Elements of Maggie (the First Two Chapters)

Elements of Maggie (the first two chapters)

Stephen Crane’s first novel Maggie (girl of the streets) is a tale of uncompromising realism. The story chronicles the titular Maggie, a girl who lives in the Bowery with her emotionally abusive parents and brothers Jimmie and Tommy. The novel revolves around the trials and tribulations of Maggie and her family in the Bowery. Highlights of the story include the death of Maggie’s father and brother Tommie which drive Pete to turn into a cold and hard person by novels end. Maggie desperately tries to escape bowery life, but in the end Maggie succumbs to the Bowery and dies a broken woman. Crane is considered a Naturalist, and in Crane’s naturalist world no one escapes their biological chains. Maggie’s parents are both unfit parents: they are emotionally and physically abusive, and have alcoholic tendencies. Despite Maggie’s and (to a lesser extent) Jimmie’s longings to escape the bleak world of the bowery they do not. Crane is making a statement on the adverse effects of industrialization and urbanization with the novel. Industrialization and urbanization on the surface create jobs and strengthen business, but upon further examination it disenfranchises the very people it promises to help. Many of the families in the bowery are immigrant families who become wage slaves. Maggie’s family is no different; because of their dependency on big business they have become disenfranchised and incapable of growth. This idea of being set into a world where there is no escape from one's biological heredity that Crane showcases the in the novel is mirrors Darwin’s survival of the fittest theory. According to Darwin only the biologically strong would survive in the world, with the weaker specimens expiring. In Crane’s novel the people are not inherently weak; it is the environment that shapes them and prevents them from growing. Ultimately, all of the characters in Maggie are victims of the Bowery life.

Crane utilizes a unique writing style in the novel, specifically in the way he structures the chapters. Each chapter contains strong imagery which Crane strengthens through repetition and (at times) a unique parallel structure. A prime example is the opening chapter in which Pete saves Jimmie from a fight with the local children of Devil’s Row. The chapter opens with an already battered Jimmie who stands defiantly in lieu of the other children retreating stating “dese micks can’t make me run” (752). Jimmie uses the derogatory “mick” in order to refer to the Irish ancestry of his adversaries. Through Jimmie’s initial description Crane reinforces the environment of the bowery while also bringing to light the subtle self hate of the immigrants in the Bowery. The chapter continues with the savage fight, in which Jimmie is hit with a stone that viciously bloodies his mouth. The scrap comes to an end when Pete (by chance) shows up and the kids start to retreat. The fighting is not over however as Jimmie questions why his allies began to retreat when the scrap escalated. Jimmie’s questioning leads to Jimmie starting a fight with Billy, which is ended when one of the other boys notices Jimmie’s father on the horizon. One of the key themes of the first chapter is the use of violence. In the bowery the majority of disagreements are only solved through fighting and violence. When Jimmie is confronted by his father at the end of the chapter and told to stop fighting Jimmie disobeys which prompts his father to kick him and order him home. The hypocritical actions of Jimmie’s father are especially glaring; in order to stop violence Jimmie’s father enacts violence (the kick) and only through violence is he obeyed. What does this cycle of violence show Jimmie? It teaches that only through violence are things in the Bowery solved. Jimmie is already falling victim to his hereditary, finding reason in his fists.

The Bowery forces children to grow up fast and Crane’s characterization of Pete in the first chapter is an excellent example. From the middle of chapter one: “Down the avenue came boastfully sauntering a lad of sixteen years, although the chronic sneer of an ideal manhood already sat upon his lips. His hat was tipped over his eye with an air of challenge. Between his teeth, a cigar stump was tilted at the angle of defiance. He walked with a certain swing of the shoulders which appalled the timid” (753). Pete is only sixteen years old but already has the air of manhood about him. Pete serves as a catalyst for many actions in the novel. For example he saves Jimmie from a fight, and later in the novel he becomes a somewhat suitor for Maggie which spurs her into a downward spiral. Pete is the only character in the novel that goes unaffected, that is he is the same at the beginning as he is in the