Tale of the American Dream

The American Dream: an idea that coming to America offers you the chance to become anything one has ever dreamed of being; it emphasizes the ideas of freedom, equality, growth, and prosperity. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane is a novela that highlights the expectations the American Dream conveys, as well as the mendacity of those promises. Maggie, her family, and her neighbors all travel to America in hopes of living a better life, as opposed to the lives they had in Ireland. Throughout the book, we see these hopes pummeled and disregarded in the way the families live – poorly and dangerously – as well as in the things Maggie does to try to accomplish a better life than that of her family. 

Maggie and her family all come from Ireland in hopes of acquiring the things promised in the American Dream; they’ve come for their chance at riches, education, freedom, and equality. The American Dream fills them with so much hope that they become extremely patriotic to America, despite its unfaithful promises. This act of nationalism is seen when Maggie is at the dance hall with Pete. The two of them are sitting and listening to the woman sing when the drunken crowd erupts into applause; “the singer threw out her arms and cried, ‘The star-spangled banner.’ Instantly a great cheer swelled from the throats of the assemblage of the masses… Eyes gleamed with sudden fire, and callused hands waved frantically in the air” (Crane 34). The crowd of Irish in the dance hall immediately feel a strong loyalty to this nation, simply because of its promise to give them a chance; the extent of this excitement is seen in how their eyes ‘gleamed with a sudden fire,’ and cheers ‘[swell] from their throats’ – all for hope in America. While all this charisma fuels and strengthens the ideology of the American Dream, its believers are still let down, as seen later on in the book. 

For example, these families that put so much faith in their dream are actually living some of the worst lives in America. The neighborhood Maggie lives in is filled with Irish who are poor, poorly educated, and constantly surrounded by danger. The extent of their lack of education is seen when a scene with Jimmie; he’s looking at the moon “wonderingly and quite reverently” when he claims it to “‘[look] like hell’” (Crane 22). Normally, when one describes something to ‘look like hell’ it’s not interpreted as a good thing; however, from the way Jimmie says this, we know he meant it to show his respect and awe towards the moon. This shows how little education he’s really had; he’s unable to express his true emotions because he simply doesn’t have the words to do so. Another way the American Dream is portrayed as mendacious is in Maggie’s home and childhood. She’s described as having “blossomed in a mud pile” (Crane 23), meaning she grew to be something beautiful despite being surrounded by filth and danger. This filth and danger can be seen when the narrator describes her childhood; they say, “when a child, playing and fighting with gamins in the street, dirt disguised her. Attired in tatters and grime, she went unseen” (Crane 23). This shows how poor Maggie’s living conditions are – wearing nothing but rags, covered in dirt, surrounded by street urchin and danger – going directly against all hopes placed in the American Dream. The American Dream betrays Maggie even more when she’s forced to fall into prostitution. 

Maggie, in her escape from her family and in hope of a better life, falls into prostitution. If the American Dream had produced Maggie what it promises, then she wouldn’t have ended up in the situation she did; we see this in Nellie’s character as well. Both women are pushed into prositution while following the American Dream and searching for a better life; however, Nellie enters with confidence and an understanding of her self-worth, while Maggie enters with the need for validation. Overall, Maggie’s innocence and lack of knowledge blinded her from her own downfall. When Maggie’s with Pete in the dance hall and thinks of a possible future for herself, “she imagined a future, rose-tinted, because of its distance from all that she had previously experienced” (Crane 58). Maggie sees a future that’s ‘rose-tinted’ because, to her, anything is better than what she’s currently experiencing – representing the disappointment of the American Dream. It’s even stated later, when Maggie is admiring Pete and his ‘wealth,’ that “to her knowledge she had never seen any better” (Crane 58), further showing that her lack of knowledge blinds her. Despite everything Maggie has been through and all she’s been denied, she has hope in the American Dream even in her last moments. The narrator describes the streets around Maggie and their “varied sounds of life, made joyous by distance and seeming unapproachableness” (Crane 81). In this, Maggie is noticing hope, the ‘sounds of life’ seem to be desirable; however, they’re still only desirable because she believes she can’t reach them, with their ‘unapproachableness’ and ‘distance.’ This line alone shows the lasting effects of the disappointment of the American Dream on Maggie. 

“Lasting effects of the disappointment of the American Dream.”

Overall, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets represents the ideas, promises, and repudiations of the American Dream. It’s shown in the hopes of Maggie, her family, and her neighbors, and the lack of fulfillment in the way they live their poor, dangerous lives. They are poorly educated, poor in wealth, live surrounded by danger, and are forced into life threatening ways of life. Maggie and her family represent the true faults in the American Dream, and therefore, the true faults in America. The book is a true testament to the fact that the American Dream is a mere slogan – an illusion used to blind people from their suffering and convince them that the Dream will fix it all.