Stephen Crane’s Maggie: Girl of the Streets has been both praised and criticized for its unsentimental and nonjudgmental style. As narrator, Crane describes events without commenting on the conduct of his character and without telling readers what they are expected to feel. He wants to give readers “just the facts” of the case and let readers form their own opinions. But now, having read the book, comment on each of the following: 1) Where does responsibility for Maggie’s fate lie? With Maggie herself? With Pete? With Maggie’s mother, father, or brother? Nellie? 2) What role do social and economic conditions play in Maggie’s tragic end? 3) Which of the characters to you feel the most sympathy for? Why?
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September 15, 2017 at 12:36 pm
1) The person who is responsible for Maggie’s downfall is not Maggie, herself, rather is a mixture of influences from people around her. The truth of Maggie’s fate is obscure and repugnant. The environment where Maggie grows up in is a barrier to her ability to see the world clearly and to seek independence. Her fate is determined by other people as she is bombarded with fear and anxiety from her family, abandonment from Pete and tear in romance from Nellie. Maggie is a reckless and desperate girl who grows up in a tarnish, poor and corrupt family in Bowery neighborhood of New York’s Lower East Side. Maggie is amid in poverty and abuse throughout her childhood. Her fate was predetermined as she was born in a lower class society, for which she is victimized by social forces beyond her control. Her father spends most of his time in the bar drunk and oblivious to reality which leads to neglect of the family. Maggie’s mother is a vicious woman who stays home and often has outrageous anger issues. Jimmie, her older brother, also grows up to be a sneering and aggressive individual who frequently gets into fights and arguments with other people. Maggie struggles with brutality and abandonment from her family. She lacks a sense of comfort and happiness that lost in her childhood memories. Maggies meets Pete, a bartender, who promises Maggie wealth and abundance to escape the misery at home. Pete gives her hope and desire to live again. However, the scheming Nellie convinces Pete to leave Maggie and stagger on the streets alone.
2) Social and economic conditions play significant roles in Maggie’s tragic ending because, throughout her whole life, she is exposed to violence, abuse, and abandonment from her poor family. She has no one to lie on and desperately seeks an individual as her safe haven and comfort. Mary, her mother, “gossiped while leaning on railings, or screamed in frantic quarrels,” Mary’s ill temper and rages instill fear and unconsciousness. The social norm of a mother is a caring and nurturing but in the case of Maggie’s mother, she is abusive and fearful. Maggie’s abandonment and neglect as a child fuel Maggie’s eagerness to obtain love and escape her social misery. Aside from her corrupted family and cynical mother, Maggie’s lack of financial stability results in desperate and unethical decisions for wealth. Maggie turns to prostitution to earn a living. This decision leads to a massive neighborhood scandal which many people criticize and laughs at her disgrace to her family. Jimmie states that Pete has “ruined” his sister by stealing her virtue and purity as a woman and further emphasizes deep sorrow and disappointment in Mary’s action.
3) The character that I feel the most sympathy for is Jimmie, the brother. From the start of the novel, it begins with him fighting on the street battle with the boys in the Rum Alley. They spit taunting oaths and gave hoarse howl as Jimmie arose from the ground with blood dripping from his mouth. This nature of growing up with violence and fights shaped Jimmie’s demeanor of being a cold-hearted and unsympathetic individual. He is amid with hatred and oblivion as he often goes to the bar and drinks to forget the truth of reality. Unfortunately, Jimmie was forced to be tough to survive the urban poverty and inevitable cruelty of the world.
September 22, 2017 at 1:59 pm
1) Several people were responsible for Maggie’s tragic fate. Maggie herself cannot be blamed because she did what she believed would bring her happiness after suffering through years of terrible family problems. The person most responsible for her faith is her mother. Maggie’s mother was extremely abusive to her and the rest of her family while she was growing up. Maggie’s mother did not express much love for her and refused to welcome her back after she returned home. Her mother did not offer her the care and affection that would have helped her to find happiness and her life and that would have kept her from leaving. Pete also shares responsibility for Maggie’s fate. Maggie believed that she had found happiness when she left home with Pete. However, Pete was unfaithful to Maggie and left her for Nellie. When she returned to see him at the bar in search of help, Pete sent her away and told her to “go to hell”.
This left Maggie heartbroken and brought her back to her misery. Lastly, both Maggie’s father and brother share some responsibility as well. Maggie’s father and brother both failed to be strong father figures for Maggie in her life and failed to take care of their families. They both fought harshly with Maggie’s mother and also did not provide Maggie with the proper love and support. The combination of Maggie’s family problems, Pete’s unfaithfulness, and her abandonment by both Pete and her family ultimately contributed to Maggie’s tragic downfall.
2) Social and economic conditions play a fairly significant role in Maggie’s tragic end. The struggles of life in an unstable lower class family lured Maggie to Pete. She craved for a fresh start and a life full of happiness like she had never experienced before. The abuse and pain that Maggie had to endure growing up caused her to leave home and live with Pete with whom she believed she could live a happy life. Growing up in an unhappy lower class family in a harsh neighborhood made Maggie desperate for a better life, and she clung to the opportunity when it presented itself. Unfortunately, her happiness did not last, and Maggie was abandoned and left to find a way to survive on her own in the harsh and cruel world.
3) The character for whom I feel the most sympathy for is Maggie. Although her downfall and death certainly were painful for her mother and brother, they both played a role in her demise by failing to give her the love and support she needed to keep her on the right path. Maggie was a victim of the society in which she lived. She not only had to endure abuse and abandonment by those who were closest to her, but she also lacked opportunities to get herself onto a better path as a lower class woman. Just as the protagonist of a Shakespeare tragedy is powerless over their inevitable fate, Maggie too was powerless over her ultimate demise as a result of different forces in her life over which she had no control.
