4-Maggie

By Stephen Crane
Born in Newark, New Jersey the fourteenth child of parents who were Methodist revivalists He died when he was only 29, but he had time to publish five novels, two volumes of poetry and over three hundred sketches, reports and short stories. He got literary fame as a consequence of the publication of The Red Badge of Courage in 1895 (the Civil War and its consequences). He died of tuberculosis only five years later. He gained the rank of captain in a military academy and also worked as a journalist. The publications in 1893 of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, a powerful portrayal of a blighted, poverty-stricken lives of Irish immigrants in New Yorks Bowery, brought him the friendship of two of the leading figures of the American Literary realism: Hamlim Garland and William Dean Howels Cranes interest in environmental determinism links him to late-nineteenth century writers such as Frank Norris, Jack London and Theodore Dreiser. He writes about ordinary people who live in a universe of vast and indifferent natural forces. There is no God here. Cranes work reflects many of the major artistic concerns at the end of the nineteenth century, especially naturalism, impressionism and symbolism. Shocking the reader with new and often disturbing ideas (the Christians were all the time criticising the other and their faults instated of providing solutions to the problems) and perceptions is his aim. His compression in the selection of facts and character definition, together with his imagery and concern for colour have led many critics to see in his writings a literary parallel with impressionistic painting. His discontinuous rendering of action has also been identified as impressionist. (There are many jumps in the novella) Crane had both a popular audience and a cultivated, literary one.

Important for Maggie:

-Inaugural vision of narrative in American fiction . -Banal story is given heroic stature without falsification (there is a very simple common type of story but the author gives it a lot of importance to that common element, the common life of common people) -Deceit and irresponsibility of men towards women is a constant element in this text: Maggie stays in the shadow in the novella despite she is the protagonist. This is made on purpose because the author wants to emphasis the power of men and their responsibility; they are responsible for the problems and the poor women conditions. Women were unable to take any decisions without mens permission. Maggies romantic inability to see the world (she is unable to adapt to the society, and that the reason she dies at the end of the story) -Use of understatement and irony: important elements are not taken into consideration, are just mentioned (the death of the baby and the death of the father). -Naturalism: recreational spaces do not provide relief for the characters: the violence created

-Literary expressionism and its application to the story: this is related to symbolism

Close reading:
There is a very strong contrast in language register through the novella. Chapter 1: From the same chapter we can see the big contrast in the language register: the vernacular language and the standard one. We have the vernacular language spoken by the Irish people. We find some irony too: there is no reason to fight other kids. Vernacular language: Run, Jimmie, run! Deyll get yehs The use of different registers is intentional. The narrator presents the life of common people, who have a different culture and moral. They are Irish immigrants who live a poor and hard life. This is the elements of naturalism which shocks the reader. By this naturalism the author tries to shock the readers in order to make them react and take measures. In the novella we find very descriptive and short chapters, because the aim of the author is to describe and to present the vernacular language and the way poor people live. The author doesnt concentrate upon a character, or a few characters. He wants to show the whole community so he tries to picture the whole community of poor immigrants. Chapter 2: We have the description of the family members and the family environment. We dont know their job but we get to know that they spend all their money in drinks. The mother is described as a very masculine figure, she is strong and she evens defeats her husband. We dont have many names in the story because the author tries to present the whole community. That can be a bit confused, but it is a strategy of presenting a large picture of the whole community. Chapter 3: The mother and the father have a fight, and the father decides to leave home. Chapter 4: In this chapter we find more information about Jimmie. The babe, Tommie, died: we have only short information and only a short reference to such an important fact. This is very typical of naturalism writers: use of understatement (page 10 - first paragraph The readers expect more information about this issue because it is a tragic event, but the author doesnt provide this information in purpose: understatement We have many gaps in the novella, jumps in time, because we have fragmented information. The story jumps from one thing to another, without giving us all the information about the development of the characters. He clad his soul in armor by means..for soup-tickets (chapter3 page 10)

Poor people were given food by the church but before that they have to listen to a sermon. Prices try to tell these people and to teach them the Lord moral. There is a criticism to the church, because they use the sermon to persuade them, but they should feed them first and help them. We learn about Jimmies behavior and how he became to be. He maintained a belligerent attitude toward all well-dressed men. To him fine raiment was allied to weakness, and all goods coats covered faint heartsto be either killed or laughed at He has not respect for the up classes. He drives his truck very violently, confronting the police He is very violent but that is a way of surviving in that environment. The author doesnt provide any deep description of the characters because he is not interested in. He is interested in criticizing the showing certain aspect of the society: he blames the upper classes and the Christian churches for not acting and for not taking solutions to improve the immigrants life and their poor conditions of living. Chapter 5: In this chapter we have more information of Maggie. The girl Maggie, blossomed in a mud paddle: she is compared with a flower which blossomed in a mud puddle. He is using ironic by calling the people of the community philosophers. They think they know a lot about life but in fact they know nothing. Difference between Pete and Maggie: Pete has the opportunity to improve his life just by being a man. Women have not that opportunity. Maggie is unable to adapt to the environment when she lives. This lack of adaptation is not due to her incapacity to work but for having romantic ideas about men. She is incapable to see reality. She has romantic ideas which unable her to see reality. This is contextualized to her relationship with Pete (page 14 last paragraph). Maggie perceived that here was he beau ideal of a man.her dream-gardens there had always walked a lover Chapter 6: Here we have more information about Pete. He is always laughing about his ability to fight other men, and how strong he is (page 14). The author is using irony while describing Pete; he is compared to a knight in a very ironic way. Here was a formidable man who disdained the strengthhe was a knight. Here we find also the criticism to men, who have the power and to nothing to protect women. The author put the blame on Pete and Jimmie for Maggie situation and tragic end. The mother is also responsible. The mother is very hypocritical and she uses Maggie to gain respect from his community. She put the blame on Maggie. Chapter 7: Pete and Maggie go out together. Chapter 8: She contrasts her beauty with the lack of beauty of the other women of the factory. She starts taking into account how worth her beauty is, and how that is going to give her a better life; a better life with Pete (Page 18) She wondered as she regarded..as valuable

When Maggie is taken to the theatre to see a romantic play, her romantic ideas and feelings are reinforced (page 19) evening during the week....from villains The melodrama reinforced her romantic view of the world. This melodrama is criticised by the author because it gives the readers a false impression of the reality: the goods at the end are always praised and the bad people always punished. But in this story we can see that this thing doesnt happen. At the end the good ones die. It is the contrary to the melodrama ideas. Chapter 9: The mother convinces Jimmie that Maggie has disgraced their family reputation. When Maggie returns home her mother gets her out of house (page22). Chapter10: Here we have the voice of one philosopher telling Jimmy what has happened with his sister.

Chapter 11: He decided to go and fight with Pete in order to bring back the family reputation. Petes bar is destroyed and they are taken by the police. Chapter 12: We are taken to a new area. Maggie and Pete are into a bar, and Pete feels very superior to Maggie. Maggie sees prostitute around and at the same time she feels men look at her, because she of her beauty. Maggie doesnt know that this will be her future, to be a prostitute. From chapter 13 to the end: Pete meets another woman and he decides to get together with her again and he decides to leave Maggie. Maggie is alone because she gets denied by her family, Pete and society. The only option is to become prostitute. Pete is punished too, because he becomes a drunk a fool man. In the last chapter we have her mother crying about the death of her daughter and she forgives for her sins: irony