Stephen Crane’s Maggie, a Girl of the Streets (1893)

QUESTIONS FOR CLASS DISCUSSION AND DEBATE:

1. What is the role of violence in the novel and how is it represented in

the context of “the Bowery”? In these brief opening chapters, some brief, fragmentary
scenes, we learn everything we need to know about the world Maggie and Jimmie were swept into at birth.
In his detached, calm prose, Crane depicts his story with such clear insight that it implies and imputes
moral force to a world of degradation and violence, which almost succeeds in dehumanizing its inhabitants.

From the first sentence, Crane's prose maintains a sort of ironic distance: "A very little boy stood on a
gravel pile for the honor of Rum Alley." The tone seems to gently mock the bragging of little children,
humorously pointing out the absurdity of a "very little boy" fighting for "honor". (Of course, it will quickly
become clear that the tragically ironic element here is the very idea of honor on the Bowery.) Crane has a
sharp wit, and he doesn't refrain from using it throughout Maggie to criticize attitudes he finds ridiculous.

2. However, even Maria's villainy is not without justification or explanation. There is no doubt that Mary
embodies villainy in this novel. But that can only be because villainy exists to be embodied, as a set of
forces greater and more powerful than any one person. As much as Jimmie and Maggie are a product of
Mary, Mary herself is a product of the Bowery, a petri dish for violence and savagery.

3. So it's the Bowery everyone returns to: a place with spirit, embodying a virtually irresistible set of forces. It
is the Bowery that raises Mary, Maggie and Jimmie. He remembers that this novel, Maggie: A Girl of the
Streets, has a secondary and explanatory, or perhaps alternative title: "A New York Story." If this story is
about Maggie, it is also about New York City, the place that created her and survives her, hers her ancestor
and her heir. The reader will note that Bowery is given a much fuller description than any human character
in this novel; indeed, it is in his descriptions of the Bowery himself, with its bustling life and his bitter
poverty, that Crane is clearest, most poetic, and most effusive.

2. What are the forces that have brought the protagonist to her condition,
“Maggie blossomed in a mud puddle” (141)?
As much as Jimmie and Maggie are a product of Mary, Mary herself is a product of the Bowery, a petri dish for
violence and savagery.

So it's the Bowery everyone returns to: a place with spirit, embodying a virtually irresistible set of forces. It is the
Bowery that raises Mary, Maggie and Jimmie. Remember that this novel, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, has a
secondary, explanatory, or perhaps alternative title: "A New York Story." If this story is about Maggie, it's also about
New York City, the place that created her and survives her, her ancestor and her heir. The reader will note that
Bowery is given a much fuller description than any human character in this novel; indeed, it is in his descriptions of
the Bowery himself, with its bustling life and his bitter poverty, that Crane is clearest, most poetic, and most effusive.

In addition to this predominant factor, it is also key to highlight how both her parents and Pete abandon her to her fate
and take advantage of her innocence and her hope to be saved from this scenario of violence and her situation of
social inferiority, which leads to her Maggie decides to make a living on the streets, which is not safe for any woman
since she is motivated to put herself in dangerous situations to survive in some way that ends up being her undoing.

3. Who or what is to blame for Maggie’s tragedy, has she to blame for her
descent into prostitution? The story centers on Maggie Johnson, a beautiful young woman who
struggles to survive in the brutal environment of the Bowery, a New York neighborhood. A marginal neighborhood
of the city, at the end of the 19th century. Abused by an alcoholic mother and a victim of crushing poverty in the
slums, Maggie falls for a charming bartender who she tells herself will help her escape her hard life. However,
Maggie's relationship with Pete compounds her suffering when her family and her neighbors condemn her.
Eventually abandoned by her lover, as well as her family, Maggie is forced to eke out a living on the cruel streets of
the city. Crane's unfazed description of the devastating environmental forces that ultimately destroy this hopeful
young woman was celebrated as one of the most important documents of American naturalism.

4. How is theater and theatrical display treated in Maggie?

Featuring the second stage scene from Stephen Crane's novel Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, the plot of the selected
play is ironically used to give insight into the hopes and concerns of its audience. Because the theater is a form of
escape for Maggie and specifically those in the Bowery Building, the characters' struggle largely reflects their reality
and elicits raw and visceral reactions, both to their "imaginary" and "real" condition ( 31), this is seen in the chosen
melodrama in which a "heroine was rescued from her guardian's palatial home, which is ironic because its inevitably
hopeful and happy ending simplifies and falsifies life, contributing to the idea that those who they are above the
audience they are always happy and that all minors are innocently unhappy, until they can improve their
circumstances (31)

4. In what ways is Maggie a naturalist novella?

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane is one of the modern novels presenting naturalism. Naturalism is
a literary movement taking place from 1865 to 1900s that used detailed Realism to suggest that social
conditions, heredity, and environment had inescapable force in shaping human character. In naturalism,
characters can be studied through their relationships to their surroundings.Naturalism is classified in four
aspects; determinism, pessimism, detachment from history (objectivity), and unpredictable ending. Determinism
is a belief that characters do not have free will. They are controlled by external and internal forces. The external
force appears by the family condition and the environment (circumstance) and the interior strength is presented
by passion and instinct. The strength of society environment and nature obstruct the human freedom that
controls the life of man,while the force of instinct and passion determine human rationality and moral
responsibility. As a result, human life is completely controlled by determinism.The pessimistic attitude towards
life is the product of determinism. Men acts are meaningless because their destiny seems to be shaped by blind
forces that he couldn't control. As a result, people come to a state of having lost of hopes In addition, there are
four parts that represent the aspect of pessimism of naturalism, that is, having lost hope; lost hopes of
employment, lost hopes of love, lost hopes of security and lost hopes of a better future.

