Alcoholism In Stephen Crane's Maggie Girl Of The Streets

In Stephen Crane’s novel, Maggie Girl of the Streets, we see a girl’s development in a family drowned in alcoholism. As she evolves into a young woman, the abuse of alcohol in her parents’ lives presents itself throughout her downfall into prostitution and ultimately death. Critics typically read into Crane’s novel Maggie’s relationship with seduction as a part of her femininity, without discussing some major details. One of the missing pieces includes the exploration of the interconnectedness her family’s alcoholism has with her developing into a woman. The following essay will focus on this issue, applying Julia Kristeva’s theories on abjection with some thoughts on feminist theory regarding the male gaze from Bell Hooks. Psychological effects of alcoholism in the family will bring these views together, aiding in the understanding of Maggie’s character decay into abjection. The novel follows a

He labels Maggie as a fallen woman, a common literary critique of women characters during the era Crane wrote his novel. The main takeaway from his analysis of the novel is, essentially, that the fate of the fallen woman is “death as the result of seduction and betrayal” (Fudge). With this sort of character, he suggests that there is no other ending, and death is seemingly the only way for her story to end. He then brings up the symbolism Crane cultivates, imagining Maggie as a flower. Fudge “equate[s] beauty with virtue,” uncovering Maggie’s deflowering by Pete as the beginnings of her wilting away into the soil, from a blossom to a dead body, amounting to no more than dirt