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Maggie: a girl of the streets amoral universe
Maggie: a girl of the streets amoral universe
Stephen crane maggie: a girl of the streets analysis
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Stephen Crane’s “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets” chronicles a young Irish-American girl’s struggles while living in an abusive family burdened by poverty in New York City. Specifically, it deals mostly with her infatuation and relationship with her brother’s friend, Pete. Upon becoming attracted to Pete, Maggie develops unrealistic expectations of what their relationship means and what it could lead to. Because of her unrealistic romantic expectations, Maggie believes that Pete will rescue her from her situation and is completely loyal to her. When her infatuation with Pete first begins, Maggie commences to develop unrealistic thoughts on what being with Pete will mean for her, leading her to the conclusion that he can take her away from all of the misery that has thus far made up her entire life. This is due to the fact that he possesses the “elegant …show more content…
After he has perhaps taken advantage of her, Pete is interrogated by Maggie in regard to whether or not he loves her, to which he replies “Oh, hell, yes” (968). Despite the fact that this does not seem to be a sincere proclamation of his love for her, she is nonetheless convinced. Because of this, she has faith in him to take care of her, even going as far as living with him after her mother has banned her from coming home due to her now living in sin (967). Maggie is foolish and naïve to presume that Pete is faithful to her, however, especially after he encounters a former mistress and is seduced by her (978-979). Ultimately, Maggie’s presumption that Pete actually cares for her or is truly loyal to her brings about her own demise after she is still banned from returning home and is forced to live out the remainder of her short life by going into prostitution. Maggie’s flawed logic in regard to Pete’s true feelings causes implications so great that they literally aid her in the destruction of her entire
Nanabush is infatuated with Maggie, wanting to help, and intends to do no harm to Maggie because of his infatuation for her. During the story Maggie is struggling to deal with the problem of what is to become of the new land.
“Winter lies too long in country towns; hangs on until it is stale and shabby, old and sullen” (“Brainy Quotes” 1). In Edith Wharton’s framed novel, Ethan Frome, the main protagonist encounters “lost opportunity, failed romance, and disappointed dreams” with a regretful ending (Lilburn 1). Ethan Frome lives in the isolated fictional town of Starkfield, Massachusetts with his irritable spouse, Zenobia Frome. Ever since marriage, Zenobia, also referred to as Zeena, revolves around her illness. Furthermore, she is prone to silence, rage, and querulously shouting. Ethan has dreams of leaving Starkfield and selling his plantation, however he views caring for his wife as a duty and main priority. One day, Zeena’s cousin, Mattie Silver, comes to assist the Frome’s with their daily tasks. Immediately, Mattie’s attractive and youthful energy resuscitates Ethan’s outlook on life. She brings a light to Starkfield and instantaneously steals Ethan’s heart; although, Ethan’s quiet demeanor and lack of expression causing his affection to be surreptitious. As Zeena’s health worsens, she becomes fearful and wishes to seek advice from a doctor in a town called Bettsbridge giving Ethan and Mattie privacy for one night. Unfortunately, the night turns out to be a disastrous and uncomfortable evening. Neither Ethan nor Mattie speaks a word regarding their love for one another. Additionally, during their dinner, the pet cat leaps on the table and sends a pickle dish straight to the floor crashing into pieces. To make matters worse, the pickle dish is a favored wedding gift that is cherished by Zeena. Later, Zeena discovers it is broken and it sends her anger over the edge. Furious, Zeena demands for a more efficient “hired girl” to complete the tasks ar...
“I looked anxiously. I didn’t see anybody… I’d keep my head up and my eyes open-‘You got a smoke to spare?’” (Walters 3). In Shattered, Eric Walters hauls the reader through the life of Ian, the protagonist who experiences the joy of helping others. Throughout this white pine award novel, Ian continually offers help to people around him reflecting to them that their lives are not perfect and they ought to alter it somewhat. Furthermore, the author effectively compares the significance of family and the importance of acquiring a dream in life. Through the book, Eric Walters demonstrates the theme of compassion through the incidents of Ian helping Jack to overcome his drinking problems, showing Berta the value of patriot and always there for the less fortunate.
