“Maggie, A Girl of the Streets” by Stephen Crane was about the life and times of the impoverished in the slums of New York City, 1893. Written around or before this time, Crane’s audience was obviously the literate, implying the middle to upper classes. During this time period, his novel was considered shocking and was severely censored and edited and was only printed by a private company. If this is the case, how would Crane have had to fashion his audience immediately in the first chapter of the book to keep their interest and support? The answer, I feel, has to do with his appeal to religious cues and morals.
The first image we see is the show down between the children of Rum Alley and Devil’s Row, names chosen for symbolic importance. Jimmie represents the children from Rum Alley, a perfect title for his own home full of raging alcoholics. The children from Devil’s Row also are presented with a likeness to their street; “Howls of renewed wrath went up from Devil’s Row throats” (3). In this single sentence the reader already envisions these children as demons. Jimmie is then described as having the “look of a tiny, insane demon”(3), and the reader now perceives that this intersection is more then a pinpoint of behavior, but is prevalent beyond and throughout the novel. Other references to the children like “assassins” and “barbaric” further reflect the nightmarish reality of the slum world, creating a living hell. For the assumingly religiously inclined and educated readers of the 1890’s, this corner where the two alleys intersect shows a parallel to certain audacity concerning the Devil and blasphemous over consumption of alcohol. This vision of raging vicious demonic children fighting is powerful enough to cause awareness within the reader of the unfolding setting and story.
Religious cues are used again throughout the novel, but this instantly came to my attention when reading Chapter 1, especially since they were primarily on the first page. This scene immediately stirs up moral values and captures the audience’s attention when given these cues more then just saying ‘some savage kids were fighting in a dirty street’. Could this have been Crane’s purpose in engaging his audience?
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Lexi you pointed out a great analysis that I didn’t even think to point out. I completely agree that there are a lot of religious references, even though it is more to explain a person in a poor manner. When I think of religion in Maggie, by Stephen Crane, the term metonymy, from Jimmie Killingsworth’s, Appeal Through Tropes, comes to mind. The term metonymy is defined as, “often gives rise to the kinds of symbols, icons, and logos used as cultural indicators,” which explains that religion is being used as a symbol to view that characters called “devil” or “going to hell” are a relation to religion. By reading the preface we learn that Crane has a family history of pastors, which would lead us to the understanding of why he would relate characters in such a way to the devil or hell (Crane xii). This analysis allowed me to think more deeply about the use of religion in Maggie and what Crane wanted his audience to understand.
ReplyDeleteLexi and Lyndsay bring up interesting points. Knowledge of the way in which Crane's novel was published and the back-story of Crane, himself bring new ideas to ways the novel may be viewed. Lyndsay mentions metonymy in "Maggie". This is interesting especially in light of the way that metonymy can reduce "a whole person to an object"(Killingsworth, Appeals Through Trope, 128). Crane includes many characters that can be described as devilish, an adjective that is also often found directly in the text of "Maggie". Although he usually furthers the identity of the person described as such, he often still leaves his audience with a view of the character that may befit a stereotype or the direct connotations with such descriptive words.
ReplyDeleteI believe it is useful to look at the metonymy present in Maggie in another light as well, perhaps almost an opposite light. In "Maggie", the character of Pete is responsible for the moral and thus social demise of Maggie. However, although Pete influences Maggie negatively and may be cause for her downward spiral, I believe that he can viewed through the concept of metonymy to symbolize the whole of "Rum Alley". An audience can easily identify Pete with Jimmie, who the novel explicates to great effect. Jimmie is the product of his harsh environment, something quite out of his control. As Pete is friend and perhaps boyhood idolization to Jimmie, it is very possible to view Pete in the same way. When Crane writes of Maggie's downfall as a result of Pete, it is east to view the situation's occurrence as due to the whole of Rum Alley, which Pete may be, when viewed through metonymy.