Journal #11 Crane

Liana Laskin

English 48B

"Maggie: A Girl of the Streets" by Stephen Crane

February 10, 2009

"Such an assemblage of the spraddle-legged men of the middle class, whose hands were bent and shoulders stooped from delving and constructing, had never appeared to an Asbury Park summer crowd, and the latter was vaguely amused." (Crane's account of the Junior Order of United American Mechanics' American Day Parade which appeared in the Tribune, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_Crane)

Summary:


The story opens in the Irish slums with a young boy named Jimmie leading a street fight against another group if boys. Jimmie is rescued by Pete, a teenage friend of his, but starts another fight which is broken up by his father. Jimmie and his father come home to his older sister Maggie, little brother Tommie, and his mother Mary, a violent drunk who goes into a rage at any little thing (i.e. Maggie breaking a plate). After a good number of years, both the father and Tommie die. Jimmie becomes a violent cynical young man as well as a drunk, taking his father's place in the house. Maggie is the opposite, being somewhat pretty and full of hope, but naive. Pete (Jimmie's "friend" and now a bartender) draws Maggie in with the life he lives, which to her seems glorious. They start dating and Maggie sees this as the end of her problems. After being told by Mary that she has disgraced the family and a fight between Jimmie and Pete, Maggie leaves with Pete; Mary and Jimmie continue blaming Maggie for their problems. Unfortunately for Maggie, things do not get better because only a few weeks after she leaves with Pete he abandons her for the more sophisticated Nellie. Unable to return home, Maggie turns to prostitution and ends up dead in the end. Mary decides in the last line of the story to forgive her daughter (after she finds out that Maggie is dead, of course).


Response:



I do not think that Crane’s writing is pessimistic (although it is quite morbid) because life in the Irish slums (or any slums at that time) must have been that awful. I think that this story is a realistic representation of what might have happened in that kind of setting, which for me adds feeling to the story since it is almost an honest portrayal in a way. It is fair to say, in my opinion, that when I read the story I was looking for the character that would not be completely destroyed by the horrible setting and would end up a hero. I definitely rooted for Maggie and was almost surprised considering that this was not going to have a happy ending based on the fact that all the odds are stacked against Maggie having true happiness. The fact that there is no happy ending makes the story not only more realistic but also more touching because life (especially the life that Maggie lived) is never perfect or even fair. I also found that the irony of Mary’s “confession” at the end, saying that she will forgive Maggie after her daughter has been found dead adds to how despicable she is as a human being. Based on how she has acted throughout the entire story, I would bet that if it turned out Maggie was alive, Mary would change her attitude completely. As unfortunate as this idea is, the only character that seems to even have redeeming qualities is Maggie; I think this story is the epitome of “bad things happen to good people.”