September 22, 2017 at 4:49 pm
1) The responsibility for Maggie’s fate lies with both Mary, Maggie’s mother, and Pete. Mary was always the antagonist in the novel. She rejects her daughter and pushes her away. This feeling of rejection rubs off onto Maggie, who then finds comfort in Pete. She believes Pete to be a wealthy, good-mannered man. Ultimately, she is forced to love him because of the lack of love given to her from her mother. In the end, Pete betrays Maggie. Pete was not who Maggie thought he was. He had an affair with Nellie, and thus Maggie is yet again rejected. With nowhere to go, Maggie is forced to become a prostitute, where she meets her eventual downfall. Maggie is a product of her own environment. Since she was born and raised in poverty, she grew accustomed to the grime and the dirt of Rum Alley. When she was introduced to Pete, she believed him to be a well formidable man. Maggie’s endeavors with Pete readjusted Maggie’s view on the real world. Working as much as possible making collars and cuffs, Maggie never was able to experience the places, such as theaters, that Pete was taking her to. However, this glamor she became used to was short-lived as Pete eventually would abandon Maggie, leaving her with nowhere to turn back to. Mary, on the other hand, was the driving force between Maggie’s departure from her family. Mary would always yell at Maggie to “Go to work or go to Hell.” It was this constant rejection that had caused Maggie to interest in Pete and thus led to her eventual end.
2) Social and economic conditions played a significant role in Maggie’s tragic end. For one, she was stricken by poverty to begin with. Her family was comprised of drunk parents. They didn’t make a lot of money and lived on pennies in order to provide for themselves. The parents didn’t pay much attention to Maggie or her brother Jimmie and often times it was the children who looked after the parents. Maggie’s rejection from her mother forces her to take refuge in Pete, who Maggie sees of a higher class than her own. After being rejected by Pete, it is obvious that Maggie perceives herself as a lower class than most other people. She only reinforces this when she takes shelter with the old woman after being out casted by her brother. In addition, Maggie’s financial state is what ultimately decides her fate: becoming a prostitute.
3) The character who I personally feel the most sympathy for would be Maggie’s brother, Jimmie. I feel this way because after their father’s death, Jimmie must become the head of the household and the main breadwinner. Jimmie must take on responsibilities as a caretaker for his drunk mother and his misguided sister, all while trying to provide a steady paycheck for not only himself to live on, but also his mother and sister. Often times, Jimmie must drag his own mother out of a bar and fight her just for her to go to sleep. On the other hand, Jimmie goes out of his way to protect Maggie from Pete. He fights Pete as a way for him to deter Pete from seeing Maggie. It is not his fault why she still goes to Pete and eventually is betrayed. Jimmie is just trying to provide for his family, which is why I feel sympathy for him.
September 24, 2017 at 10:14 pm
1) Maggie grew up in an oppressive world of economic and social inequality. She resided in the slums of Rum Alley, where alcohol and violence was an inseparable part of her life. Especially at home, she would experience the horrors of Rum Alley. Her parents were drunks who were violent not only towards each other, but to Maggie as well. Her brother, Jimmie, had somewhat of a connection with her. At least they had a sense of family love. However, this soon extinguished when her father and her baby brother passed away. Her brother succumbed to the violence, and her mother directed her violent nature towards Maggie. Often times, when Mary would see Maggie and Pete together, she would embarrass and ridicule their relationship. Although Maggie is her daughter, she never accepts Maggie as her daughter due to her “unladylike” impression. She believes that Maggie’s relationship with Pete shames her and her family. Perhaps this is jealousy since she can’t seem to find her “ticket” out of her situation, or it is simply the living conditions that has shaped her this way. Regardlessly, it is her responsibility as a parent to ensure her child’s happiness despite her own conditions. The others have certainly played a role in the demise of Maggie as well. Pete, for example, is also responsible for her fate. He would spend time with her by bringing her to all sorts of entertainment and performances, deceiving her to believe that he was the knight in shining armor, that he was her salvation from her current situation. For the most part, he was a gentleman to her by providing her the love that her family could have never provided. But ultimately, he was the one who shatters her fantasy and places her back in the horrors of reality. Although both Mary and Pete were both responsible for Maggie’s fate, it is the parent who always has the greater responsibility.
2) Part of what caused her family to be drunk and violent was, undoubtedly, the social and economic conditions of living in the slums. Their inability to provide family love for Maggie was a major factor contributing to Maggie’s tragic end. However, just as the fact that everyone is born inherently kind and generous, her parents did want to treat her with kindness and love. It is often the surrounding environment that shapes the nature of people. In this case, poverty has caused them to lose focus of what they already have and instead, delve on what they do not have. They had a complete family with a husband and wife, as well as 3 kids. This is something that many families do not have. For all that, they were still poverty stricken. Their situation forced them to look at the world with contempt, which has forced them to view their family in such lenses as well.
3) Most of us would probably sympathize with Jimmy or Maggie as they were the victims of both domestic violence and economic/social inequality. I believe that they were not the only ones affected by the situation. It is often the culprit that is also the victim. In this case, I actually sympathize with the heavily criticized mother, Mary. While her treatment towards Maggie was cruel and unfair, it is safe to speculate that she was treated the same way. Additionally, she had to face the regret for how she treated Maggie. Towards the end of the novel, she mentions that she will forgive her. As paradoxical as that may sound, she did, in fact, feel a sense of loss and regret when her daughter died. This was something that Maggie, who had some hope and joy during her encounters with Pete, did not have to go through. As I mentioned earlier, humans are born inherently kind and generous. It is society that shapes us into who we are. In a way, we are like robots and society is the programmer. For most of us, it is futile and unimaginable to go against what we were taught to believe and how we are influenced to act. So the question then becomes, is Maggie the only victim? Could Mary have changed who she was “programmed” to be?
September 25, 2017 at 9:06 pm
1)In an effort to understand what brought about Maggie’s tragic end, it is difficult to depict who or what in the story is most responsible. Most could agree that Maggie’s fate was sealed from birth, and her life as a “girl of the streets” was simply an unfortunate product of her environment in which she lived and was raised, the Bowery. In the psychological development of any human being, both poverty and solitude are factors that could easily hinder the growth and success of those who must suffer their effects. Outside of societal factors, Maggie is most disturbed by the acts of her abusive mother, Mary. Mary’s ferocious temper, foul language, and dangerous attitude all make impressions on Maggie as a child, and illustrate a picture for Maggie of what a woman of the Bowery looks like. Mary is neither mentally stable nor suiting as a mother and represents women of the novel in a crude and unfavorable way. Maggie yearns to be independent of this lifestyle and is the most immune to adopting her mother’s personality out of all her family members. However, when her first opportunity to escape her life as a Bowery girl is gone for good, thanks to actions and choices made by Pete, Maggie sheds any part of her former, inherently good self, and becomes what most could consider a lost soul. Maggie’s eventual death occurs most in part to lack of guidance as a child and inability to recover from disappointment, two qualities her parents and surrounding influences failed to instill in her throughout her entire life. Maggie’s fate is in a small portion that of her own fault, but in most parts, the fault of the society that tainted and ruined her mother Mary, and will continue to sabotage lower class women for centuries to come.
