Maggie: A Girl of the Streets Stephen Crane

 Born November 1, 1871 in Newark, NJ  14th child of a Methodist minister  Started to write stories at the age of eight  at 16 he was writing articles for the New York Tribune  After high school, spent 1 semester at Lafayette College and another at Syracuse University- was asked to leave

 Moved to New York as a free-lance writer and journalist.  lived among the poor in the Bowery slums of New York to research his first novel, Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets  second novel, The Red Badge Of Courage brought him international fame  Crane's collection of poems, The Black Rider, also appeared in 1895, brought Crane better reporting assignments as a war correspondent in combat areas  Crane settled in Sussex, England  June 5, Crane died of tuberculosis

In Maggie: a Girl of the Streets, Crane utilizes... Realism, Naturalism & Impressionism

REALISM  is a literary movement that began during the 1870’s that was prompted by the Civil War  renders reality in comprehensive detail, depicts life as it really is  provides extremely detailed descriptions of “ordinary people”  avoids the sensational, dramatic elements of naturalistic novels and romances.  displays a pessimistic view of the world

In REALISM...  Character is more important than action and plot; complex ethical choices are often the subject.  Diction is natural vernacular, not heightened or poetic; tone may be comic, satiric, or matter-of-fact.  Objectivity in presentation becomes increasingly important: overt authorial comments or intrusions diminish as the century progresses.

Naturalism  the whole picture is somber and dark  the general tone is one of hopelessness and even despair.  is a more deliberate kind of realism in novels, stories, and plays, usually involving a view of human being as passive victims of natural forces and environment.  typically illustrates the helplessness of man, his insignificance in a cold world and his lack of dignity.  is concerned with the less elegant aspects of life  has settings that are the slums, the sweatshops, the factories and the farm  represents the life of the lower class truthfully  highlights forbidden regions as violence, sex and death

Impressionism the selection of a few details to convey the sense impressions left by a scene or incident characters, scenes, or actions are portrayed from an objective point of view of reality great precision in the use of language to illustrate the transitory, vague, complex, and subjective impressions based on experiences an example would be of using color to give bits and pieces of the scene - in his landmark novel, 'The Red Badge of Courage', Stephen Crane Crane gives us the sense and mood of the battle, without the technical details

Impressionism The term ‘Impressionism’ comes from the school of mid- nineteenth century French painting, which was in reaction to the academic style of the day. The Impressionists, as they called themselves, made the act of perception the key for the understanding of the structure of reality. They developed a technique by which objects were not seen as solids but as fragments of color which the spectator’s eye unified. The basic premise involved was that “truth” lay in the mental processes, not in the precise representation of external reality.

Details/Diction: Every sentence, Crane manages to analyze and refer to human nature as a cause of the characters’ actions Crane uses powerful and beautiful diction to describe his characters not through imagery, but through their possessions and actions. “His hat was tipped over his eye with an air of challenge. Between his teeth a cigar stump was tilted at the angle of defiance.” “Withered persons, in curious postures of submission to something, sat smoking pipes in obscure corners.” “Maggie, with side glances of fear of interruption, ate like a small pursued tigress… Jimmie sat nursing his various wounds. He cast furtive glances at his mother. His practiced eye perceived her gradually emerge from a mist of muddled sentiment until her brain burned in drunken heat. He sat breathless.” “A reader of the words of wind demons might have been able to see the portions of a dialogue pass to and fro between the exhorter and his hearers. “You are damned,” said the preacher. And the reader of sounds might have seen the reply go forth from the ragged people: “Where's our soup?”

Imagery: Crane uses colors a lot to symbolize certain emotions He often plays upon the contrast of colors to set up a desperate situation “Eventually they entered a dark region where, from a careening building, a dozen gruesome doorways gave up loads of babies to the street and the gutter. A wind of early autumn raised yellow dust from cobbles and swirled it against a hundred windows.” “Her yellow brows shaded eyelids that had grown blue.” Transition – both physical and metaphorical  exposes the tragedy of the situation “Jimmy’s occupation for a long time was to stand on street corners and watch the world go by, dreaming blood-red dreams at the passing of pretty women.” Symbolic of his past abuses projected upon society “She received a stool and a machine in a room where sat twenty girls of various shades of yellow discontent.”