Comparing A Girl In The Streets And The Red Badge Of Courage By Stephen Crane

Stephen Crane’s first two works, Maggie: A Girl in the Streets and A Red Badge of Courage, may not seem like they could not be similar based on their settings. After all, what went on in the Lower East Side of New York during the late nineteenth could not possibly find a way to relate to the happenings on a battlefield during the American Civil War, right? Quite the contrary, Stephen Crane managed to produce a way through the indirect characterization of the protagonists, a naturalistic writing style, and the irony that both are a part of the two novels.

First, both of the main characters in Crane’s novels, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and The Red Badge of Courage, share quite a few similar characteristics. In the beginning of Maggie:

In the beginning, Maggie is seen as hopeful, but as the story progresses she realizes that she is surrounded by nothing but severe turmoil. Maggie is lead to become another tragic example of what it is like to become one with their surrounding environment. As Karen E. Waldron discusses in an article about Crane’s writing style, “Crane subordinates the ideological work of gender in Maggie to the power of an urban environment under the influence of mass culture along with increasing immigration, poverty, and industrialization.” (40). In The Red Badge of Courage, Henry Fleming also succumbs to the power of nature without even realizing it. After Henry escapes the battle, he almost manages to drown out the distant sound of war, and takes the time to admire the natural life that surrounded him. The narrator comments that, “Off was the rumble of death. It seemed nature had no ears.” (Crane 62). Although, the “landscape gave him assurance” (Crane 62), he shortly is betrayed when he looks into the eyes of a rotting corpse, that was once a soldier, and is stricken with horror. After Henry comes face to face with death, the horrors of the war and nature begin to set in with