The circumstances under which a community unites may range from poverty to the desire for freedom. In the case of the tenets of Rum Alley, unity of the community comes from a need to establish a social hierarchy, and dominance. The events of unity occur in strange circumstances throughout Stephen Crane’s novel Maggie: a Girl of the Streets. The novel tells the story of a young girl in her teenage years, and her development in society. Maggie undergoes a difficult upbringing with the death of her younger brother, a drunk for a mother and father, and an older brother who follows in the footsteps of his father. Maggie longs to escape from the life she lives in the tenements of Rum Alley among the gangs, and lack of social elegance to a better …show more content…
Pete is taught this lesson of unity at the bar where he works when Jimmy and his shadow come into the bar to teach Pete a lesson. Both Jimmy and his shadow are trying to make themselves more powerful than Pete. Jimmy has the idea that Pete does not know “it wasn’t common courtesy for a friend to come into one’s home and ruin one’s sister”(Crane 27). By going to the bar with a friend Jimmy is try to establish a sense of dominance over Pete to show he could still have taken care of maggie, and Pete should have remained out of the family affairs. Jimmy blames Pete for ruining Maggie and due to both Jimmy’s and Pete’s upbringings violence is the prefered method to resolve any issue. Jimmy and his shadow believe themselves to be superior to Pete, and by confronting Pete together Pete stands no chance. The scene takes place outside the bar where“the bravery of bull-dogs sat upon the faces of the men. Their clenched fists moved like eager weapons. The allied two jostled the bartender’s elbows, glaring at him with feverish eyes and forcing him toward the wall”(Crane 32). Jimmy is trying to retaliate against Pete for ruining his sisters image, and Pete is only trying to keep his job, and in that moments stands no chance against the united front Jimmy and his shadow …show more content…
Growing up Maggie never had the support or aid from any of the members within the community. None of the other families attempted to aid her when her mother and father were drunk so when this show if unity occurs it is unexpected. As Maggie s replace by Pete’s old flame, Nellie, she has no where else to go and decided to return to the house of her Mother and Jimmy. However even though Maggie is both daughter and sister Mudder and Jimmy unite themselves in order to prevent Maggie from returning to the house. The people of the community support the decision of Mudder and Jimmy because of the strong influence of religion in society. The people stand outside of the door after Maggie asks Jimmy and Mudder to allow her to return. Jimmy and Mudder unite themselves and both refuse Maggie because she is now ruined. The people of Rum Ally are very religious and a ruined girl is one that has been affected by the devil. She has been led away from faith and if a girl such as this were allowed to return to society it would sway from the beliefs of society.The people unite themselves with Jimmy and Mudder to prevent Maggie from wanting to return, and even though she has no place to go this show of unity forces Maggie to being to live on the streets. The people believe Maggie could destroy their community and “as the girl passed down through the hall, she went before open doors framing more eyes strangely microscopic, and
Alice Walker juxtaposes Maggie with her sister, Dee, to demonstrate how society denigrates not only African-American women but women in general in the 1970s. Early on in the story, Maggie is described as nervous, hopelessly standing in the corner. Later she is described as nearly hidden from view. On a metaphorical level, Maggie is the symbol of the lack of power women held in the 1970s. She is the epitome of the silent female homemaker. On the other hand, Dee is assertive, “will look you right in the eye.” She serves as a symbol of the free, successful modern woman. However, her assertiveness might come off as cockiness, and too much pride. By contrasting Maggie and Dee, Alice Walker is expressing both sides of the female role during that time.
“[E]nvironment is a tremendous thing in the world, and frequently shapes lives regardless.” (“Although it’s origins…”) Stephen Crane was influenced to write his 1893 novella, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, as a result of his religious family, the secrecy to publish a novel that reveals the reality and impurity of the real world and from the impact of needy, urban landscapes that ended realism and began naturalism.
Maggie the younger sister lived with her mother and liked the life of her living with her mother. Dee didn't like that poor old-fashioned life and she wants to be rich and to forget about this poor family and to live her actual way of life as an African-American. Mama liked their way of life and didn't want to change it and also Maggie liked it and didn't want to change it.
Maggie is shamed from her scares of being burnt by their previous house. As her mother describes, "She has been like this, chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house to
The way the burning house, her stuck-up sister, and society influenced Maggie make her unique in relation to others. Maggie was so damaged from her home burning down that she turned into a meek and undervalued young lady. Maggie is so unsure that her mother says she walks like a dog run over by a car: “chin on chest eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire that burned the other house on the ground.” This demonstrates that Maggie absence of self-confidence make her frightened to look. She imagines that on the off chance that she can’t see the individuals around her, then they can’t see her. What’s more, Maggie’s discernible scars have impacted on the way she conducts herself. As indicated by Mama, when she was pulling Maggie out of the fire, her arms were adhering, “her hair was smoking, and her dress was tumbling off her in minimal dark papery pieces.” This is huge light of the fact that indicates how much the flame really physically scarred her. This additionally clarifies why she is so apprehensive about individuals seeing her. Maggie’s apparent compressed version of confirmation in herself is created basically by the fire. The barbaric way Maggie’s sister, Dee, presents herself awful impact on Maggie’s certainly. At this point when Dee inquired as to whether she can have some unique quilts and Mama says no on the grounds that she
The novel, Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets, by Stephen Crane, takes place in the slums of New York City during the 1890’s. It is about a girl, Maggie Johnson, who is forced to grow up in a tenement house. She had a brother, Jimmie, an abusive mother, Mary, and a father who died when Maggie was young. When Maggie grew up, she met her boyfriend, Pete. In Maggie’s eyes, Pete was a sophisticated young man who impressed Maggie because he treated her better than she had been treated to all of her life. Once Maggie’s mother and brother found out that Maggie was sleeping with this man, Mary threw Maggie out into the streets, condemning her to a life of evil. Eventually, Pete decided he no longer wished to see Maggie.