2)Maggie’s tragic fate is most clearly drawn back to both the social and economic factors that surround her life. Socially, she is a victim of abuse. Her mother’s role in her life is not one of maternal instinct but tyrant behavior and harmful nature. Having no true parent, Maggie and her brother Jimmie grow up as incomplete humans, never fully filling the hole in their spirits meant for a family. In an effort to fill that vacant space, Maggie desperately seeks out the love of Pete. She is hypnotized by the opportunity of escape, but also the fulfilled feeling of being loved by another human being. The vacuum of affection that exists inside Maggie is once again ripped open when Pete abandons her. Distraught and lost for a purpose, Maggie turns to prostitution as a means of feeling whole. By the end of the story, Maggie possesses no identity and ultimately perishes both physically and mentally. Economically, she is a girl of the Bowery. Poor, underprivileged, and lacking opportunity, Maggie’s only choice is to attempt to prosper the best she can with the petty and nonexistent means given by her mother, father, and environment. Ultimately, Maggie’s path to her demise was one constructed by her social and economic circumstances, circumstances that if different from those by which she was born, may have lead a more fortunate life.
3)The character I feel the most sympathy or pity for is the character of Maggie herself. She is the ultimate definition of sympathy in the story, and a representation of all that Is corrupt and wrong in society. It is impossible for any reader not to recognize how unfortunate her situation is, as well as admit that as a woman of her time, nearly all of her consequences were inescapable. Having been born to the lower class, Maggie’s opportunities in life are already limited to either escaping her environment by marrying rich or remaining poor. When she gets her first taste of escape through her introduction to Pete, she tenaciously pursues the relationship, consciously knowing it may be her only chance at freedom. Considering this is her only option, it is more than unfortunate that it ultimately leads her to her demise, expressing how ironic, corrupt, and truly unescapable the class system is in New York at this time. Outside of having her greatest hope of liberation from the Bowery severed, Maggie exists as a victim of domestic abuse. He mother, Mary, both consistently exerted violence on Maggie as a child as well as practically disowned her in her adulthood due to her relationship with Pete. We see Maggie through her loss of innocence and sympathize with the woman we see as inherently good, yet tainted by society. Maggie’s story, the story of all girls in New York City during this time period, are stories of sympathy, pity, and compassion.
September 25, 2017 at 9:36 pm
Stephen Crane’s novel Maggie: Girl of the Streets was a novel that was unprecedented for its time. It was considered inappropriate at the time and was not offered publication initially. This was as the novel shed light onto the poverty of New York at a time where the Northeast was experiencing a great surge in wealth. I believe responsibility for Maggie’s fate lies not with Maggie herself, but with Maggie’s parents. Neither raised Maggie to think the best for herself and to beware of other people trickery. She was unloved as her parents were drunks and as a result, she went to love Pete which caused her eventual downfall. The social and economic conditions had a large role in Maggie’s tragic end. She grew up in poverty and had no chance for social mobility. And so in desperation and a desire to be loved, she went on to love Pete causing her eventual decline. I feel most sorry for Maggie. She was the most naive and therefore she suffered the most. She just wanted to be loved and have a better life but instead, she was tricked by her lover and abandoned by her family.
September 25, 2017 at 9:41 pm
1. The downfall of Maggie’s fate lies within Maggie, her parents and Pete. The environment where Maggie was raised was horrid. Her parents would have heated arguments and get drunk often. Maggie and her siblings would often hide in fear that they would also get caught up in their violent fights. Her parents rarely cared for her and they would not be concerned for Maggie if she was being beaten. This gave Maggie a traumatizing childhood experience which would encourage her to imagine a lifestyle where she didn’t have to face constant fear and aggressiveness. Pete was another factor that caused Maggie’s downfall. She thought Pete would be her savior to her chaotic life. Although Maggie was naïve to believe this, she didn’t know any better since she was desperate to turn her lifestyle around. Mary, her mother, disapproved of Maggie’s relationship with Pete and makes remarks such as “The hell wid him and you… Yeh’ve gone to the devil” (89). Maggie made her family feel embarrassed and as a result, she was forced to leave the apartment. Her mother makes Maggie feel unwanted and this also strengthens her desire to leave with Pete. However, her hopes were let down when Pete rejected her for Nellie. She was abandoned once more and left to fend for herself. The buildup of all these experiences that Maggie faced led to her death.
2. The economic and social conditions most likely come from the impacts of industrial revolution. The industrial revolution caused many workers to go into poverty due to the low wages that they received. The working class was treated harshly and had to live in slum like conditions. They rarely had time to come home to nurture their children since they worked long hours in the factories. The children, on the other hand, would either work in factories or they would wander the street looking for entertainment through fights. This is applicable to Maggie’s family and caused a distanced relationship between parent and child. After coming from work, her parents would consume alcohol to relieve themselves from stress which caused the violence towards their children. With the poor conditions that Maggie lived in as part of the working class, this made her desire a life where she could be free from her worries and family life. This would propel the story to Maggie’s tragic fate.
3. The character that I felt the most sympathetic for was Maggie. All Maggie wanted was to escape the slums and to be cherished by someone. She was beaten up as a child from her parents and her younger brother died when she was young which caused emotional scarring to her. Additionally, her family left her because of their disapproval with her relationship with Pete and even in the end, she was betrayed and abandoned by him too. Throughout her life, she was consistently abandoned by those she loved. I felt sympathetic for Maggie since she couldn’t reach her dream of abandoning the tragic life she had. She faced a lot of conflicts to try to accomplish this but never achieves it.
