Maggie Naturalism

Maggie, as a piece of naturalistic fiction, challenges the myth of the American character through the character of Maggie, who symbolizes the American nightmare.
Contrary to the American character, Maggie’s birth in an impoverished family of a lower class neighborhood restrains her from the American dream. In the story, Pete plays an important role in which he serves as the turning point of aggie’s tragic life. Maggie meets him as a friend of Jimmie’s to their house. “Turning, Maggie contemplated the dark, dust-stained walls, and the scant and crude furniture of her home. A clock, in a splintered and battered oblong box of varnished wood, she suddenly regarded as an abomination (20)”. After discovering the fineness of Pete, Maggie gazes at
By emphasizing how Maggie starts to contemplate only after meeting Pete, whom she regards as the man of superiority, it suggests that Maggie was used to the customary setting of the environment, as a result of the naturalistic theme her thoughts and actions are environmentally influenced. Moving on to the first time when Pete asks Maggie out, she is impressed by the orchestra, the dance, and the way Pete acts indifferently. “A knowledge of this fact made Maggie feel little and new (22)” Maggie has never seen anything like this. Born in poverty, she never gets an opportunity to see the life above her social class – the “better life”. Living around the poor people, her mind is influenced by the environment, thus she knows only the world of the poor. Since there’s no comparison, Maggie would have no intention for the American
At the beginning of the book, Maggie is depicted as: “The girl, Maggie, blossomed in a mud puddle … none of the dirt of Rum Alley seemed to be in her veins (16)”. The metaphor compares Maggie to a flower that “blossomed in a mud puddle” as they both seemed to be different from their environment and not imbrued by the dirt. Crane describes Maggie as someone distinct from the neighborhood as if she is excepted from heredity, comparing to Jimmie who inherited the violence from the Johnsons, and Tommie who would possibly did as well. Though Crane uses the word “seemed”, foreshadowing/indicating that Maggie is only superficially appeared to be pure. It is a naturalistic world in which Maggie cannot escape her heredity and the “dirt” must “be in her veins”. No doubt, Maggie further support this idea of inheritance. SIGNAL PHRASE. “She imagined herself, in an exasperating future, as a scrawny woman with an eternal grievance (Pg)”. Maggie is anxious about being in an irritating future with relentless sadness. The future Maggie imagined is the true portrayal of the life of Maggie’s mother Mary – who has always been in resentment - and those who live in the neighborhood. And it is indeed the determined fate of everyone from the impoverished Rum Alley. Maggie’s imagination indicates the girl’s inevitable inheritance from her mother and the poor