Stephen Crane's Maggie: A Girl On The Streets

The cruel reality of poverty is examined in Stephen Crane's Maggie: A Girl on the Streets. In it, Maggie Johnson, born in the rough streets of New York, dreams of having a better life, one with culture, money, and meaning- the opposite of the one she was born with. Though she believed that her dreams were becoming tangible, with the aid of Pete, she ultimately returns to the streets and is destroyed by them. Throughout the novel, the birth and demise of Maggie's search for meaning encompasses Crane's forlorn portrayal of society.

Maggie was a rarity in her environment. She "blossomed in a mud puddle. She grew to be a most rare and wonderful production of a tenement district, a pretty girl" (16). She also possessed inner beauty, which was equally rare in the streets, shown by her love for her brothers and her benevolent nature. The fact that was raised in a broken home and was able to remain innocent amidst the chaos shows the integrity of her personality. Because she wasn't absorbed into the maelstrom of city life, she developed the
Nevertheless, she was happy because, "She imagined a future, rose-tinted, because of its distance from all that she previously had experienced" (39). Maggie, being naïve, did not realize that Pete was using her, and left her for Nellie. This was not uncommon, as this one-sided relationship was paralleled to the one Jimmy had with a girl in order to prove this. Pete ruined Maggie because he shattered her dreams and hope of a better future. She tried to return to her mother's home, but was ostracized. She was condemned as a sinner by her family and neighbors. The old lady with the music box said, "'ere yehs are back again, are yehs? An' dey've kicked yehs out? Well, come in an' stay wid me teh-night.I ain' got no moral standin'"(48). This shows that they all believe Maggie had no morals for leaving home for a man. Maggie was all alone; she had nothing to fall back