September 25, 2017 at 10:13 pm
1) Where does responsibility for Maggie’s fate lie?
It’s difficult to place all the blame for Maggie’s fate onto one person. Her parents are cruel drunks. They beat her, neglect her, scream at her; they break her in every way possible, mentally, physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Her brother is cold-hearted and just as broken as she is, as a result of their upbringing. He also beats her and teases her, but most of all, he rejects her when she needs him most. Lastly, Pete is a selfish, manipulative liar. He gave her the worst kind of abuse; false hope. It was this false hope that ultimately led Maggie into this downward spiral in which she was all alone. All of the people in her life brought her down, one way or another, rather than bettering it in any way. What all these people have in common is the same vicious cycle they were all born into; life in the Bowery. This, in turn, is the real cause for Maggie’s fate.
2) What role do social and economic conditions play in Maggie’s tragic end?
The social and economic conditions of Maggie’s life are the reason for her downfall. In the Bowery, where violence is commonplace, domestic abuse is the norm, and death is futile, people live in constant battle with money, violence, and life. It nurtures all who live there into this vicious cycle, perpetuated by the economic and social forces of poverty. Just as Maggie was abused and dismayed by her parents and her surroundings, her parents went through the same struggle. Jimmie will probably go on to be just like his father or mother, and the cycle will persist. This society of impoverished people lack the necessary opportunities and support for a better life. As a result, people like Maggie, who can only dream of a fresh start, are only disappointed and even killed for her naive and wishful thinking.
3) Which of the characters to you feel the most sympathy for? Why?
I feel most sympathy for Maggie, because she had the ultimate worst fate. She died. She died for dreaming, for hoping for a better life, and as a result, she was chewed up and spat out by the cruel and vicious society around her. She couldn’t live to see the full extent of her life. She couldn’t continue to try and attempt to escape the chains of her upbringing. She lived and died a pitiful life in which she was shamed and unloved. Her own family turned her away, and her lover was a liar. She had no one but the streets to take her in and ravage her.
September 25, 2017 at 10:45 pm
1) It is difficult to blame one person for the result of Maggie’s fate, because, truthfully everyone is at fault, including people she “loves”. When talking about blame, the person does not necessarily have to do something wrong, sometimes, it is an event in one’s life that tragically influences him/her. That is what happens in Maggie’s situation, she grows up in Bowery, living most of her adolescence in filth and poverty. During the times when her drunken mother and father argue, she finds refuge in her youngest brother Tommie. She has a responsibility, a purpose, and that is to protect him, protect his innocence. However, the harsh environment negatively influences Tommie and he soon passes away. Maggie is stripped of hope, and soon realizes her dream of having a “normal” family is far gone. Jimmie is abusive and full of anger, her mother is a drunk and her father is no better. Thus, her family is as filthy as the place they live in. She tries to get out of the rums and she finds herself in love with a man named Pete. He brings back her lost hope, which prompts her to fully give herself to him, both mentally and sexually. As she is fully invested in her ideal future with him, she then sees that dream crushed in front of her eyes, when Pete walks away with Nellie (an ex-lover). She risks her family’s disapproval of him and her emotional state to please Pete, however, he ends up creating a whirlwind of chaos in Maggie’s life. With no love, no hope and no family, Maggie ends up alone. It is the result of all the events in her life that led her to her tragic ending.
2) Maggie grows up in a tenement house, a place that in this day and age would fail to meet the standards of safety, sanitation, and comfort. She is surrounded by poverty and she wishes to one day get out of this hardship. When money is tight, house is dirty and family is unstable, it is difficult for Maggie to remain sane. She soon, however, realizes her rare beauty and her potential to get out of the slums. When she meets Pete, a bartender that puts on a high-class act, he promises Maggie a better life. In her eyes, Pete is far more successful and as a result she begins to doubt herself as she says, “He must have great sums of money to spend” (23). She spends hours choosing a dress in order to match his socio-economic expectations and win his affection. She understands her place in the society and Pete is her ladder out of the gutter. Sadly, she could not escape Bowery, because it shaped her into the person that she becomes: a prostitute. This also comes to show that Pete is no better. When he walks off with Nellie he shows his submission to the slums and his loss of potential. The same thing happens to Maggie, her fate was decided the day she was born into poverty and it is almost impossible to escape that path.
3) I sympathize the most with Jimmie, mostly because he does not have an alternate ending. At a young age, he gets into fights and he grows up to be angry and spiteful, just as predicted. His environment and the constant chaos pushes him to become this resentful man. Jimmie puts up a wall and it stops his from trying to improve his life. Unlike Maggie, Jimmie does not even take initiative to get out of poverty, instead he falls to its power. He was born innocent but his childhood turns him into a traitor. He had the chance to stick by his sister but instead he chose spite. While I also sympathize with Maggie, I pity that Jimmie had no story, no depth, and no form of love.
September 25, 2017 at 10:47 pm
1) After reading this work, I believe that Maggie’s family are the ones most responsible for her downfall. Mary was never grateful enough to grow up with a caring family and this ended up having a severely negative effect on her. Her mother and father were too busy drinking to give her the attention she deserved and this resulted in her seeking attention from other people such as Pete. Even after Maggie found happiness in Pete, her parents still ruined this for her by saying her relationship was a disgrace to the family. I think the lack of attention Maggie received as a child also played a major role in her eventually becoming a prostitute. Since she was not able to form healthy relationships with her friends and family, she was forced to connect with people in a more undesirable way.
2) I believe the social and economic conditions Maggie grew up in actually had a greater impact on her downfall than even her family. Having been exposed to violence, drug abuse and horrible living conditions, Maggie did not have a safe haven or anyone to look to for hope. During this time period, it was even harder for families to get out of poverty so this too took away any hope Maggie had left. Without any hope, Maggie had no incentive to live what she knew as an honorable and would eventually lead to her letting go.
3) The character I have the most sympathy for is Maggie. I think a main reason for this is because I see my little sister in her and it hurts me that a young innocent girl has to live through something like this. Maggie’s naivety to the things going on around her makes me wish she had some sort of role model.
