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Maggie A Girl Of The Streets
Maggie and Jimmie are two siblings being raised within the slums of New York City in the Stephen Crane novel; Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. The parents of these two are constantly fighting as broken furniture and fistfights are an everyday occurance in the decrepid family apartment. The mother and father fight while their children hide frightened as "There was a clash against the door and something broke into clattering fragments .... (Jimmie) heard howls and curses, groans and shrieks, confusingly in chorus as if a battle were raging" (11). Crane exxagerates the furniture destruction as every night when the two parents battle, seemingly all the furniture in the apartment is destroyed. Obviously, this poor family couldn't afford to fix and/or buy new furniture everyday. This then is the environment that Maggie and Jimmie struggle with throughout the novel, but both respond to in opposite ways. Maggie dreams of a better life than of her roots while Jimmie excepts his roots and becomes nihilistic. However, the hope of Maggie sadly goes unfulfilled.
Maggie is introduced into the storyline quite subtle and quickly becomes the main focus of attention by the other three main characters. From the beginning, Maggie is a harsh contrast to the slum environment she has to endure. She "blossomed in a mud puddle ... a most rare and wonderful production of a tenement district, a pretty girl" (16) that not only had the physical beauty that her family seemed to lack, but also the hope that she could be better than what was around in her environment. Therefore, the slum environment that surrounds her contrasts her character greatly. "None of the dirt of Rum Alley was in her veins" (16) as she became the talk of numerous males in the neighborhood.
Pete; an acquaintance of Jimmie, became Maggie's infatuation. They meet when Pete is called to the Johnson apartment by Jimmie after Pete promised to attend a boxing match with him. Although only a bartender, Maggie finds Pete as a man of "personal superiority" (17) that is capable of providing her with any dream she desires. She views the contrast between Pete and her environment when:
The broken furniture, grimy walls, and general disorder and dirt of her home all of a sudden appeared before her and began to take a potential aspect. Pete's aristocratic person looked as if it might soil.
They may argue Maggie could of escape from the slum life and she didn’t have to let it take a hold of her. They may also say that Maggie was her own downfall and demise by letting a boy drag her down to the mud and damage her good name. However, because of her upbringing, it was hard for her not to be affected by her environment and social factors.
Have you ever seen the Disney movie Cinderella? Cinderella was always jealous of her step sisters always being up lifted, while she was always degraded by her step mother however, at the end everything changed for Cinderella just as it did for Maggie. There are a numerous of themes throughout the story “Everyday Use”. Race is showed when Dee leaves home and comes back embracing her African American cultural. Family also plays a major role in “Everyday Use”. In “Everyday Use” Maggie’s characterization presents her as ignorant; however, a closer look reveals Maggie ignorance is not a representative of her potential but, rather her mother’s bias.
Maggie, although not the main focus of Recitatif, plays an extremely important role in the sense that she represents the idea that there is more to a person’s identity as well as oppression than just their race.
Maggie is not as attractive as Dee. She is a thin and awkward girl. Her
When we meet our narrator, the mother of Maggie and Dee, she is waiting in the yard with Maggie for Dee to visit. The mother takes simple pleasure in such a pleasant place where, "anyone can come back and look up at the elm tree and wait for the breezes that never come inside the house." (Walker 383) This is her basic attitude, the simple everyday pleasures that have nothing to do with great ideas, cultural heritage or family or racial histories. She later reveals to us that she is even more the rough rural woman since she, "can kill and clean a hog as mercilessly as a man." (Walker 383) Hardly a woman one would expect to have much patience with hanging historical quilts on a wall. Daughter Maggie is very much the opposite of her older sister, Dee. Maggie is portrayed as knowing "she is not bright." (Walker 384)
In the story “Everyday Use” Walker weaves us into the lives of Momma, Dee, and Maggie, an underprivileged family in rural Georgia. Momma is described as a loving, hard working woman who cares more about her family’s welfare than her appearance. The conflict comes along with Momma’s two daughters Dee and Maggie whose personalities are as different as night and day. Dee, the younger, is an attractive, full figured, light skinned young lady with ample creativity when it comes to getting what she wants and feels she needs. Maggie on the other hand, is darker skinned, homely and scarred from the fire that destroyed the family’s first house. Throughout the story we are told about Maggie’s timid and withdrawn behavior. Her own mother described her as “. . . a lame animal, perhaps a dog run over by some careless person rich enough to own a car . . . That is the way my Maggie walks . . . chin on chest, eyes on ground, feet in shuffle, ever since the fire.” (Handout, Walker) She is constantly overpowered by her dominant sister who “held life in the palm of one hand, that “no” is a word the world never learned to say to her” (Handout, Walker). It seems as if Walker herself find Maggie inferior, seeing as how she is a minor character in the story. Things begin to turn around for Maggie towards the end when she receives the family’s...
