Thoreau/Crane Compare and Contrast Essay

Walden: Economy and Maggie: Girl of the Streets

Sophia White
CAP Honors English 9 Simel RED Group December 18, 2013

Stephen Crane, author of Maggie: Girl of the Streets, and Henry David Thoreau author of Walden: Economy share similar views on philanthropy but differ in their views on self-reliance and fate versus choice in determining lifes path. Maggie: Girl of the Streets is a novella that tells the story of the main character Maggies brutal life growing up in the New York City tenements in the late 1800s. The story reveals some of the harsh but true concepts of this time and focuses on aspects of realism such as the idea that there are no happy endings in real life . Maggie is mistreated, eventually resorts to prostitution, and is later found dead. Walden: Economy is a first-person written narrative that recounts author Thoreaus non-materialistic social experiment that is in the spirit of true transcendentalism. Thoreau moves to Walden Pond and starts to build a new life based on his value of simplicity. To a reader, at first it may seem as though the two authors writing pieces are unrelated, but through an alysis and consideration of detail, similarities can be found as well as contrasting themes in the two works.

Crane and Thoreau both believe philanthropy is a noble idea in theory, but that it does not translate effectively in practice. Thoreau sees philanthropy as greatly overrated, and thinks that it is our selfishness which overrates it (63). Thoreau doesnt personally engage in philanthropy because the practice is often misinterpreted between the philanthropists and the poor, who have preferred to remain poor in his experience (60). Thoreau also says that there is no odor so bad as that which arises from goodness tainted (61). To him, philanthropy is idealistic but it can easily be corrupted in practice. Stephen Cranes perspective on philanthropy is similar. In Maggie: Girl of the Streets there are almost no characters who promote the

welfare of others, and Cranes belief that philanthropy is ineffective is supported by this theme in the novel. Maggies family is especially abusive and shows an almost inhumane attitude toward her. Maggies mother, Mary, and her brother, Jimmie, describe Maggie as having gone teh deh devil and they reject her after she has relations with Pete (67). Pete also abandons Maggie while on a date and Crane describes this by saying that the doors swung behind them, leaving Maggie and the mere boy seated at the table (80). All the significant characters in Maggies life are uncompassionate and self-absorbed to an extent that portrays the ineffectiveness of philanthropy in Cranes mind.

Despite their agreements on philanthropy, Stephen Crane and Henry David Thoreau differ in their views on self-reliance. Crane supports the idea of community, whereas Thoreau believes that self-reliance is essential. Right after character Jimmy is abused by his parents and his mother *Grasps+ the urchin by the neck and shoulder and [shakes] him until he *rattles+, an old woman in the building is kind to him by offering him a place to stay after being rejected (40). The old woman was a gnarled and leathery personage who could don, at will, an expression of great virtue (43). The caring gesture the old woman makes toward Jimmy is a significant symbol of community and stresses the importance of it in Cranes mind, especially because Jimmy has no one else who really cares for him.

Conflicting with Cranes attitude toward the importance of community, Thoreau is a true supporter of self-reliance. Thoreau isolates himself and does everything for himself during his stay at Walden Pond; he even builds his own house and obtains his own necessities. He

believes that no one should rely on others experiences to establish the way they live. He would have each one be very careful to find out and pursue his own way and he also talks about how one should not rely on his/her seniors for advice and learn from his/her own experiences instead (59). He does not personally take advice from his seniors because they have yet to present advice to him that is valuable or even earnest (12). He has a similar view on education as well in the sense that students should experience whatever subject they are learning in order to fully know it. In Thoreaus mind, the true value of an education is gained through experience.

The two authors also disagree when it comes to whether fate or choice determines ones life path. Thoreau believes that one has choices that determine ones life outcome. In his opinion, if ones life is not how he/she wants it to be, then the solution is to work to change it. One example of this is his perspective on labor, in that working men are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously coarse labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them (9). Thoreau does not approve of people getting so caught up in these coarse labors that they are not able to appreciate the sincere, important things in life, so he supports the working class changing their busy living and working patterns to a more simplistic way of life. People living under the busy circumstances of work life have the ability to turn their lifestyles around, regardless of where they come from as a person or what kind of state their life is in at a given time.

Crane, on the other hand, believes that there is not much one can do to change his/her fate. Maggie is born into an abusive family and lives under poor conditions, and she dies as a prostitute. Although Maggie blossomed in a mud puddle and grew to be a most rare and wonderful production of a tenement district, her physical appearance does not change the result of her rejection by her family and community members (49). None of the other characters lives improve from their original state either, and this demonstrates Cranes view of the harsh reality that fate determines ones life path. In the beginning of the story, Maggies family members are not any better off economically or socially than she, and they have negative qualities that dont foreshadow improvement of their lives. Pete is seen by Maggie as a beau ideal of a man, but he lives under merely less poor conditions as Maggies family and his lifestyle does not improve, as he is seen in the end of the story drunk and having been fooled easily by other prostitutes (52).

While authors of Maggie: Girl of the Streets and Walden: Economy have similar perspectives on the topic of philanthropy, they have different views concerning self-reliance and fate versus choice. Both of the authors outlooks on life can be construed through thei r writing.

Works Cited Crane, Stephen. Girl of the Streets. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1893. Print. Thoreau, Henry David. Economy. Boston: Ticknor and Fields, 1854. Print.