In Dreiser's novel, Sister Carrie, there are several main metaphors that are used. The city, itself, is a metaphor for the future and progress, where things that have come before will be erased or forgotten..or lost. The stage is also a metaphor for how Carrie has learned that it si better to play a role, than to be herself because to truly reveal oneself is to live in poverty. Lastly, there is the reading that Hurstwood does. When he loses everything at the saloon, he turns to reading novels, but in the end, even that leaves him as his eyesight fails.
