What Is Maggie's Role In The Late 19th Century America

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane is a book that was written in 1893 that approaches the question of gender and class roles in the late nineteenth century America. Maggie, the novel lead, is a lonely character and the only one to ever truly love throughout the entire novel. Whether she was simply in love with the dream of a better life or actually in love with Pete is irrelevant. The girl was a dreamer, and she dreamed only of escaping the harsh world she was destined to live in since her birth. As an immigrant in New York in the late nineteenth century, Maggie and her family were all in line to follow the immigrants before them. They were all to become products of the environment they were confined to. They were cruel individuals who drank often and fought with one another and other members of the community, which was not unusual for people of that time. …show more content…
Her mother was a drunk and abusive towards her children, her father was another drunk who generally passed out when he was home, her brother Jimmie was in line to become just like his father and was often in fights, and her little brother Tommie ended up dying at a very young age. Tommie’s death was seen as something insignificant, and it was passed over like it did not even happen. Life went on as if nothing even happened. As time went on, Maggie became a girl that was attractive to many men, and she also became a girl who was disillusioned about the life she lived