以描述一名年輕女性的迷人都市旅程為主，《嘉莉妹妹》經常被視為一本現代小說， 作者德萊塞對於在十九世紀晚期正在蓬勃發展的芝加哥及紐約的詳細描述不僅表達了迷人的都市生活，同時也揭露了都市文化的黑暗面。本文試運用相關之都市文化論述，首先探討複雜微妙的城市生活的本質，進而討論個人要如何因應為了生存在現代都市世界裡所面對的困難。 對於許多懷有夢想的城市探訪者來說，原以為可以在城市找到屬於自己的財寶，最後卻因無處可去或無路可退只能困在城市裡。
第二章以文化研究的層面來討讑嘉莉的都市旅程，關於女性角色的史實在德萊塞的時代是不容忽視的，即在後維多利亞時期，當時表面流行的文雅禮儀其實已被社會劇變給徹底粉碎。在當時，女性立場與角色被矛盾地以嚴格的社會規範及許多潛在工作機會所規範，無可避免的，不管是選擇結婚還是成為工作者的婦女，女性角色變得令人無所適從。面對女性角色的困難形勢，部份女性選擇令人難以接受的捷徑來成就富有，即以性來換取解決困境的方法。
然而，發財夢原本即為驅使人們接近城市不可避免的動機，因為城市裡有許多各種迷人的事物，人們也因此在消費文化裡成為被商品主宰與操縱的對象。為了要獲取更多的物質享受，嘉莉讓自己屈服於男人，也因此在她無止盡追求幻想中的幸福裡迷失了自我。即使以叢林法則的適者生存來看，嘉莉的經驗是個成功的例子，但在她以依恃物質來建立自我的同時，嘉莉卻也因此失去了自我主宰。
Depicting a young girl's amazing city pilgrimage, Sister Carrie is often regarded as a modern novel in which Dreiser’s detailed description of the booming Chicago and New York City presents not only the fascinating city life but also reveals the darker side of urban culture in the late nineteenth century in America. Adopting relevant urban culture discourses, the thesis first examines the tricky nature of city life and how an individual has to act in response to the hardship in order to survive in the modern urban world. Having no way out, many city-dwellers at last are trapped in the cunning city where they originally expect to find their glimmering gold.
With a perspective of cultural studies, the discussion of Carrie's city journey also requires the facts about the role of women in Dreiser's contemporary—the late Victorian epoch when the conservative genteel moral codes are superficially prevailed but shattered by social upheaval. Women’s position, paradoxically regulated by rigid social norms and increased potential job employment, became inevitably bewildering whether a woman chooses to get married or to be a working-class woman. Confronting the impossible position of women's role, some female resort to the disagreeable shortcut to wealth—using sex to overcome their predicament.
However, to get rich is the compelling motif that drives people to approach the city where the vivid material display hence turns to dominate and manipulate people's lives through consumer culture. In order to obtain more material possessions, Carrie yields herself to men and loses herself in her endless pursuit of illusionary happiness. Holding on materials to construct her self, Carrie thus loses her subjectivity as well though after all she is a successful case in terms of the jungle rule—survival the fittest.
