Maggie A Girl Of The Streets Essay - 551 Words

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane is a short novel about a young girl and the people in her life. Despite its brevity, this book displays many significant themes that its author intertwines in the story plot. Such themes are determinism, hypocrisy, false morality, self-deception, and appearance verses reality.Maggie’s mother, Mrs. Johnson, is a symbol of hypocrisy in the story. She lost her husband, and had to raise her children by herself in poverty. She drinks to heal her pain so that she doesn’t have to face reality. In her drunken state, she becomes intimidating and overwhelming, even to her children. She is insane and can be described as an animal, often gossiped about in the neighborhood. How can a woman who is an†¦show more content†¦The reader can tell from the beginning of the novel that Pete will disrespect and mistreat her. Mrs. Johnson never gives Maggie the support that she needed, and neither does her brother, Jimmie. With an alcoholic mother, who can be referred to as a savage, and a violent brother; Maggie attempts to escape from the constant chaos in her home. Mrs. Johnson is constantly worried about her reputation and what her neighbors think. She doesn’t want the neighbors to think she accepts a daughter who sells her body for money. She wants to be seen as quot;properquot; and the ideal mother. Yet she drinks regularly and goes into violent rages, throwing things around, and destroying her house.It is contradictory that Mrs. Johnson never reprimands Jimmie for the trouble that he is involved in. If anybody could comprehend and associate with Maggie’s feelings of loneliness and hopelessness, it should have been her mother. Mrs. Johnson is too preoccupied with her addiction to alcohol and trying to impress the neighborhood to do anything beside condemn Maggie’s way of life. Mrs. Johnson thinks that she is the ideal mother who gave her children everything they needed and more. This is the false morality depicted in the novel since she was actually the opposite. She was selfish and disregarded Maggie and Jimmie. She was only concerned with herself and the way others portrayed her. In the conclusion of the novel, after Maggie has died, Mrs.Show MoreRelatedMaggie a Girl of the Streets970 Words   |  4 PagesMaggie: A Girl of the Streets, a novella written in 1893 by Stephen Crane, focuses on a poverty stricken family living in the Bowery district of New York City. This novella is regarded as one of the first works of naturalism in American literature and it helped shape the naturalistic principle that a character is set into a world where there is no escape from one’s biological heredity and the circumstances that the characters find themselves in will dominate their behavior and deprive them of individualRead MoreMaggie: a Girl of the Streets947 Words   |  4 PagesStephen Crane wrote many short stories, one of which was Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. 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