Social Realism In Maggie

Rebekah Brown
April 7, 2014
Mrs. Gibson
Monday/Wednesday 9:30-10:45
Maggie: A Realist Perception of Urban Industrialized America
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, is a realist outlook on the gritty underside of Industrialized America. It is a story that doesn't withhold the dirt and grime that came with living in highly populated impoverished areas. The young Stephen Crane does a very good job portraying the destruction of a young, beautiful, and optimistic Maggie by forces outside of her own control. The rather dreary realism of the novel was a little unheard of at the time. Crane had to publish his book himself, as no publishers wanted to take the chance on a novel so negative about human nature. However, over time his story quickly cemented its roots as a fundamental column of American Realism Literature.
At the beginning of the short story Maggie's family is introduced, from her scrappy little brother Jimmie, to her short lived brother Tommie, her alcoholic mentally-abusive mother Mary, and her brutish father. Jimmie's friend Pete is introduced and becomes a mirror image of Jimmie later on in the book. They both are portrayed as Don Juans, the seducers of young women who treat women as objects rather than people. Maggie's father is as short-lived as her brother Tommie. However, he becomes a negative social factor in Maggie's life. Maggie’s mother was an essential symbol of hypocrisy and pessimism throughout the book, from her drinking to her last comment in the book “I'll Forgive Her” (Crane).
From the beginning of the story, a dreary gray New York is painted in one's mind with a depressing saddened tone of the bustling metropolis. It is a city flooded with immigrant workers hoping to better their lives and their c...

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...he riverside right before she is found dead. The original excerpt has been edited over the years to not include the graphic small description of him, however Stephen Crane still left the reader with the question of was Maggie murdered or did she commit suicide. Perhaps murder would be a more bittersweet ending for this realist tragedy

Wecker, Helene. August 18th, 2013. NPR. URL: http://www.npr.org/2013/08/18/189286463/pack-your-bags-3-books-about-coming-to-america
These book review articles by Helene Wecker summarize and analyze Maggie as well as other classic literary works that tell the hardships of immigrants back in the industrial revolution. From the voyages across the Sea to being stuck in Ellis Island (some being sent back to their home country), as well as the harsh living conditions of the slums of New York and surrounding areas.