Sister Carrie, Chapter II
Theodore Dreiser
Minnie's flat, as the one-floor resident apartments were then being
called, was in a part of West Van Buren Street inhabited by families
of labourers and clerks, men who had come, and were still coming.
with the rush of population pouring in at the rate of 50,000 a year. It
was on the third floor, the front windows looking down into the
street, where, at night, the lights of grocery stores were shining and
children were playing. To Carrie, the sound of the little bells upon the
horse-cars, as they tinkled in and out of hearing, was as pleasing as
it was novel. She gazed into the lighted street when Minnie brought
her into the front room, and wondered at the sounds, the movement,
the murmur of the vast city which stretched for miles and miles in
every direction.
Mrs. Hanson, after the first greetings were over, gave Carrie the baby
x
x
4x
*
Why doesn't the author mention the gender of the baby?
A
B
C
D
because details about the baby are mostly meant
to reveal Carrie's developing desire for a baby of
her own
because this uncertainty mirrors the uncertain and
unstable life of Minnie and Hanson
because, from the father's reaction, it is obvious
the baby is a girl
because details about the baby are merely meant
to show the busy life and daily responsibilities of
the couple