Another characteristic of naturalism is the detachment from history or objectivity. The author tries to maintain
objectivity by making a story as close as possible the possible to reality and avoid subjectivity. No human can be
truly objective, but by detaching from the story, an author can achieve objectivity. Sometimes an author creates
some nameless characters to achieve detachment or objectivity. Therefore, there are two pairs classified as the
data for detachment from the story (objectivity), that is, telling the story as closely as possible to reality and
creating nameless characters.The unpredictable ending is the last aspect of naturalism that the researcher wants
to discuss. As in this life, people do not know what they are going to it will happen to you in a minute or maybe
ten years from now. however it is very unclear to see. There is no formula in it, so that the history of the people
life takes them to the unexpected course. The end of this story is quite surprising because Crane leads readers in
one direction at the beginning and in between, ultimately drifting onto a completely unexpected course.

5. Analyze the narrator’s perspective and his ironic tone.

Like the naturalist that he is, Crane portrays life in all its degradations and disappointments. From the first
lines of the novel, we know that these people live in a brutal environment, and it's clear that the narrator
isn't going to soften the blow one bit. Therefore, it is always clear that, like the narrator, the readers
understand that things are not going to work out. In any case, then, the joke is in the characters, hence the
ironic tone. "And with all the education he had, how could he?" groaning he asked his son. "Everything I
talked to her I did and the things I told her to remember? When a girl is raised like I raised Maggie, how
familiar is she, devil?" Jimmie was transfixed by these questions. He couldn't conceive how, under the
circumstances, his mother's daughter and her sister could have been so evil. (13.4–5)

Maria is lamenting Maggie's moral decline to Jimmie. However, instead of joining these two in their
bewilderment about how Maggie turned out the way she did, Mom and Jimmie are portrayed as being a bit
stupid. It's clear throughout that Maggie has virtually nothing to look forward to and no solid options, so as
readers, we feel sorry for the girl. However, when we see that Mom and Jimmie are unable to understand
Maggie, we make fun of them: they may think they understand how the world works, but they clearly don't.
Mary develops as a tongue-in-cheek character in the nature of mother to her and drunken alcoholic to her.
On the other hand, Maggie believes that despite her unfortunate childhood, she can escape her mother and
overcome poverty with the hope of a real future. Her aspiration for a better life remains intact for most of
the novel. The relationship between Mary and Maggie invokes irony.Irony allows you to convey deeper
meanings without having to say it bluntly. It creates comic relief, and authors can use irony to make the
audience stop and think about what was just said, or to emphasize a central idea. The audience's role in
 noticing the difference between what is being said and what is normal or expected is essential to the
successful use of irony.

6. Why is the novella so pessimistic about American society and human

nature?
Because this work was published during the time of the Industrial Revolution, when factories appeared everywhere.
Its workers were often not paid enough to lead a decent life and suffered from their situation. They were not very
civilized and sometimes aggressive in their behavior. Perhaps because of this radical change from a more agricultural
lifestyle to one of industry and factories, some literary works began to move from the classification of realist writings
to works that are now classified as works of naturalism. They lived in a situation of poverty and frustration that lead
to violence, irreversibly.

8. In what ways naturalism exposes the ordeal of women’s reality at the

turn of the century?
Women's roles in the workforce were extremely limited during the 19th century and did not allow for promotions
among women for their work. An underlying theme of inequalities in the workforce is evident in Stephen Crane's
novel Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, is the foundation of realist literature written in the
late 19th century that features various progressive overtones for broader themes such as nature versus nurture,
women's roles, and socioeconomic status. Crane's work goes on to address an important question that resonated
with countless Americans, especially during the 19th century. Life's encounters lead a person to succumb to the
pressures of their environment.The lower socioeconomic levels served as confinement for all people, but especially
for women. Women of a lower socioeconomic level would receive fewer opportunities to improve economically and
socially. These women labeled with lower-class status would be confined to a hard working life with very few slum
housing opportunities. Stephen Crane's character Maggie dreams of a new and improved life, as did many
Americans at the time. Maggie discovers a more mature Pete and a significant unspecified number of years later.
She is now delighted with her bravery and sees potential in a new life with Pete. A new life much better than the
last of potential and social confinement far from her family. Pete is obviously not much better than the people in
Maggie's community, after all, Pete is a waiter. The circumstances in which Maggie is also a victim are historically
accurate for 19th-century America and serve as an actual inspiration for Crane, promoting his work as naturalism.