A Room Of One's Own

In the world in which those before us lived, literature convened on the concepts and attitudes that those in society took towards women. These attitudes put men on a higher pedestal than that of women, which made women out to be a glimmer within the realm of the world. At a point in the past, men were more important because they held most of the prominent roles of which “made the world go round”. Virginia Woolf dwells on the differences between men and women in her essay A Room of One’s Own:

It is obvious that the values of women differ very often from the values which have been made by the other sex; naturally, this is so. Yet it is the masculine values that prevail. Speaking crudely, football and sport are ‘Important’; the worship

The decision to go with Pete was one that needed to be made. She was living the life of poverty and despair that was laid before her since birth and she wanted to break free from it and start her own, new life. The manner in which Maggie “goes against the grain” also goes against her mother’s wishes. Through Maggie doing so, her actions are similar to those of a woman nowadays dating a man that her mother does not approve of. This can go two ways, but disaster is a plausible outcome. A keen observation of the disaster that Maggie has caused is explained in her brother Jimmy’s exclamation to his mother in chapter nine, “I didn’t say we’d make’er in the a little tin angel, ner nottin’, but deh way it is now she can queer us!” (Crane p.41). This way of “ruining” her family is a great comparison to the journey of womanhood as well. Throughout life, an individual’s actions are not going to be of the liking of everyone else. This is what makes each individual who they are and designates what they do based from the actions of everyone else, which in reality, is the worst way to do things and individuality should be taken into consideration with all

Based on my second reading of the novel, establishing who the more virtuous figure is does not take more than five seconds to pinpoint. The way in which Maggie pursues Pete, or rather is pursued by Pete speaks of her character and recognizes her principals and values. She wants to be with him to break free from the poor life she is living and endure happiness from which could be foreseen from Pete’s fascination with her, Maggie. Nellie’s virtuosity comes into question based off of one formality, her intentions with Pete. Nellie is the schemer of this story because of her intent to use Pete for his money while on the other hand there is Maggie. Maggie is the one who is not doing anything for “just money” but she is going along with Pete to break free from the conditions her family presents