Maggie is described as being unattractive, very shy and self-conscious about the way she looked. Maggie always looked down at herself and thought she could not compare to her sister. She thinks her sister lives a life that she missed on, by getting an education and having the finer things in life. The scars she has on her body from the house fire done more than just scare her skin but has scared her soul too. Maggie, mother talks about her daughter in a way a person would think no mother should ever do.“ Have you ever
The children have an abusive mother and that motivates them to perform the actions they do. The way they were raised and the environment they grew up in was not the ideal situation. I believe that crane blames the mother as well and Pete for the downfall of the characters. The characters grew up in a household that was abusive and it showed why the children were doing the things they were and Pete was even worse of an influence. He would egg on Jimmie and get him in situations he could have avoided, and he also got Maggie disowned from her family and kicked
Maggie Vandermeer dwells in a contemporary society where proficiency in regards to social media is a rather dominant feature, especially in her search for a job and as an attempt to conform. As Maggie is not familiar with such social media’s, especially in comparison to the younger generation, this renders Maggie somewhat of a misfit and continues her path of solitude, as she has no friends or a job. Although Maggie routinely uses her cell phone to text or tweet, she has not yet integrated herself to this contemporary society, as the younger generation is remarkably adept with social media. Moreover, Maggie isn’t conversant with the proper norms that belong to social media. For example, at the beginning of the story, Maggie is woken up by her daughter, Lacey Vandermeer, who sends her a text at 1:27 AM. Next, she begins to Twitter stalk Lacey’s page until she discovers Lacey’s presumed lover named Dane Davis, and begins to stalk him as well. Maggie also seems to prefer face to face interactions, rather than communication with some sort of social media. This preference differentiates her from the younger generation, as they tend to prefer communicating through social media. For example, When Lacey suggests how she does not need to come over, Maggie insists on the value of face to face interaction. “The point was to have a visit with you,” Maggie says (Cullen, 36). When Maggie attends her job interviews, the interviewers, who are of that younger generation, stress the
In the story, “Everyone Pays the Price,” Hadley McGraw explains on how her life becomes a dark hole in which most people can’t escape from. She comes from a good middle class family with no real problems, and the seductive lifestyle that the gang life brings attracted her and with that came Martin, a “well-known” gangster that only saw two things, the love for his hood and a pretty girl. Without looking back, Hadley McGraw made a big change in her life. The love addiction drove her to become a gang member herself.
In the opening stages of the novella, Maggie tries to escape her troubling life through her relationship with Pete. As Maggie grows up, she becomes a beautiful girl who hates her life in Rum Alley. She sees Pete as a savior who could lead her away from her poverty stricken life and bring her into the world of leisure because he introduces her to popular music, dances, and dramas, all of which seem extravagant to her. Maggie “begins to note the well-dressed women she meets. She [envies the women’s] elegance (11).” Most of the melodramas that Maggie watches with Pete show the American dream of a person going from rags to riches, which is a goal that she thinks Pete will help her in achieve.
Maggie, who is self-conscious of her appearance, and will “stand hopelessly in corners, homely and ashamed of
A central theme occurring in “Maggie” is naturalism, and within this specific story, no one escapes their environmental and biological destiny. Stephan Crane highlights the harsh effects of urbanization and industrialization occurring within the story. Maggie’s parents are represented as unfit guardians: Her parents are not only abusive, but also display alcoholic tendencies. Regardless of Jimmie and Maggie’s desire to break away from the miserable life within bowery, they find themselves unable to.
Maggie grew up in poverty, living out her childhood in a shabby apartment in Rum Alley. This poverty influenced her beliefs. The story says “when Pete arrived Maggie, in a worn
After the Civil War, realism became a dominant form of writing in the United States, with writers attempting to write about everyday life. After realism came naturalism, a form of writing similar to realism, but with more pessimism. One of the reasons for this pessimism stems from free will and the question of whether people possess it or not. In realism, it is definitely true, while in naturalism it seems less so, but the options are often less than ideal. Because choices do exist for characters, free will is still there, which indicates that naturalism is a derivative form of realism. In Stephen Crane’s “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets,” the characters may have little chance to escape the world they inhabit, like Maggie, Jimmie, and