Wednesday, February 11, 2009

#11 Stephen Crane - Maggie

Bila Lee
English 48B
February 12, 2009
Journal #11 Stephen Crane

Quote
“He found his mother raving. Maggie had not returned home. The parent continually wondered how her daughter could come to such a pass. She had never considered Maggie as pearl dropped unstained into Rum Alley from Heaven, but she could not conceive how it was possible for her daughter to fall so low as to bring disgrace upon her family. She was terrific in denunciation of the girl’s wickedness” (Crane 985).

Summary
It was a heartbreaking story which reflected the very genuine social darkness. The quote was extracted from Chapter XIII of “Maggie,” and was accurately yet coldly demonstrated how Mary, mother of Maggie, reacted when Mary was informed her daughter became a prostitute. I chose this short quote for analysis because it covered two important ideas: Mary was a drunken mother that she even did not concern how her children were doing outside, she did not even notice Jimmie and Maggie “had not returned home.” Moreover, Maggie stayed in astray not because of her wicked mother instead of Pete. She did rarely, if ever, receive maternal love from Mary and Mary was only aware of the “disgrace upon her family” and how they were viewed by neighbors when she knew the cruel truth.

Responses
Stephen Crane was one of the best-known naturalistic writers. As stated in the section, “Naturalism,” in Wikipedia, “Naturalist fiction in the United States often concentrated on the non-Anglo, ethnically marked inhabitants of the growing American cities, many of them immigrants and most belonging to a class-spectrum ranging from the destitute to the lower middle-class” (Wikipedia). In fact, Crane used his pen to desperately describe the hardship of Irish immigrants in the novel “Maggie.”

The novel ran smoothly and naturally in the sense that it was not a fairy tale but portrayed some realistic plots. Maggie was raised in a broken family that her parents were both indulged in alcoholic drinks, it was commonly observed among the Irish immigrants population because they could barely participate in the discriminating community and hence lost their direction in life, and consequently expressed an extent of indifference to their children. Maggie was literally a natural victim who got acquaintance to Pete, and finally got trapped into the world of prostitution and darkness.

Mary was a typical and conventional mother who believed her children were existed to glorify their parents; yet they were some “wicked children” if they behaved in some disgraceful way. For example, it was undoubtedly a negative thing to have a prostitute in the family, and deserved every reason to have the bad reputation circulated around the neighborhood. Yet, Mary should protect rather than to join the bad-mouthing neighbors to address her daughter. The story followed naturalism to have a sad ending, and it was heartbroken for me to read how Mary reacted when she was informed her daughter’s death, “She continued her meal. When she finished her coffee she began to weep” (Crane 999). It is horrible to imagine how calm Mary was at that very moment.

An old saying goes like parents will tolerate the faults that their children have committed. Yes, Mary ends the story by saying, “Oh yes, I’ll forgive her! I’ll forgive her,” (Crane 1000) but I doubt how sincere when compared with my beginning quote.

1 comment:

  1. 20 points. "It is horrible to imagine how calm Mary was at that very moment." Horrible indeed.

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