The Importance of Outcome

As we discussed in class on Tuesday, what is most important about "Maggie, A Girl of the Streets" is the outcome of the story. Maggie makes a valiant effort to escape poverty and support her family, but the outcome is not as positive. She ultimately fails in doing so as she succumbs to prostitution and ends up killing herself. Though, at first, Maggie takes the position of strength in her family, we see later on that they feel she is "gone teh deh devil."

Though her fate is obviously a sad one, I couldn't help but think back to other feminist novels we have read, seeing as her weaknesses are only slowly unveiled to the audience. The audience may have hope for her because she takes a "blue collar" position and becomes involved with Pete, who might support her financially. However, we find in the end that Maggie does not succeed in finding happiness or money.

In "Revolt of "Mother"" by Mary E. Wilkens Freeman, the reader gets a sense of strength and wisdom from the mother figure because she succeeds in proving to her husband that she knows what's best for her family. Therefore, the outcome is positive and our feelings of admiration for the woman's character is strengthened.

This makes me wonder... Can we still consider "Maggie" a strong, female character and therefore overlook her outcome? Throughout the novel, I felt constructed to respond this way towards Maggie and personally still might consider this a feminist novel because of her efforts.