Maggie
MaggieMaggie: 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 overweight, brutal, alcoholic be a role model for or critic of her children?
It is Mrs. Johnson’s responsibility as a mother to care for her children in every way possible, and love them no matter what. However, she does not understand or live by this philosophy. She disowns her own daughter when Maggie becomes a prostitute, and throws her out of the house. It is evident that Maggie is only trying to survive in any way possible after her boyfriend, Pete, leaves her heartbroken and discouraged. She is exposed to this awful and forbidden lifestyle after being abandoned by Pete, her lover, who is constantly surrounded by prostitutes while working as a bartender in the “classy” bars. Because Maggie doesn’t know any better, she thinks of Pete as her “knight” who has swept her off her feet. He is only a charmer who is fake and shallow, but...
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