Maggie A Girl On The Street Hypocrisy Essay

During the 19th centaury we can observe a shift from romanticism to a more realistic point of view. In this semester we have explore a lot of literature work that represents the theme of hypocrisy. According to the Merrianwebster dictionary Hypocrisy means “the behavior of people who do things that they tell other people not to do: behavior that does not agree with what someone claims to believe or feel” The theme of Hypocrisy have been introduce in this semester by a novel name Maggie: a girl on the street by Stephen Crane. Hypocrisy was and it’s still in today society one the most frequent trait in individuals. Many of the main characters in this book show the characteristic of hypocrisy by trying to implement the not use of a behavior by using the same behavior that is not desirable. The other example of hypocrisy is how the characters criticizes the decision taken by the Maggie the main character, which they themselves are

the cause for her to make that decision.

Stephen Crane was considered to be one of America's most influential realist writers, born in New Jersey on November 1, 1871, Crane was the 14th and of the writer Mary Helen Peck Crane. His father Reverend Jonathan Townley Crane was a Methodist minister. Crane attended preparatory school at Claverack College. Later on he attended Lafayette College only for a small period of time. After this he moved to New York city to attended He later spent less than two years overall as a college student at Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania, He moved to New York where he started writing about the experiences that he encounter there.
Crane produced works that have been credited with establishing the foundations of modern American naturalism. Crane finished the draft for The book Maggie: A Girl on the Streets while finishing up his career in Syracuse with details he picked up from the neighborhood. The story is about a compassionate story of an abused girl’s and how the situation she was born in made her go into prostitution and in the final stage of her life where she didn’t have an escape to commit suicide.

One of the key ideas to keep in mind about hypocrisy is that people are not always aware that they are displaying hypocrisy.

This happens a lot in this book. Many of the Characters act hypocritical and they are not aware of such thing. Either because they are too into themselves to pay attention to it or because it’s something they were taught by society and their surroundings. Maggie the main character is the main target that hypocrisy is direct towards
Like mention before hypocrisy is a major theme in this novel. In Maggie: A Girl on the streets many of the characters display this trait. The first character to show this is Jimmie. In the first scenes of the novel Jimmie gets in trouble for fighting with another kid on the street. The response given by his father was that we will be beating him up because he has fighting with another kid. This demonstrates how people try to make others act “correctly” but they themselves can’t seem to follow what they preach. By Jimmie’s father offering to beat him up because he’s beating up another

person.
Another example in the book that shows the theme of hypocrisy. Is the way Maggie is judge for the decision she has taken The Character Mary which is Maggie’s mother is an alcoholic who spends her days drinking and goes into uncontrolled rages. She doesn’t care about the weel being of anyone around her not even her kids. In today’s society Mary will we consider a disgrace. "Yeh've gone teh deh devil, Mag Johnson, yehs knows yehs have gone teh deh devil. Yer a disgrace teh yer people, damn yeh. An' now, git out an' go ahn wid dat doe-faced jude of yours. Go teh hell wid him, damn yeh, an' a good riddance. Go teh hell an' see how yeh likes it."(Chapter 9 pg.30) With this quotes we get an inside in the set of mind that Maggie’s mother Mary has about her daughter. Mary Consider herself to be an amazing human being without any type of flaws, while everyone else is lacking virtue. She keeps her daughter out the house for her behavior, but fails to understand that she’s the person respondoble for the way that Maggie turn out to be.
This issue is present in today’s society still. The same scenarios show in the book are scenarios common in our society. Parents usually try to teach their kids a lesson by doing the same thing to them. Another way that hypocrisy is still present in our society Is how people tend to critizes someone life and choices when if they were born in the same situation they would do the same. A simple example in today’s society is yelling at someone who is driving for texting or picking up at call but when that person is the one driving they do the same.

In conclusion, Maggie dies because her family and the society of the Bowery consider her unworthy of inclusion except as a whore. People like her mother Mary, Jimmie her brother and her lover pete conclude that Maggie’s life was so bad due to her not following the right path and standards they fail to have themselves. Every single of the character influenced one by or another the failure of Maggie’s life. The theme of hypocrisy was being notice in this type of literature during this time. However, is something that it’s present in today’s society. Hypocrisy is a society flaw then and now too.