The idea was put forth today in class that women are, perhaps, seen as more pure than men in Charles Loring Brace's "The Dangerous Classes of New York" in relation to "Maggie: Girl of the Streets" by Stephen Crane. This is why, some speculated that Maggie's downfall is so awful. During the discussion, the phrase 'the bigger they are, the harder they fall' came to my mind. Maggie features, at first as a very standout presence in the midst of the dark and downtrodden inhabitants of the Bowery, referred to as a "most rare and wonderful production of a tenement district" (Crane Ch 5).
Prior to meeting Pete, Maggie lives in her imagination, "lands where... the little hills sing together in the morning" (Crane Ch 5). Maggie's purity is almost entirely absolute, especially when compared to that of her mother and brother. Her downfall is her desire for love, which she does not receive from the family members that she has. This ties into another idea discussed in our class, the necessity of the family unit. The desire for the love that she is not receiving is the chink in the armor of innocence that Maggie wears. This desire seems to directly correlate to the ease with which Pete is able to win her over. Her mother's rejection sends her into the arm's of Pete. Clearly if Maggie's home environment were a bit different, Maggie's sexual liaison with Pete would not have taken place (at least at this point in the novel).
However sad it is to see Maggie lose her purity, Crane's audience is only exposed to the horror of her accelerated slide down the moral scale. While her actions with Pete are unfortunate, an audience might at first believe that she at least will be able to fare as well as her mother. Sadly, the reactions of her family members are to reject and denounce. Maggie is pushed further down by this, displaying the link between loss of support (of family, friends, etc.) and the lowering of social status.
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The beginning of your post caught my eye Cora, however in relation to Chapter 22 “Women” in The Mole People. You said that women were “perhaps seen as more pure than men” and consequently “why Maggie’s downfall is so awful”. This got me thinking of how the women were portrayed in Mole People, I was not assigned the chapter but glazed over it curiously and saw the statistic; “an estimated 40% of the underground homeless are females…” (219). Almost half and we still find their downfalls more awful? This may be is true, given the female disposition and as I read through some of the stories, I found similarities between these abused women and Maggie herself. This may not be much of a connection, but it was just interesting to discover and pull characteristics from different tangible centers and creating the fictional Maggie. Much of these women however did not suffer from naïveté but rather drugs and alcohol, and being pushed to the brink by society and abusive men. Dericka I found represented Maggie a lot when it came to shyness, withdrawal, and shame; Maggie was these before and just when she meets Pete. Gwen represents just the opposite, but her strength gives me more sympathy for Maggie’s uncultured, inexperienced youth. Maggie also as Cora said, just wants to be loved, as many of the girls in the tunnel appear to want as well, however abusive cycles keep them trapped in the system... Maggie chose prostitution.
ReplyDeleteOther women in the Mole People who appear in the communities Toth discovers seem to also carry this “awful downfall” luggage more then the men who often explain they chose to go into the tunnels voluntarily. April, a girl in Chapter 21 who only has one sentence of dialogue, carries this air of a past tragedy in just her demeanor. That’s what it seems like, women are viewed as tragic while men are viewed depressively. Awful is synonymous with tragic after all.