Steven Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets :: Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets

Maggie A Girl Of The StreetsMaggie and Jimmie are two siblings being raised within the slums of New York City in the Stephen Crane novel Maggie A Girl of the Streets. The parents of these two are constantly matching as disconnected furniture and fistfights are an everyday occurance in the decrepid family apartment. The mother and father fight while their children hide frightened as There was a clang against the door and something broke into clattering fragments .... (Jimmie) heard howls and curses, groans and shrieks, confusingly in chorus as if a battle were raging (11). Crane exxagerates the furniture destruction as every night when the two parents battle, seemingly all the furniture in the apartment is destroyed. Obviously, this poor family couldnt afford to fix and/or buy sunrise(prenominal) furniture everyday. This then is the environment that Maggie and Jimmie struggle with throughout the novel, but twain respond to in opposite ways. Maggie dreams of a better life than of her grow while Jimmie excepts his roots and becomes nihilistic. However, the hope of Maggie sadly goes unfulfilled.Maggie is introduced into the storyline quite cunning and quickly becomes the main focus of attention by the other troika main characters. From the beginning, Maggie is a harsh bloodline to the slum environment she has to endure. She blossomed in a mud puddle ... a most rare and rattling(prenominal) production of a tenement district, a pretty girl (16) that non only had the physical beauty that her family seemed to lack, but also the hope that she could be better than what was around in her environment. Therefore, the slum environment that surrounds her contrasts her character greatly. none of the smirch of Rum Alley was in her veins (16) as she became the talk of many males in the neighborhood.Pete an acquaintance of Jimmie, became Maggies infatuation. They meet when Pete is called to the Johnson apartment by Jimmie after Pete promised to service a boxing mat ch with him. Although only a bartender, Maggie finds Pete as a man of personal superiority (17) that is capable of providing her with any dream she desires. She views the contrast between Pete and her environment when The broken furniture, grimy walls, and general disorder and dirt of her home all of a sudden appeared before her and began to take a potential aspect. Petes aristocratic person looked as if it might soil.