September 25, 2017 at 11:33 pm
Within Stephen Crane’s, Maggie: Girl of the Streets, Crane accounts on the events that happen in Maggie’s life and within her family, without giving his own personal opinion or perspective on things. Overall the story that is told is a very sad one; Maggie falls in love with a boy and abandons her family for the boy but eventually the boy, Pete, leaves her for another female and Maggie gets rejected by her family when attempting to go back home, resulting her to lead to prostitution as her only option and then the police find her body dead later on towards the end of the story. Within that entire retelling of Maggie’s life, there is a lot of violence, hatred, deceit, and alcoholism included as well. People question with whom Maggie’s fate lies in, but the honest answer is that you cannot pin Maggie’s fate exactly on one person or one certain event. Maggie grew up in the neighborhood of Bowery, New York, filled with violence, disgust, poverty, and sorrow. In a neighborhood like that, there is very little hope for great achievement and success, meaning that if Pete never appeared in her life, there is an extremely high possibility that there could have been another guy to appear in her life who could have screwed over Maggie and forgot about her and left for another woman. Society at the time was cold and barely cared about one another. Within Maggie’s entire life, her poor, dirty, alcoholic, disgusting family was all she knew as home. Living in social and economic conditions like these, it is very hard, almost close to impossible for someone to get past all this and end up with tons of riches and success. That is why Maggie’s background, her family, her socio-economic status played a huge role in the tragic ending of Maggie’s life. Greatness usually occurs when you surround yourself with greatness and success, but in Maggie’s case, she was surrounded by violence, lies, dishonesty, abuse, hatred, poverty, and many more terrible categories that are not beneficial for one but rather known to be extremely harmful. The character that I feel the most sympathy for would be Maggie. I feel the most sympathy for Maggie because she grew up in such terrible conditions; an overall unsafe and improper household but was considered to be the purest of the family and contains the most potential to succeed. She finds an interest in Pete and “falls in love with him,” a guy that plays off a high-class act that she believes is her one-way ticket out of the slums and goes through with it. By doing so, she abandoned her family, which leads to her getting stranded alone by Pete who left for another woman. Maggie attempts to go back home but is rejected and kicked out by her family, falls into prostitution, and then eventually is found dead in the streets. It just doesn’t getter sadder and more unlucky than that.
September 25, 2017 at 11:57 pm
1) There is no one individual on whom we can place blame for Maggie’s ultimate demise. She is as much a victim of circumstance as she is of the neglect of those around her. Pete’s exploitation of her vulnerability, her naivety, and hopefulness may make him seem like the villain, but his own tragic end shows that he was just as much a victim as she was. Perhaps the main difference between the two was that Pete had the capacity to change his circumstances in ways Maggie did not. Mary, Maggie’s mother is a clear villain in this story but it is only in combination with Jimmie’s actions or rather inaction that she truly has any power to impact Maggie’s life. Jimmie’s inability and unwillingness to sympathize with his sister gives way to Mary’s harshness. Mary and Pete may have beaten Maggie down, but it was Jimmie who dealt the ultimate blow. In some way’s Jimmie having been shaped by the same environment as Maggie was also a victim of his circumstances. But just like Pete, he had opportunity to alter his life. Unfortunately, his bitterness did not let him move passed his circumstance, and the person who suffered most from this was Maggie.
2) Maggie’s tragic end is heavily influenced by the conditions in which she lives. She is a woman, which makes her reliant on other men to provide for her in a time when woman rarely worked and wages were low. She also comes from poverty and lacks education or skill for labor. and This diminishes her chances at social mobility and means she was predisposed to her circumstances from birth. Most of what she went through was not uncommon for a woman of her socio-economic background.
3) I feel most sympathy for Maggie. She was above all of the other horrible things that happened in her life, from an unstable and abusive home life, to a manipulative and exploitative relationship, a victim of unfortunate circumstance. And admirably, despite her unlucky hand, she remained far more positive and hopeful than her brother for a longer time. It is only after she sees that she has little power to change her own life, that she gives in.
September 26, 2017 at 3:41 am
After reading the book, I believe that although one can argue for any side, Maggie’s parents are the ones most responsible for her fate. Both her parents were constantly spending their time drinking and completely neglecting their responsibility as parents to their children. They were abusive to their children and they showed no love for them. Children need their parents to help raise them until they reach adulthood. However, Maggie’s parents failed to nurture them because they were unfit to take on parenthood. Under these circumstances, it is not realistic to expect Maggie to grow up with a positive future. It started with terrible parenting and then it spiraled into a series of unfortunate events. To make things worse, Maggie’s social and economic conditions were terrible. Her life is struck with poverty and her parents didn’t try to make a difference. Because her parents ignored their responsibilities, it led to Maggie finding Pete as a sort of haven from her troubles at home. Even though Pete only made things worse in the end, Maggie had no realistic way of seeking a better future. She had hoped Pete would be her saving grace, not knowing that the opposite would become reality. All of these circumstances just led to Maggie’s demise. I feel the most sympathy for is Maggie because she was ultimately the one to endure all the tragedy. Her life started out in horrendous conditions and she was only trying to escape from it. Not knowing how bad things would turn out, Maggie kept facing devastation in her life, one painful event after another to the end.
September 26, 2017 at 5:49 am
1) Maggie’s death was the tragic result of various factors, all of which were the people around her who failed to play the roles they were intended to. To Maggie, Mary is only a mother in blood relations, given that she is both physically and psychologically abusive toward someone for whom she is supposed to have unconditional love. Her constant rejection of Maggie, particularly when she knows that the latter has returned home as a last resort, leaves Maggie with no choice but to fend for herself in the streets. Jimmie, with whom Maggie had a deeper connection, also had a hand in Maggie’s ultimate doom. They had endured the hostility and violence of their home together for all those years, and Jimmie made the conscious decision to turn her away when she looked to him for help. He must have still cared for Maggie throughout the story, as he had been furious at Pete for taking his sister’s virtue, but any residual love he had for his sister was greatly overshadowed by his anger. Pete’s role in Maggie’s death was on par with Mary’s, as he made himself out to be the perfect partner in Maggie’s eyes, stringing her along only to leave her at the sight of another woman and turning her away from his workplace when he knows that he is the reason she cannot return home.
