Maggie Case Study

Industrialization during the turn of the twentieth century brought a plethora of wealth and prosperity to the American economy. Companies were created that may have never existed and in turn, highly desirable job markets attracted not only American people nationwide, but individuals from around the world. These foreign individuals saw a chance at opportunity, a hope of a better life and sprouting wealth. Immigrants flocked the eastern seaboard, particularly through Ellis Island in New York and carried with them belief in the American dream. The realities of what these immigrants endured, were less than desirable living conditions and if they were lucky to find work, measly low paying wages. In the novella titled, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, the protagonist, Maggie, was born into an abysmal, abusive family. We will look at how Maggie characterized the epitome of immigrant life and how her naivety was created by her abusive family and formed the self-doubt that she could never achieve anything more. Lower social class Americans and immigrants during the Industrial Revolution were products of their environment and the result of the government’s perpetuating cycle of greed to increase their own power and wealth.

The majority of prosperity in America is contained among the wealthy that thrive on making sure the social classes remain in tact. Maggie was a significant portrayal of how these social classes live on a daily basis. Maggie’s father and mother, Mr. Johnson and Mary, respectively, were alcoholic and abusive. They both were brought up in the streets and in turn, created the same dysfunctional family dynamic with their children; Maggie, Jimmie and Tommy. Stephen Crane, the author, takes delicate care in detailing the slums of the Bowery neighborhood in New York’s lower East Side, where the family resided. The detailed description is a representation

that Maggie’s future was already predestined to be filled with hardships and eventually a life of prostitution and eventually death. She followed in the footsteps of her mother (she did not die however) and although Maggie always dreamed of a better life, which she sought out through Pete, he eventually left her for a pompous, money-hungry woman named Nellie. Maggie’s life was a product of her environment and her fate was sealed the very minute she was born.