Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
'Maggie: A Girl of the Streets ' Summary
The story opens with Jimmie, at this point a young boy, trying by himself to fight a gang of boys from an opposing neighborhood. He is saved by his friend, Pete, and comes home to his sister, Maggie, his toddling brother, Tommie, his brutal and drunken father, and mother, Mary Johnson. The parents, Irish immigrants, terrify the children until they are shuddering in the corner.
Years pass, Tommie and his father die as Jimmie hardens into a sneering, aggressive, cynical youth. He gets a job as a teamster, having no regard for anyone but firetrucks who would run him down. Maggie begins to work in a shirt factory, but her attempts to improve her life are undermined by her mother's drunken rages. Maggie begins to date Jimmie's friend Pete, who has a job as a bartender and seems a very fine fellow, convinced that he will help her escape the life she leads. He takes her to the theater and the museum. One night Jimmie and Mary accuse Maggie of "Goin to deh devil", essentially kicking her out of the tenement, throwing her lot in with Pete. Jimmie goes to Pete's bar and picks a fight with him (even though he himself has ruined other boys' sisters). As the neighbors continue to talk about Maggie, Jimmie and Mary decide to join them in badmouthing her instead of defending her.
Later, Nellie, a "woman of brilliance and audacity" convinces Pete to leave Maggie, whom she calls "a little pale thing with no spirit." Thus abandoned, Maggie tries to return home but is rejected by her mother and scorned by the entire tenement. In a later scene, a prostitute, implied to be Maggie, wanders the streets, moving into progressively worse neighborhoods until, reaching the river, she is followed by a grotesque and shabby man. The next scene shows Pete drinking in a saloon with six fashionable women "of brilliance and audacity." He passes out, whereupon one, possibly Nellie, takes his money. In the final chapter, Jimmie tells his mother that Maggie is dead. The mother exclaims, ironically, as the neighbors comfort her, "I'll forgive her!"
Book Details
Language
EnglishOriginal Language
EnglishPublished In
1893Author
Stephen Crane
United States
Stephen Crane's fiction is typically categorized as representative of Naturalism, American realism, Impressionism or a mixture of the three. Critic Sergio Perosa, for example, wrote in his essay, "Ste...
More on Stephen CraneDownload eBooks
Unfortunately, no ebooks exist for this book, yet...
Listen/Download Audiobook
- Select Speed
Related books
Speeches: Literary and Social by Charles Dickens
Step into the world of Charles Dickens beyond his beloved novels in "Speeches: Literary and Social." Delve into the mind of the renowned Victorian aut...
Noli Me Tangere (The Social Cancer) by José Rizal
Noli Me Tángere is an 1887 novel by José Rizal during the colonization of the Philippines by the Spanish Empire, to describe perceived inequities of t...
The Finding of Jasper Holt by Grace Livingston Hill
What if a train wreck brought two unlikely people together, and their love story changed the course of their lives? The Finding of Jasper Holt by Gra...
Family Happiness by Leo Tolstoy
The 17 year old Marya falls in love with the much older Sergyei Mikhailitch, an old family friend, and the two are married. They share an initially bl...
The Dark Flower by John Galsworthy
Galsworthy's classic The Dark Flower is a study of love. Spring is the beginning when all is new and full of hope. However, the woman Lennan has falle...
Freaks on the Fells: Three Months' Rustication, Story 1 by R. M. Ballantyne
Imagine spending a summer exploring a mysterious mountain range, filled with hidden caves, ancient ruins, and strange creatures. That's the adventure...
The Flight of the Heron by D. K. Broster
This is the story of an unlikely friendship between Keith Windham, a career soldier in the British Army, and a young Highland chieftain who follows Bo...
The Last Ditch by Violet Hunt
In the heart of World War I, an aristocratic family finds themselves grappling with the harsh realities of war and the erosion of their old-world valu...
Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc by Mark Twain
The novel begins with a "Translator's Preface," a translator note on the "Peculiarity of Joan of Arc's History," and a foreword by Sieur Louis de Cont...
The Mystery Girl by Carolyn Wells
In the quaint college town of Corinth, a mysterious young woman arrives, her beauty and enigmatic aura captivating the hearts of the townsfolk. But am...
Reviews for Maggie: A Girl of the Streets
No reviews posted or approved, yet...