Stephen Crane's Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets

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Life is a serious of events. Each person comes and goes from one activity to another, a run to the Starbucks on the corner for a morning brew or the boarding of the evening commute back home. In the genre of realism, these every-day monstrosities are explored. This concept, combined with the “scientific principles of objectivity and detachment” (Campbell), creates the style of naturalism in literature. Through his detailed usage of realism, the author Stephen Crane is often portrayed as one of the leading founders of naturalism in American literature. Having been raised in a religious family during the rise of Darwinist ideals, Crane uses the trends of the times and the world around him to create works that are celebrated by critics as some …show more content…

Unlike so much literature preceding Crane’s work, his writings insist “that we live in a universe of vast and indifferent natural forces, not in a world of divine providence or a certain moral order” (Vanouse). His second novella, Red Badge of Courage, did immensely better in the public reception. This story of a young war soldier became “renowned for its perceived authenticity and realistic depictions of violent conflict”, even though Crane had never been in military combat upon its publication (Stephen Crane Biography”). He simply created the vivid images expressed in his novella through extensive research. This work, published abridged in newspapers in 1894, is often likened to an Impressionistic painting due to “his episodic narrative structure and his consistent use of color imagery” while others argue that it is solely symbolic imagery (“Stephen Crane”). With either view, however, the work is a great tribute to the genre of naturalism as it studies “human beings governed by their instincts and passions” while applying the scientific principles of objectivity and detachment (Campbell). Crane, a founding father of naturalism, discovers “the extraordinary and excessiveness in human nature” through the tragedy of war

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