Naturalism in Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
Crane’s Maggie:A Girl of the Streets is fundamentally a work of naturalism with a few elements of realism. Donna M Campbell explains in Naturalism in American Literature, that much of the naturalistic literary movement focuses on taboo topics such as violence, poverty, prostitution. Naturalism has other characteristics such as static characters and Social Darwinism, characters who are controlled by their environment and have very little “free will”, and animal imagery. Furthermore, the objective manner in which the work is written is a characteristic of naturalism. These themes can be found throughout Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Street.
Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets opening setting …show more content…
Another taboo theme found in Crane’s Maggie is prostitution. Pete began to notice Maggie, and took her to places no respectable female in the 1890’s would go. Maggie erroneously makes the connection that because Pete dresses well he is of a higher class than her. She desperately wants to escape the slums, but falls endlessly deeper with Pete the character who in fact ruins her. Crane writes in chapter ten, “I was by me door las’ night when yer sister and her jude feller came in late, oh, very late. An’ she, the dear, she was a-crying as if her heart would break, she was. It was deh funnies’t’ing I ever saw. An’ right out here by me door she asked him did he love her, did he. An’ she was a-cryin’ as if her heart would break, poor ting. An’ him, I could see by deh way what he said it dat she had been askin’ orften, he says: ‘Oh, hell, yes,’ he says, says he, ‘Oh, hell, yes’”(968). Therefore, by this time she is considered a “fallen” women. Furthermore, Crane uses the phrase “crimson legions” in chapter seventeen. This phrase he uses as a slang for prostitutes, meaning red …show more content…
The characters within Crane’s Maggie are static, they do not evolve or devolve with the exception of Maggie and their mother. Maggie, literally implodes after she is “ruined”. It’s almost as though she’s a waif crying out desperately for someone decent to notice her only to be ultimately silenced. An argument could also be made that she has a mental illness that leads to her suicide. Jimmie, while aging from child to adult, fights in the opening scene and throughout the story. He remains relatively unchanged in character development. The supporting characters with the exception of the mother, also remain unchanged. They are observers who take a sadistic joy at observing the happenings of the Bowery. The mother attempts to increase her social standing by cloaking herself in religion towards the end of the story. These characters are controlled by their environment that is survival of the fittest in social and economic situations. The people depicted in Crane’s story have no hope of changing their situation except through death, as was the fate of Tommie the babe. The priest in the story said it best when he stated, “ You are damned”(954). In this statement alone, Social Darwinism is
Crane’s Maggie:A Girl of the Streets is fundamentally a work of naturalism with a few elements of realism. Donna M Campbell explains in Naturalism in American Literature, that much of the naturalistic literary movement focuses on taboo topics such as violence, poverty, prostitution. Naturalism has other characteristics such as static characters and Social Darwinism, characters who are controlled by their environment and have very little “free will”, and animal imagery. Furthermore, the objective manner in which the work is written is a characteristic of naturalism. These themes can be found throughout Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Street.
Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets opening setting …show more content…
Another taboo theme found in Crane’s Maggie is prostitution. Pete began to notice Maggie, and took her to places no respectable female in the 1890’s would go. Maggie erroneously makes the connection that because Pete dresses well he is of a higher class than her. She desperately wants to escape the slums, but falls endlessly deeper with Pete the character who in fact ruins her. Crane writes in chapter ten, “I was by me door las’ night when yer sister and her jude feller came in late, oh, very late. An’ she, the dear, she was a-crying as if her heart would break, she was. It was deh funnies’t’ing I ever saw. An’ right out here by me door she asked him did he love her, did he. An’ she was a-cryin’ as if her heart would break, poor ting. An’ him, I could see by deh way what he said it dat she had been askin’ orften, he says: ‘Oh, hell, yes,’ he says, says he, ‘Oh, hell, yes’”(968). Therefore, by this time she is considered a “fallen” women. Furthermore, Crane uses the phrase “crimson legions” in chapter seventeen. This phrase he uses as a slang for prostitutes, meaning red …show more content…
The characters within Crane’s Maggie are static, they do not evolve or devolve with the exception of Maggie and their mother. Maggie, literally implodes after she is “ruined”. It’s almost as though she’s a waif crying out desperately for someone decent to notice her only to be ultimately silenced. An argument could also be made that she has a mental illness that leads to her suicide. Jimmie, while aging from child to adult, fights in the opening scene and throughout the story. He remains relatively unchanged in character development. The supporting characters with the exception of the mother, also remain unchanged. They are observers who take a sadistic joy at observing the happenings of the Bowery. The mother attempts to increase her social standing by cloaking herself in religion towards the end of the story. These characters are controlled by their environment that is survival of the fittest in social and economic situations. The people depicted in Crane’s story have no hope of changing their situation except through death, as was the fate of Tommie the babe. The priest in the story said it best when he stated, “ You are damned”(954). In this statement alone, Social Darwinism is