2) The social and economic conditions of Maggie’s family were the fundamental driving force behind Maggie’s actions and, ultimately, her death. Perhaps the atrocious living and working conditions of the lower class during the industrial revolution had been the reason for Maggie’s parents’ constant anger as well as the subsequent death of her father and little brother. Coming from a poverty-stricken family, Pete was Maggie’s first taste of a better, more loving life. Maggie’s initial eagerness to leave her family behind and join Pete was largely due to the new beginning she foresaw with him. However, her infatuation prevented her from seeing his true nature until Nellie’s arrival and his subsequent departure.
3) I feel the most sympathy for Maggie because she had managed to retain her innocence throughout her life, even when she witnessed her parents engaging in self-destructive behavior, and she was abruptly forced to fend her herself when her family and supposed lover abandon her. Maggie’s naiveté and desperation for a better life served as the rose-tinted glasses she wore when viewing Pete; he could do no wrong in her eyes, even when it was clear to others that he only saw her as a trophy. Maggie had mistaken her infatuation with Pete for love, and she paid the price when virtually everyone she knew turned their backs on her. Left with no choice, Maggie resorted to prostitution to survive in the city, and the very method she used to continue living became the reason for her tragic death.
September 26, 2017 at 8:40 am
1) I believe that Crane is trying to indicate that Maggie’s fate lies within her upbringing on the streets, but more directly, her lack of a motherly figure within Mary. Children are easily moldable and influenced; they mimic the virtues and behaviors of those who they perceive as models- usually their parents. Maggie lacks a true figurehead to guide her out of her gloomy, inescapable fate due to her upbringing in the Bowery. Her mother Mary is the villainous, abusive character of the novel, and she treats her initially innocent daughter as an immense burden. Around the time when Maggie and Pete’s relationship is gaining traction, Mary expresses her disgust at her daughter, who appears to be a sinful disgrace in her eyes. Maggie’s vindictive mother tells her daughter “go teh hell an’ good riddance” as a way to project her hatred at her own life onto someone else (35). Maggie’s actions reflect that she succumbs to her mothers expectations by leaving with Pete; she solidifies her mother’s vision of her as an impure being when she is no longer a virgin, and then a prostitute before she abruptly dies. Mary, a spiteful woman who depicts the evils of the streets, is all Maggie has to help shape her future; thus, Maggie is doomed to a hopeless demise, one following exactly in her mother’s footsteps. A man of the streets in a hurry mistakes Maggie for her mother, reinforcing the idea that Maggie would eventually transform into the image of her mother, no matter how good and innocent she once was. Although Pete took Maggie’s virtue and ultimately dropped her as men do to girls of the street, his actions did not solidify her fate, for her future was inevitable from her conception and upbringing by Mary.
2) Social and economic conditions of Maggie’s environment in the Bowery are the driving forces that lead to her demise. The tenement life of the poor, life of girls ‘on the streets’, as well as abuse and addiction are all economic and social factors that work hand in hand in preventing Maggie from a stable future. Her economic condition, living in the slums, exposes her to people who steer her towards a future without education or morals to live by. She is vulnerable as a child and faces not only economic problems, but health concerns and poor housing as well which contributes to her degraded image of herself. She relies on validation from Pete, the one person she sees as her salvation from the corruption and poverty that she was raised in, and he betrays her like everyone else. It is no mystery that Maggie was not handed the cards of life that would ensure she lived a happy, successful life; she emerged in a sickening area where there were no expectations of her to amount to anything more than a prostitute. She lacks support or guidance from anyone, including god. When Maggie comes across a man who was not amongst the doomed slum dwellers, a man who portrayed “the grace of god,” even he is disgusted and unable to save her soul (60). Maggie’s neglect and image of parents is another social condition that plays in her tragic end, for she fades away without even a significant excerpt on how she dies. The manner of her death symbolizes that her surrounding environment would have led to her demise in some fashion, and that it was irrelevant to share the details of the event.
3) I feel the most sympathy towards Jimmie and Maggie; the image of the siblings “crouched until the ghost-mists of dawn appeared at the window” is a sight of pure fear and innocence (14). The two siblings were brought into a fair world with no chance to escape, as the image of them huddled, shaking exemplifies. Crane is not merely saying that the children fear their mother, but they fear their lives in Bowery, on the streets. The novel depicts the kids regressing into the unholy image of their parents. I sympathize with Maggie because she is simply a naïve girl mislead by the hope that she can flee from the sickening world which she is a part of with her lover Pete. Jimmie, on the other hand, is hardened by the violence that surrounds him; the first scene of the novel is the fighting scene at Devil’s Row, just as Jimmie was introduced to fighting from the moment of his first breath. Both characters die in a sense- Maggie’s demise is one that saves her from her hell on Earth whereas Jimmie loses all sense of emotion or passion for anything in life, because even religion provides no hope. I feel for both Jimmie and Maggie who would have both had vastly different lives if they were not raised on the streets.
September 26, 2017 at 8:58 am
1. Maggie was raised in a society filled with constant struggle and hardship. She grew up in a poor family who treated her ruthlessly. I believe that the reason for Maggie’s downfall was her family. Maggie matured in a household in which both of her parents were constantly fighting and drunk. Her mother, Mary was cruel and treated her children with much anger. Her brother, Jimmie, saw power in hostility. He fought with aggression and saw religion as a weakness. When Maggie couldn’t find the love she needed from her own family, Maggie sought love from Pete. In the end, Pete becomes the reason for her death.
2. Social and economic roles had a huge part in Maggie’s downfall. She grew up in poverty under harsh working conditions. Violence was common and the desire to rise out of poverty one day was ongoing. Her mother treated Maggie and her brother awfully. Maggie found the love she never obtained from her family through a guy named Pete, but he soon abandoned her for another girl. This led Maggie into prostitution. As the novel progressed, Maggie could be seen as crumbling from the once hopeful girl she used to be.
