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Maggie by stephen crane7/7/2023 ![]() ![]() Crane's unblinking depiction of the devastating environmental forces that ultimately destroy this young, hopeful woman was celebrated as one of the most important documents of American naturalism. Eventually abandoned by her lover, as well as her family, Maggie is forced to make a living on the cruel city streets. Maggie's relationship with Pete compounds her suffering, however, when her family and her neighbors condemn her. Stephen Cranes Maggie, A Girl of the Streets (A Story of New York) (1893, revised 1896) has long been considered a groundbreaking novel of American. Abused by an alcoholic mother and victimized by the overwhelming poverty of the slums, Maggie falls in love with a charming bartender, who, she tells herself, will help her escape her harsh life. He is saved by his friend, Pete, and comes home to a brutal and drunken father. The story centers on Maggie Johnson, a pretty young woman who struggles to survive the brutal environment of the Bowery, a New York City slum, at the end of the nineteenth century. The story opens with Jimmie, Maggies brother, as he fights a gang of boys from an opposing neighborhood. Maggie came to be regarded as one of Crane's finest and most eloquent statements on environmental determinism. Literary critic William Dean Howells was so impressed with the novel that he helped get it published by D. Stephen Crane's Maggie: A Girl of the Streets was first published at his own expense in 1893. ![]()
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