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... as Jimmie stands to fight for the honor of Run Alley, which is simply a heap of gravel which he prides himself in (Pizer 5850). His defiance to defend something so insignificant is not only ironic, but humorous as well. He is almost beaten to death, but none the less remains defiant in his honor of defending Rum Alley. Chester Walford notes of Cranes technique, its greatness lies in the irony of this harsh environment, no ones quest is fulfilled, and no one learns anything: the novel swings from chaos on the one side to complete illusion on the other.
The end of the novel brings along with it, the end of Maggie herself. In the final chapter Maggie meets her ultimate fate. Edwin Moses says of Maggie's conclusion, It is one of the most harrowing ironic endings in all of fiction (433). After being disowned by her mother for leaving her home to live with Peter, Maggie is disowned by Peter as well.
In the end she is left for a more beautiful woman with more beautiful clothing and more money. When Maggie tries to return home to her mother, she is cast away and turns to prostitution as a way of life. She eventually dies alone and abandoned on the streets of New York. After hearing news of her daughters death, Maggie's uncaring, un compassionate, heartless, drunkard mother cries out in agony, Oh, yes, Ill forgive her! Ill forgive her! (Crane, 61). With this, the novel is ended and one is left with a unsatisfying feeling of overwhelming sadness.
Pizer states that Cranes purpose behind it all, was not to show the effects of environment but to distinguish between moral appearance and reality, to attack the sanctimonious self-deception and sentimental emotional gratification of moral poses (5850). Crane could have most probably used any technique to reveal the truths and realities to his audience. His use of dialect and irony are only a few, but perhaps his most effective as well as his most powerful technique lies in his use of realism. Robert Cantwell claims, Crane wanted to picture the truth unsparingly, as he saw it, in terms as violent as the life was violent, not for the purpose of starting a crusade, but because he believed that an art which glossed over or ignored so much of the American scene was narrow at best. We are most successful in art when we approach nearest to nature and truth, he said (141 - 142).
Cranes brutal descriptions of life and harsh portrayals of the slums are what give his work a unique twist in comparison to other American literary works of the time: The curtain at the window had been pulled by a heavy hand and hung by one tack, dangling to and fro in the draft through the cracks at the sash. The knots of blue ribbon appeared like violated flowers. The fire in the stove had gone out. The displaced lids and open doors showed heaps of sullen grey ashes. The remnants of a meal, ghastly, like dead flesh, lay in a corner. Maggie's red mother, stretched on the floor, blasphemed and gave her daughter a bad name (Crane, 21 - 22).
In this scene Crane paints his depressing, gloomy yet utterly real setting and is able to convey his thoughts and views of his experiences. This technique is often repeated and occurs often in his writings. Crane is credited and recognized for having the ability to do this so well. Both realism and symbolism, the two major directions of modern fiction, have their beginnings in Cranes work (Peden, 150). The caliber of Maggie's reality was too graphic for many people of the time to handle and was therefore looked down upon by many. Upon first being published Maggie was not released due to its graphic nature.
Crane later made some minor adjustments and sent it back to the publisher for publication. He was once again denied due to its contents. So rather than having to adjust it once again, Crane borrowed money from his brother and had it privately published at his own expense under the pseudonym Johnston Smith. Maggie was highly criticized and quite unpopular. It was not until after the publication of his masterpiece The Red Badge of Courage, that Crane became well known. Maggie, although not the most well known piece of writing done by Crane, was perhaps his best realistic writing.
Many criticized his style of writing but it eventually gained support as well as popularity. Credit is given to Cranes, uncompromising realism which lead to many others, such as Frank Norris and Theodore Dreiser, to follow in his footsteps (Peden, 150). Martin Seymour-Smith points out, Regardless of whether naturalism is a true philosophy or not, Crane gave an unforgettable account of one poor creature whose life was quickly snuffed out by her environment (38). In Maggie, the only way out of the harsh realities was her illusions and fantasies, much like it is today in many peoples lives. They feel trapped in a world in which it is difficult to move forward and almost equally as hard to move on. In many ways it is in this manner and thought of mind that Stephen Crane created Maggie with his unique use of dialect, irony and perhaps most of all realism.
Cranes use of them created Maggie and in Maggie lies his little masterpiece. Perhaps not his most well-known or popular piece, but undoubtedly a piece of writing whose impact has not gone unnoticed. It can be credited to the success and evolution of a whole new style of writing that began a new chapter of American literature. Not only is Maggie the tragic story of the destruction of a young girls life, but rather a story of truth. A truth that lies in the lives of many, but remains unnoticed and unheard by those whose lives remain clean and untouched from its corruption. Bibliography: Parra 9 Works Cited Berryman, John.
Stephen Crane: A Critical Biography. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1970. Cantwell, Robert. Stephen Crane. Famous American Men of Letters. New York: Dodd, Mead and Company, 1956. 135 - 145.
Cover, James B. Stephen Crane. American Realists and Naturalists. Ed. Donald Pizer. Detroit: Gale, 1982. 100 - 24.
Vol. 12 of Dictionary of Literary Biography. Crane, Stephen. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Other Short Fiction. New York: Bantam Books, 1986. Garland, Hamlin. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets.
The Arena June 1893. Rpt. in Twentieth Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Dennis Poupard. Vol. 11.
Detroit: Gale, 1983. 121. Karen, Amo. The Craft of Stephen Crane. Georgia Review Fall 1974: pp 470 - 84. Rpt.
in The Chelsea House Library of Literary Criticism. Moses, Edwin. Stephen Crane. Magill's Survey of American Literature. Ed. Frank N.
Magill. Vol. 2. New York: Marshall Cavendish Corp. , 1991. 427 - 41. Peden, William. Stephen Crane. Encyclopedia Americana. 1998 ed.
Pizer, Donald. Stephen Cranes Maggie and American Naturalism. Criticism Spring 1965: 168 - 75. Rpt. in The Chelsea House Library of Literary Criticism. Ed.
Harold Bloom. Vol. 10 New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989. 5858 - 53. Parra 10 Quinn, Arthur Hobson. The Journalists. American Fiction: An Historical and Critical Survey. New York: Appleton Century-Crofts, Inc. , 1936. 521 - 49.
Seymour-Smith, Martin. Stephen Crane. Funk and Wagnalls Guide to Modern Literature. New York: Funk and Wagnalls, 1973. 37 - 40. Walford, Chester L. Stephen Crane.
Critical Survey of Long Fiction. Ed. Frank N. Magill.
Vol. 2. New Jersey: Salem Press, 1983. 638 - 47.
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