Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is a novella written by Stephen Crane in 1893. The novella is an example of naturalism, a literary movement that emerged in the late 19th century and was characterized by its focus on the inherent determinism of human nature and the harsh, often brutal, realities of life.
In Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, Crane portrays the protagonist, Maggie, as a victim of her environment and the circumstances into which she was born. She grows up in the slums of New York City, surrounded by poverty, crime, and squalor. Despite her desperate desire to escape this life, Maggie is trapped by the constraints of her social class and the expectations placed upon her as a woman.
Crane uses naturalistic techniques such as detailed descriptions of the physical environment, a focus on the characters' physiological and animalistic instincts, and a belief in the influence of heredity and environment on behavior to illustrate the determinism of Maggie's fate. For example, he describes the squalid tenement in which Maggie grows up as "a dark, wet, stinking alley, littered with old barrels, and ashes, and offal" and the people who inhabit it as "a horde of human vermin." This portrayal of the environment serves to reinforce the idea that Maggie is a product of her surroundings, with little agency or control over her own life.
Furthermore, Crane's depiction of the characters' animalistic instincts, such as the need for food, shelter, and sexual gratification, serves to emphasize the primacy of these basic needs and the ways in which they can drive human behavior. This is particularly evident in Maggie's relationships with men, as she turns to prostitution in an effort to survive and provide for herself and her family.
Ultimately, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is a powerful and poignant tale of one woman's struggle against the constraints of her environment and the expectations of society. Through his portrayal of Maggie as a victim of circumstance and his use of naturalistic techniques, Crane offers a stark and unflinching look at the harsh realities of life and the ways in which they can shape and define the lives of individuals.
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets: Naturalism and Environmental Inevitability
However, after the end of the Civil War, that brought a lot of destruction to the country, most people could not stick to literature that refers to an ideal past. Honor for the denizens of this part of New York is directly related to wealth and the appearance of wealth. Maggie, the majority of low class residents drink, gamble and fight each other. Where Dee is ostentatious and loud, Maggie is almost silent and shies away from any flux of social activity. In Chapter One, as Pete is approaching the brawl on the street, he is given the following description: Down the avenue came boastfully sauntering a lad of sixteen years, although the chronic sneer of an ideal manhood already sat upon his lips.
Maggie: a Girl of the Streets
Crane was an active writer during the 1890s, writing Naturalism in a Lost Lady Grace Ren Mr. His father was a Methodist minister, two out of his fourteen siblings were journalists and his mother wrote religious articles about social concerns. She is letting down her family. This relation adds to the scientific perspective of the work. Scandals, murders, theft, corruption, extortion, abuse, prostitution, all common occurrences in this day in age. Americans had to face a growing population, immigrants that brought new customs to their country and, connected with the technical improvements, the sprout of big cities.
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
What distinguishes it from Realism is the interest towards the darker aspects of human beings or nature and the main difference is that Naturalistic characters shape their personalities according to the exterior factors that surround them, such as social backround, that work as latent forces and determine, unconsciously, their later behaviour. Crane mentions the other aspects but the novella does not include Maggie complaining about her life and position in society. Although the men in these stories do have their characters shaped by their experience, they typically die, almost defeating the purpose. As said above, the novella is a Naturalistic one. Cambridge: Oxford University Press, 1997. Unique to Crane's novel are the use of language and the determinism that accompanies the story.
Stephen Crane's "Maggie" and American Naturalism on JSTOR
Tindall and Shi 2007:431. As the neighbors continue to talk about Maggie, Jimmie and Mary decide to join them in badmouthing her instead of defending her. The aim of the critical Realism was to show the unbalance between those who contributed from the successful new industries and those who worked for them under bad conditions cf. His stories contained various aspects of Naturalism, a literary movement that sought to replicate a believable everyday reality, as opposed to Romanticism or Surrealism, in which subjects may receive highly symbolic, idealistic, or even supernatural treatment. Maggie, a girl of the streets. His work is peppered with colorful language that allows the reader to perceive an occurrence or characteristic with greater intensity.
