Maggie’s Responsibility for Her Tragic Fate

“You have to accept your fate; do it without bitterness and stay humble”- Anthony Scaramucci. In order for anyone to develop, they have to learn to love where they come from. If they fail to do so, they will be unable to find true happiness. They will be missing a major part of their life. For some people, embracing and loving the place where they are born is extremely hard, as they were unable to find any comfort there. They may have had to face poverty, diseases, bullying, etc. in their childhood, while other people have never been exposed to them. The only factor that determines what kind of childhood you will have is where you are born. The statement that ever since the creation of society, people have been stimulated by their peers to become better is not completely true. The world is extremely big, and therefore, people born in different parts are used to different customs and live in a diverse way. Also, not all parts of the world are developed enough in order to provide people with opportunities that are as good as those around the world. Therefore, being born in a society that is not as advanced as others may be a huge drawback that shapes people’s mentality towards their own life. In the novella Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane, Maggie is the protagonist who is born in an extremely unwelcoming and dangerous society. The story takes place in early 20th century New York City, which means that a lot of people had racial prejudice towards immigrants, and Maggie was a daughter of an immigrant family. Maggie’s downfall is both caused by the environment by which she was surrounded, and by her lack of motivation to improve herself, which forced her to look for an easy way out.

Parents play a crucial part in the lives of their children as they are responsible for almost everything they learn. Without the life experience and protection of adults, children would simply be thrown into a world that they had no understanding of. Even though Maggie had two parents, they were unable to perform their duties to give all of the life experience they have gained to her. Both of them were alcoholics, which even worsened the situation, as many times, they would blame Maggie for their own mistakes because they were unable to think clearly. The worst thing out of all was that she was deprived of essential skills that would limit her development as an adult. Maggie has not been sent to school, she has not been taught how to think independently, and most importantly, she has not been shown that she is loved. Throughout her childhood, Maggie has not been clearly demonstrated that she is a valuable person and because of that, her self-esteem would suffer in the future. Mary and her husband did not treat their children with affection, but rather as just people who live with them: “‘Let the damned kid alone for a minute, will yeh, Mary? Yer allus poundin’ ‘im. When I come nights I can’t git no rest ‘cause yer allus poundin’ a kid.” (Crane 10) Maggie’s father does not see anything wrong with Mary beating their children, but rather he is frustrated that he does not get any rest. The narrator illustrates the ignorance that Maggie was forced to grow up with, as she was just treated as an object that will eventually grow up and leave. Additionally, Maggie could not look for help from the New York society, as people did not want to do anything with immigrants, and would gladly ignore them, as they pretended that they are less of a human being that they are. To conclude, Maggie’s early childhood environment was extremely harsh, as she did not get to experience anything that would help her find the true qualities of life, but rather she saw poverty, alcoholic parents, and ignorance.

Despite all of the negative factors that were drawing Maggie back, she could have easily opposed all of the stereotypes for immigrant’s life. The only thing that would allow her to achieve happiness is to have the will to self-improve. Despite all odds when growing up in Rum Alley, Maggie grew up to be extremely pretty. The narrator illustrates this development by stating, “The girl, Maggie, blossomed in a mud puddle” (Crane 23), which describes how unique and important her beauty is. However, she did not perceive that importance, as she saw the fact that she is beautiful as a tool to help her get out of her society: “She began to see the bloom upon her cheeks as valuable.” (Crane 36). She knew that she will not be pretty forever, so she forced herself into “liking” Pete. In fact, this decision of hers was the one that resulted in her downfall. She could not have known that Pete was faking his emotions and was only using her.  However, she could have realized that by giving her fate to a stranger, it would not result in her desired outcome. Maggie believed that Pete could be her escape from her family and society: “Maggie perceived that here was the beau ideal of a man. Her dim thoughts were often searching for far away lands where, as God says, the little hills sing together in the morning.” (Crane 26) The girl believes that Pete was the ideal man, even though he clearly was not, only because she found some sort of hope in him. The narrator does not write that Maggie falls in love with Pete but implies that their relationship was based on the fact that both of them had something that they wanted from the other. This reveals that Maggie’s worst mistake was that she had given up on her own abilities by deciding to trust Pete, who represents everything bad in a society, more than herself. This mistake of hers is not caused by the lack of care she received in her childhood but by her inability to work towards self-improvement. To conclude, Maggie could have decided to educate herself, and eventually, she would find herself out of her society, but instead, she decided to blindly trust a person she did not truly know, which resulted in herself disregarding all of her moral norms and becoming a prostitute.

Maggie’s early childhood create a false image of what the real world is. She believes that there is no hope in her own actions, but instead, the only way she could develop is by attaching to a successful person like a leech and not letting go. This point of view was created to a degree by her observations of the world that surrounded her. She saw a lot of prostitutes, who would spend a lot of time with wealthy men, in order to make a living for themselves. The fact that Maggie did not receive any education also played a crucial part in her forming her beliefs of what a person has to do in order to become successful and happy. However, her lack of motivation to improve and her false sense of helplessness pushed her to create a false relationship with Pete more than anything else. Maggie did not see anybody else improve their situation just by relying on themselves, so she believed that she is incapable to do so too. After all, if Maggie had accepted her fate, without bitterness and had stayed humble while choosing to learn from her childhood rather than suffer, she could have completely changed her fate.