Maggie from the story Recitatif and Mu Ying from In Broad Daylight are both static characters. Static characters that do not change in any way from the beginning of the novel to the end. Usually these characters are minor simply because the main characters often times learn a lesson seeing as they are the focus of the story. Maggie is a minor character. She is not focused on directly very often. Twyla does take time to consider a situation in which Maggie was a part of, but Maggie’s thoughts, feelings, or personality is ever truly examined. In the beginning of the story Maggie is described to be and old woman who works in the home. By the end of the story, Maggie is remains simply an old lady who once worked in the home. The reader never gets
Maggie lives with a poor and dysfunctional family and a hopeless future with only the small possibility of change. The environment and setting she grows up in do not support anything more than a dull, dreary and pathetic future for her. An old woman asks Maggie's brother Jimmy: "Eh, Gawd, child, what is it this time? Is yer fader beatin yer mudder, or yer mudder beatin yer fader? (Maggie, 10)" while he runs to Maggie's apartment one night. The lack of love and support of her family hinders Maggie's ability to live a happy and fulfilling life. Without knowing that someone loves her no matter what she does or how she acts Maggie may feel desperate enough to change her situation by any means she can, and without any useful guidance. Even without any positive influences Maggie grows up different from the low-life's living with and around her. Crane explains Maggie's uniqueness in the passage "None of the dirt of Rum Alley seemed to be in her veins. The philosophers up-stairs, down-stairs and on the same floor, puzzled over it" (Maggie 16). Maggie's uniqueness gives her the chance to improve her life, but only a slim chance. Even though Maggie differs from the people around her they remain sleazy, making it harder for her to change her life because she must go outside of her community for help.
In Maggie A Girl of the Streets, Crane describes the Slums of New York through the perception and surroundings of a young girl named Maggie. The book immediately begins with a clash between two young children defending their honor of the Rum Alley. Even though seeing children violently harm each other would startle most “humans”, it does not faze anyone living in the slums. “From a window of an apartment house that up reared its form from amid squat, ignorant stables, there leaned a curious woman. Some laborers, unloading a scow at a dock
The theme of isolation in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men and Stephen Crane's Maggie, A Girl of the Streets greatly portrays the social and economic setting of the late 1800s and the early 1900s. In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck, George and Lennie, the two main characters, try to ignore the harsh environment of ranch life by having aspirations of owning a ranch, and one of the challenges in the way of their dreams is a fight with isolation. In the novel Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, Maggie, blossomed from a mud puddle despite abuse and the lack of wealth, tries to trudge through the cruelty of life only to find herself alone in the world. Although John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men and Stephen Crane's Maggie, A Girl of the Streets
The use of color in Stephan Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is crucial when looking at the setting of the story; the repeated use of red is significant when describing Maggie’s mother Mary and the importance of color in describing the social system through the story. It is seen prominently when Maggie and Pete go to the theater, parts of the play paralleled the lives of the common people: "The latter spent most of his time out at soak in pale-green snow storms, busy with a nickel-plated revolver, re...
Maggie is an undeniably insecure girl. She lacks any self-confidence and is very quiet. She doesn’t speak her mind very much, and this is because of her insecurities. Maggie’s insecurities stem from her sister, Dee. Dee had many things that Maggie never had. Dee was beautiful and had an education, things Maggie had always wanted. Maggie lacks confidence because she lived in her sister’s shadow her entire life.
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
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
While Maggie is brown-skinned and dark-haired, Lucy, her cousin, is her contrary: "It was like the contrast between a rough, dark, overgrown puppy and a white kitten" (58). And the appearance influences the character: everybody is satisfied with Lucy and that is why Lucy is satisfied with herself. Maggie on the contrary is viewed as almost an idiot in her effort to be admired and loved.