Maggie A Girl Of The Streets Analysis

The pieces I have chosen to focus on are “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets” and Clockwork Angel. “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets” was written by Stephen Crane and published in 1893 under the pseudonym, Johnston Smith. Later, when Crane obtained success through The Red Badge of Courage, he was able to publish a revised version of the story under his own name in 1896 (sparks). With “Maggie”, Crane attempted to show American life in New York as he had experienced it personally. The piece tells the story of Maggie Johnson who falls for her brother’s friend. When she is abandoned by him at the urging of a more experienced woman, she tries to return home only to be cast out onto the street. She dies sometime later wandering the streets as a prostitute. It is a story that shows how Maggie's home life set her up to not only fall for the wrong guy, but fall into a life of prostitution that would ultimately lead to her death. She was a kind and gentle girl without the skills to survive in the world she was born into.
Clockwork Angel is written by Cassandra Clare and was published in 2010. The novel follows Tessa Gray as she travels to London
“Maggie” is set around the 1890's when it was written, and Clockwork Angel is in the late 1870's. Because the two pieces are set during similar periods, the changes in the English language between the time of “Maggie” and 2010, can be seen more clearly than if there was nothing of similarity between the two pieces. Due to the length of the novel Clockwork Angel, I have decided to focus on chapters 3, 5, and 6. More specifically, I want to focus on scenes involving the character Jessamine as she is a character who attempts to live the normal life of a lady of her time despite being a Shadowhunter. Her scenes often lend the most realistic look at the world during the late 1800's, while many of the others are more ingrained in the fantasy world of the