3. I sympathize most with Maggie mainly because everything she went through was caused by the people around her and she had no control over these circumstances. Maggie is the true meaning of everything bad in her community. She was once strong beautiful girl and then towards the end we see her breaking down into something else. Poverty and those living conditions really affected her life. She had to endure an abusive family and then she was abandoned by the one she trusted most in and was completely dependent on, Pete. Pete showed her the leisurely life and gave her hope that one day she may escape life in poverty. She was then abandoned by the man she abandoned her family for. All these unfortunate events happening to her make me sympathize with her. Maggie had no idea what was coming her way and her fate was not in her hands. She lived a life with no compassion and died a sad death.
September 26, 2017 at 9:32 am
1) A question that often haunts me is that what separates those children born into lavish households from those born into unstable financial circumstances. How does the higher power weigh those decisions of fate? In my opinion, the responsibility for Maggie’s dire fate lies within circumstance-circumstances that her environment forced upon her. While Pete seems like the immediate antagonist in the story, he is similar to Maggie in that he naively becomes entangled in the manipulative affairs of Nellie just as Maggie does in his. As Pete represents a glimmer of hope in Maggie’s tunnel, Nellie plays a parallel role in Pete’s life. Maggie’s family is downtrodden by the financial hardships that define their life and have turned their home into a “livin’ hell.” Her mother, father, and brother are all trying to cope with their unstable environment by drinking themselves into oblivion and reacting to situations rather aggressively since it allows them a feeling of control and power. Nellie, who can easily be seen as the villain in the lives of both Maggie and Pete has simply become cunning and manipulative as a means of survival in a rough environment. The main culprit for Maggie’s fate is the environment of Bowery and Lower East Side because it has targeted each and every character and brought out their worst versions possible. Maggie unfortunately faced a resolute end because she was at the wrong place at the wrong time.
2) Socioeconomic forces play a major role in Maggie’s tragic end in that they created her dire circumstances. If Maggie had been from a higher socioeconomic level, she would have been a well-educated individual who would have been able to stand up on her own feet when she was rejected by her family and Pete. She could have started her own business or been employed and became financially independent. However, because she didn’t have such qualifications she had to turn to the dark path of prostitution. Furthermore, her social environment was one of frivolous gossip and bogus support. While the old women took Maggie in in times of need, others just laughed at the scandal she had become and mocked her instead of providing actual monetary and emotional support in difficult times.
3) I feel the most sympathy for the characters representing Maggie’s mother and father in the short novel. Every parent wants the best for their child yet they have been pushed so over the edge by their financial circumstances that they completely abandoned their parental duties to their children. They have not been able to adequately provide for their children and never experienced the true happiness that a united family could bring. Instead, both the mother and father became drunkards that rarely expressed their love to their children and rather filled their lives with abuse. I truly believe that no matter how aloof the parents might seem from their family, a reason for their drinking is the fact that they have failed as parents. I unusually feel sympathy for these characters even though some people might view them as the culprits because I see that they aren’t necessarily bad people but rather their circumstances have brought out the worst in them.
September 26, 2017 at 10:05 am
1) Where does responsibility for Maggie’s fate lie? With Maggie herself? With Pete? With Maggie’s mother, father, or brother? Nellie? 2) What role do social and economic conditions play in Maggie’s tragic end? 3) Which of the characters to you feel the most sympathy for? Why?
Maggie’s fate can be sourced to literally anyone in the novel. Her father’s lack of ability to provide for his family has been detrimental, as it is seen in Tommie (who likely died due to malnutrition or lack of care). But while her father’s absence lead Maggie to become independent, her mother certainly gave her enough psychological trauma to last several lifetimes. The fact that the mother was a constant radiance of volatility and utter brutality has likely destroyed any shred of confidence Maggie had in herself. This is why Maggie was so dependent on Pete, as her mother had destroyed her ability to function as a human because she honestly was never seen as a human. On this note, it an be considered, “was Pete the bad guy”? But as the novel concludes, we see Pete being scammed by Nellie, the gal whom he left Maggie for. His wealth and youth are obviously seen wasted as he flaunts his attributes to several different girls in the bar. Pete was never brutal to Maggie, he treated her like he would treat any other girl. Maggie simply misunderstood this as a token of sincere love, and was gravely mistaken. In the end, it could be said that all of the characters took a part in Maggie’s death as every person had a role in breaking down some aspect of Maggie.
Social and economic conditions for Maggie although rarely talked about, is the biggest reason why Maggie, and all of her family are in this mess. While the father is rarely discussed, it is evident that he like any other member of the family was experiencing significant amounts of stress (that obviously wasn’t being relieved at home). But it wasn’t only the economic conditions that caused Maggie’s family to become so disgustingly toxic, it was also social culture. The presence of alcohol is indirectly and directly present in nearly every page of the novel, and this can be assumed that it was simply the culture of drinking in the working and lower classes of New York City. Rarely is the mother seen sober, and we see many conflicts arise from the consumption of alcohol. Certainly if the social environment was a bit less alcoholic, this family certainly wouldn’t have been the way it was, and Maggie likely could have seeked asylum or a home in her family.
While the death of Maggie is sad and the novel seems to be pushing its readers to sympathize with her, I honestly feel bad for Jimmie. The novel basically portrays two versions of Jimmie, in which there is a time jump and they basically represent ‘extremes’. Jimmie had always lived in the absence of love. His consistent fighting during childhood was likely due to lack of parenting as well as a desire for recognition. The fact that he and Maggie were damned since birth by their own mother, he has certainly been raised (not even) in a loveless world. We see this as the time jump occurs and he becomes a young man. Rather, he becomes a younger version of his father and mother. And while the novel comments from time to time of his lustful acts or him following his mother and ostracizing his sister Maggie, there are bouts of moments where Jimmie sheds emotions of empathy. Although he quickly hides such emotions and his ‘softer side’, it makes me think that his family, his childhood, and this society has forced him to become some idealized image of a “man” which basically means he had to be bashful and rough (no different from how Pete really is too).
