Stephen Crane's Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets

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Developing into the person someone will be in the future depends on the environment they grow up in. Rum Alley is a place where people are expected to grow into a product of their environment. Becoming a product of the environment is like a trap, because once someone is a product of the environment, they will stay as one. Rum Alley, the slums of New York, is home to the Johnsons. The Johnson family all played major roles in illustrating how prostitution, poverty, alcoholism, and having no parental role model contribute to becoming a product of their environment. In Stephen Crane’s Maggie; A Girl of the streets, Crane shows how Maggie, Jimmie, and Mrs. Johnson are products of their environment in order to illustrate how the characters can’t …show more content…

Jimmie fights for respect in the bowery. Growing up, Jimmie watches people solve their personal problems with their fists. Fighting somebody when you disagree on something is normal for Jimmie. Jimmie Johnson is not able to use his words to end the problems, but resolve them by fighting. Fighting to solve a problem is a prime example of being a product of their environment. In the Bowery, people fight for pride and respect. The more fights someone wins, the person will receive more respect. Jimmie fights because fighting is expected of a young adolescent from the bowery, and wants to earn his respect. Another reason for Jimmie fighting is that he has no parental role model to learn from. Jimmie is never taught not to fight, but only gets beaten for fighting. “The little girl upbraided him. “ ‘Youse allus fightin’, Jimmie, an’ yeh knows knows it puts mudder out when yehs come home half dead, an it’s like we’ll all get a poundin’.”(7). Maggie, the little girl, portrays that Jimmie is fighting all the time and all it does is get them beat by their Mom and Dad. Maggie also reveals that Jimmie is a product of his own environment due to his fighting for respect, and fighting all of the time. Not only is Jimmie a product of his environment, and he also illustrates moral hypocrisy. Jimmie is morally hypocritical because he uses girls, but got upset when his old friend Pete uses Maggie. Jimmie fights Pete to solve a problem, and this shows how people from the Bowery solve problems with their fists rather than their

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