spending money. The subject is avoided, and Hanson leaves the room to read the paper.

Alone, the two sisters enjoy “a somewhat freer conversation” and Carrie once again brings up the theater, asking Minnie to accompany her. Minnie is apprehensive, saying Hanson would not like it. Carrie offers to pay for Minnie and Hanson, but Minnie continues to refuse her invitation. Carrie pleads a reluctant Minnie to ask Hanson. Minnie goes to the next room to ask, but Hanson refuses with a shake of the head. She comes back and tells Carrie. Disappointed, Carrie exclaims to Minnie that she will stand at the foot of the stairs to observe city life. After Carrie leaves, Hanson expresses disapproval to Minnie regarding Carrie’s desire to spend money at the theater.

Carrie walks along Jackson Street, observing “the evidences of wealth,” though the narrator notes that “there was, perhaps, not one person on the street worth more than a hundred thousand dollars.” She also thinks of Drouet. Carrie feels liberated outside of the small, drab flat and hopes, with a certain apprehension, that Drouet would call on her on Monday.

On Monday, Carrie rises early for work. At breakfast, she thinks nervously about her new job and the “strange and untried duties confront[ing] her.” She is, nevertheless, hopeful and vaguely feels that she will come in contact with great business owners and stylishly dressed men. As the car fare is 60 cents per week, Carrie walks to work under the reassuring sunlight. Seeing contemptuous girls her own age on the street makes Carrie nervous once again as “dread at her own inefficiency [creeps] upon her.” She arrives at her new workplace feeling terrified.

After briefly reminding him of their encounter last week, Carrie follows Mr. Brown to the work room on the sixth floor. Mr. Brown hands her off to a foreman, who then hands her off to a girl. The girl teaches Carrie to punch eye-holes for shoes. Carrie is anxious and tries to keep up with the speed of the other workers, so as to not slow the assembly line. The other girls sense her feelings and try to help her by working slower. At one point, Carrie fumbles and the foreman immediately tells her to not “keep the line waiting.” Carrie grows increasingly uncomfortable and observes the behavior of the youth around her. She finds the work extremely distasteful, but at lunch, she finds the behavior of the other workers so “hard and low” that she is relieved when work begins again.

The rest of the workday feels impossibly long, and Carrie grows increasingly certain that she does not want to be friends with any of her coworkers. As Carrie leaves, several young men flirt with her, but she finds their advances vulgar. On the way home, she feels “ashamed in the face of better dressed girls who [go] by.” Carrie “[feels] as though she should be better served,” with “her heart [revolting].”