September 26, 2017 at 10:59 am
I don’t think Maggie’s fate is the responsibility of only just one person. Maggie first went with Pete happily because she was raised in a family where both her father and mother were abusive drunks and where her brother would be in fights all the time. She is the most passive and shy character out of her entire family. Because of that when she had the opportunity to experience something new that made her happy and gave her the impression of a better future why wouldn’t she take it. She thought of Pete as almost higher class with his suits and the shoes he would bring her to and so she chose a life with him rather than to be yelled at (or worse) by her mother every day. I think that the responsibility for her fate is shared by herself, her mother, Nellie, and Pete. Maggie is eventually abandoned by Pete for Nellie which without this happening her life could’ve ended differently. What Nellie did to Pete was what Pete did to Maggie and so in a way was both the beginning of Maggie’s downfall and also Maggie’s revenge on Pete because he was betrayed just like she was. since she chose Pete over her family, her mother didn’t want her “ruined daughter” back in her house which had impacted the events that led to Maggie’s death.
Maggie lived in a tenement with her brother and mother and because of that Pete and his “wealth” was even more appealing than just an escape from a cruel household. Then when Pete leaves Maggie without being able to return to her family it is assumed that Maggie becomes a prostitute and is found dead not long after.
I think the character I have the most sympathetic for would be Maggie because although she stands up for herself by choosing Pete over her abusive family, she stood up for herself with the wrong reasons. Instead of taking a leap and knowing that your family would resent you for taking it I think that Maggie should’ve talked to her mother and brother about how she feels. I have sympathy for her because in her own misguided way she thought she was doing what was best for by choosing Pete, but because of that when Pete leaves her she is shunned from her family and can’t return. Because of this she becomes a prostitute in order to survive and is actually found dead as a result. She made a mistake and wasn’t able to go back to a supportive family after which if she could’ve had then maybe her fate would’ve changed
September 26, 2017 at 2:20 pm
1) To think that the responsibility of Maggie’s fate lies in any one person is wholly erroneous. There are always multiple factors and relationships that tie into a story and nowhere is this truer than in this story. Maggie is a product of the violence present in her upbringing and her childhood. She is a product of her relationship with her parents and with her brother. She is a product of the circumstances that made her family the way it is, of the urchins and the alcoholism. She is a product of her own responses to these circumstances. The greatest responsibility possibly lies at the hands of her mother. However, I’d go so far as to claim that Mary is as much a victim of social circumstances as Maggie was. It is possible she also has a sob story behind her own sins that was similar to Maggie’s. We don’t know if she was ever an innocent little child, like Maggie was at the beginning. Though biology and societal situations are not fate, it is hard to put the blame on any one person when one considers all the different factors that make a person do what they do.
2) Socioeconomic factors play a huge role in Maggie’s story. The proclivity to violence and alcoholism in many of the characters present in the story show a propensity to sin and a lack of averseness to immoral acts and an unethical life. There is a lack of education that is shown through the affectation in people’s voices as they speak in the book and by the way Jimmie lived as a kid fight to fight instead of school day to school day. Despite this lack of morality, everyone around Maggie is ready to judge her and this eventually plays some part in her downfall.
3) The character I felt the most sympathy for was actually the father of Maggie and Jimmie. Had he lived, I think it would be an entirely different story. He isn’t exactly portrayed as the most compassionate person on earth but he does care for Jimmie when he’s beaten by Mary. He tries to defend his children from their mother. Considering how important he is, it’s surprising how little anyone talks about his death. There is no cause of death given or even a timeframe to imagine whether Maggie and Jimmie are already grown when he dies or not. Father figures essentially build a family and his loss is what truly brings the family and Maggie to ruin.
September 27, 2017 at 1:01 am
1) I think placing the blame for Maggie’s tragic condition on any one person or event would be a gross oversimplification of her story. By looking at all of the characters in the story, one can find ways in which each of them contributed to her spiraling downward, in a way. Although he dies early in the novel, Maggie’s father is an alcoholic, who is hurtful to his children, even to the point of stealing from them, has no interest in providing for his family and giving his children a chance of a better life, and seeks ways to escape his problematic household. He makes no attempt to allow Maggie and her siblings to have opportunities he and his wife didn’t have. Maggie’s mother, Mary, is condemned by her community as a raging, destructive alcoholic. She shows no love to Maggie, and kicks her out of her home after learning about her affair with Pete. Although she forces her uneducated, untrained daughter to fend for herself, she is furious and critical when Maggie turns to prostitution. Maggie’s brother, Jimmy, grows up to be violent and immoral. Although he himself seduces women, he shows no sympathy to Maggie after Pete leaves her, and I imagine his criminal nature had a negative influence on Maggie’s faith in humanity and hopes of rising above her upbringing. It may seem obvious to blame Pete for seducing and abandoning Maggie. While it is impossible to deny that this was immoral of him, considering that Maggie was in a distraught state of extreme poverty before she met him, he can be blamed for breaking her heart, but not for her lack of social mobility. Lastly, although it may seem that Maggie remains only a victim in this story, it cannot be denied that she attempted to rely on a love affair to be her path out of poverty. Although she had no formal education, it could have been possible for her to work as a seamstress or as a maid.
2) Maggie’s dismal life and tragic end illustrate the extent to which the lives of the urban poor at the time were extremely difficult. Life in filthy, cramped tenements teeming with bacteria facilitated the spread of diseases and high infant mortality. Factories paid incredibly low wages, so people turned to crime and prostitution out of extreme poverty, turning against their friends and neighbours and destroying social bonds of friendship and community. Many children worked from a young age, and thus had no access to education. Those children who didn’t work were left to wander the streets alone. A complete lack of social mobility led many people to lose hope of a better life for themselves, and often for their children as well. One aspect of the story I found interesting is that Maggie is not overly personalized, allowing her, like many of the other characters in the book, to be representative of an archetype of a girl in poverty, allowing the novel to make a social statement as opposed to simply following a storyline.
3) Of all the characters in the story, I feel the most pity for Maggie, as she is by far the most sympathetic character in the novel. However, my sympathy is directed more toward the archetype that Maggie is representative of- the girls growing up in urban poverty in the Gilded age. While Maggie’s tale is tragic, not every downturn in her life is inevitable- she doesn’t seem to make an attempt to get trained for atleast some sort of slightly more respectable job, and she naively expects a seductive rich man to allow her to escape her conditions. However, for millions of children growing up in an environment like hers, hope of escaping poverty never even came. They lived their entire lives working long hours and returning home to filthy, tiny tenements, having no chance of improving their fate in a so-called Gilded Age.