The Power Of Social Environment In Stephen Crane's Maggie

The power of the social environment in Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A girl of the streets It is generally assumed that the social environment can directly influence people 's mental development. The environment generates an information which is transmitted through senses into the minds of individuals. A distinction can be made between the restricted social environment of a person (family, friends, neighbors) and the socio-cultural environment represented by the society in which a human subject lives. For naturalistic writers, who are influenced by Charles Darwin 's evolutionary theory in "The Origin of Species," and by the physiologist 's experimental physician Claude Bernard in "Introduction to Experimental Medicine.",

The family has a strong impact on the development of the children. The main characters’ lives are centered initially within their family. Thus, the family environment becomes the primary agent of socialization. The atmosphere of the house influences children’s emotions and behaviors. In Crane’s first novel, both parents are alcoholics. They look more like wild animals than civilized human beings. ‘’ The woman screamed and shook her fists before her husband 's eyes. The rough yellow of her face and neck flared suddenly crimson. She began to howl.’’ (Crane The verbs Crane chooses, “screamed,” “howl,” “roared,” “growled”, suggest that Mrs. Johnson is not a motherly figure. The poverty causes Maggie’s parents to behave not like responsible parents. The father of Maggie dies early in the short novel. Maggie’s mother, a vicious alcoholic, who is described as a “sated villain”, is a mefistofelic character. She is abusive, she hurts her children very often. The external narrator presents these violent scenes objectively with no comment on the morality or the fairness of what happens to the