Several Years after their marriage, cousin Mattie Silver is asked to relieve Zeena, who is constantly ill, of her house hold duties. Ethan finds himself falling in love with Mattie, drawn to her youthful energy, as, “ The pure air, and the long summer hours in the open, gave life and elasticity to Mattie.” Ethan is attracted to Mattie because she is the opposite of Zeena, while Mattie is young, happy, healthy, and beautiful like the summer, Zeena is seven years older than Ethan, bitter, ugly and sickly cold like the winter. Zeena’s strong dominating personality undermines Ethan, while Mattie’s feminine, lively youth makes Ethan fell like a “real man.” Ethan and Mattie finally express their feeling for each other while Zeena is visiting the doctor, and are forced to face the painful reality that their dreams of being together can not come true.
Anita Shreve’s “Rescue” is about the emotional and physical trauma between parents and children. A delicate and interesting novel explores the life of the Webster and Sheila, as they are trying to realize their past and begin again. Anita Shreve is a best-selling author who has followed a simple style in the novel “Rescue” that is straightforward and concise that has no confusing points of view or complex flashbacks (Bukowsky, 1). She has portrayed her characters in a way that are insightful that has never failed to take the readers into it, especially the character of Peter Webster. “Rescue” is a touching story of a down-to-earth small-town hero, Webster, who brings misfortune to his life through a drunk driver, Sheila, but he never fails to take responsibility. Webster is portrayed as a dedicated father and hard working breadwinner. He meets his fate in the name of Sheila whom he rescued from an accident and attracted toward her physical beauty. He falls in a situation where he has to grow his daughter, Rowan, alone when his wife leaves him for years. Even though he always regrets for marrying Sheila as a wrong choice, he never regrets of his daughter’s birth. He proves himself as a father who cares about his daughter alone and loves her most. However, it does not mean he hates his wife; he loves her too, but he cannot stop her from her alcoholism that keeps her away from him and Rowan. Through his character and life, Shreve has offered an insight that proves love should be accompanied by communication, true concern, and respect.
This looks as if Hobson has gone to the pub but Maggie has told him
Although the author, Betty Smith, denied ever writing a novel with socially political motives, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn abounds with references to class issues. Nearly every scene, every character illustrates or deals with the problem of poverty in early twentieth-century America. For the Nolan’s, being poor means they must always think about being poor – how they will buy the next load of coal, where their food will come from, their insurance, rent, medicine, all the necessities of raising a family. The novel also shows that poverty is not just the absence of food or comfort, it is the direct cause for Uncle Flittman to leave, Johnny’s utter nothingness and Francie’s inability to go to a high school. Every action in the novel is based around a limited amount of resources, as not only the Nolan’s but also the entire community suffers. Exploitation abounds, whether in the overpriced sale of candy, child labour in metal collection, dishonest grocers and butchers and employers with impunity to set their own rules. Katie does her best with the household money, and we find that for the poor sometimes a luxury isn’t in getting something, but in being able to waste it.
In this story, Maggie is a lot like her mother. They both are uneducated, loving, caring, and allow Dee to run over them. Maggie has been through more things than her mother has though, because of the incident that happened. Maggie has scars like Emily, except Maggie’s scars are from a house fire (319). The house fire has impacted Maggie’s life tremendously, since she is very self-conscious and shy. Walker stated that Maggie is “ashamed of the burn scars down her arms and legs (318). The mother is protective of Maggie and will be there for her whenever she needs her too. Even though her mother knows all her struggles, she still supports her and pushes her to be better. I think that is one reason she pushes her to marry John Thomas, because she wants her to become her own person and to be strong (319). The mother of “Everyday Use” is opposite from the mother in “I Stand Here Ironing”, because she is there for her children no matter what their financial status
Rhian is an Irish Traveller with ties to the Beggar Clan. After a childhood spent walking the Wayward Way with her gypsy parents, she moves to America with her mother and stepfather. Rhian’s repentant mother keeps her children away from the Shadows, hoping they’ll lead normal lives. Rhian dutifully steers clear until her job as a designer places her in Paul's office to build a web site for his gallery. She falls hard for the handsome, secretive artist and is thrilled when he returns her fe...
