Hypocrisy In Stephen Crane's Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets

Moral Hypocrisy is Affected by Everyone
In the novella Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, the author Stephen Crane portrays hypocrisy throughout the story. The protagonist in the book is a young woman, Maggie Johnson, who has many responsibilities and is forced to make many difficult decisions. The story takes place in an urban city in the slums of New York, the Bowery. During the 1890s many people lived with hardships financially, emotionally and economically. Crane is a naturalist author; therefore, he uses this book to show the lifestyle of a common person during this time period by showing hypocrisy through different characters. He shows both sides of hypocrisy, the hypocrite and the person affected by the hypocrite. Crane is able to portray moral hypocrisy in the character Jimmie Johnson, and how his actions affect other people.
Jimmie acts like a hypocrite towards Pete, who Maggie is dating. Maggie sees Pete as a gentleman and someone who is classy with manners, however he does not possess these qualities and Jimmie sees this. He does not approve of the way Pete treats Maggie, but Jimmie is not in a position where he can judge and disagree with Pete’s actions because Jimmie has done similar actions with other women as well. Since Jimmie does not like Pete, he starts a fight with him at the bar where Pete works. This not only creates a problem between Jimmie and Pete but this also involves Maggie. When Maggie is kicked out of her house by her mother, she goes to live with Pete and this is not seen as a good thing because they are not