Stephen Crane’s first novel Maggie (girl of the streets) is a tale of uncompromising realism. The story chronicles the titular Maggie, a girl who lives in the Bowery with her emotionally abusive parents and brothers Jimmie and Tommy. The novel revolves around the trials and tribulations of Maggie and her family in the Bowery. Highlights of the story include the death of Maggie’s father and brother Tommie which drive Pete to turn into a cold and hard person by novels end. Maggie desperately tries to escape bowery life, but in the end Maggie succumbs to the Bowery and dies a broken woman. Crane is considered a Naturalist, and in Crane’s naturalist world no one escapes their biological chains. Maggie’s parents are both unfit parents: they are emotionally and physically abusive, and have alcoholic tendencies. Despite Maggie’s and (to a lesser extent) Jimmie’s longings to escape the bleak world of the bowery they do not. Crane is making a statement on the adverse effects of industrialization and urbanization with the novel. Industrialization and urbanization on the surface create jobs and strengthen business, but upon further examination it disenfranchises the very people it promises to help. Many of the families in the bowery are immigrant families who become wage slaves. Maggie’s family is no different; because of their dependency on big business they have become disenfranchised and incapable of growth. This idea of being set into a world where there is no escape from one's biological heredity that Crane showcases the in the novel is mirrors Darwin’s survival of the fittest theory. According to Darwin only the biologically strong would survive in the world, with the weaker specimens expiring. In Crane’s novel the people are not inherently weak; it is the environment that shapes them and prevents them from growing. Ultimately, all of the characters in Maggie are victims of the Bowery life.
In a time where horses slowly disappeared from streets, being replaced by automobiles, and on the impoverished Brooklyn tenement buildings, there resides the Nolan family. Surviving by just a few dollars a week, Katie Rommely Nolan, with an alcoholic husband, struggles to provide for her family. In A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, Katie’s beautiful hands are damaged by the products she uses to clean building, for just some cents a day. Katie’s life purpose is to obtain land and provide a successful life for her children, Francie and Neeley Nolan. In A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Katie Nolan struggles to achieve her American Dream of providing her children with a fulfilling and successful life, that is superior to hers, through the means of education.
Brick and Maggie’s marriage is like tin because it conducts heat from the fiery arguments around it. This roof of a marriage is also tin-like because it is flimsy, and does not protect the couple, beneath it. The marriage can be seen as a fragile union. She proclaims to Brick, “I feel all the time like a cat on a hot tin roof.” Brick replies, “Then jump off.” Their marriage is hot because it is full of antagonism, animosity, and arguments usually incited by Brick, and it is also full of Maggie’s lust and sexual frustration. With that sexual frustration, one could say she is like a cat in heat. Each character alienates themselves in different ways and Maggie does so by lying (Sahu). Readers can assume that Maggie and Brick’s marriage is basically a lie, because Brick doesn’t really love Maggie, and Maggie made Brick marry her; Tin roofs seem far, far away from the lavish Pollitt mansion, and they remind readers of the miserable poverty away from which Maggie runs. She is looking at getting the mansion to secure herself under the non-tin roof of the Pollitt mansion. Maggie is also a fighter similarly to a stray cat. She states that her father was an alcoholic and that her mother made and sewed her clothes when she was growing up. When Maggie made her debut into southern society, she only had two dresses: a hand me down, and a home-made one by her
The novel starts off with a young 16-year-old girl named Hazel with thyroid cancer that has spread to her lungs. She serves as the witty narrator and makes death seem like nothing to be afraid of. Augustus Waters, a 17-year-old formally diagnosed with Osteosarcoma, is in remission but has lost a leg due to his cancer. From the beginning, John Green makes readers feel suspenseful as to when or if Hazel is going to die and break Augustus’s heart. But when Augustus goes back into remission, a twist is added to the story and Hazel becomes the healthier partner in their relationship. Hazel and Augustus’s love is put to the test as Augustus’s health deteriorates more and more each day. Readers are sitting on the edge of their seats, as they must wait to see what the fate of this courageous couple will be.
Mare and her family lived in New York City. Her mother was a single parent who tried all her best to make sure that her children had all that the need. Sometimes Mara’s mother Shana didn’t have money, so they went to bed without food. Mara’s life was not how she wanted it to be. She wanted a big house, a father, and a happy big family. Instead her life was the opposite. Her dad died when she was only seven. When her father died, it ruined the family. Her father was the backbone of th...