A Cliche American Dream

The American dream is a literary cliche that is often overused in storytelling. This idea of coming to the “promise land” was once seen by so many immigrants and America has been a safe haven for so many, but it no longer seems like that same accepting place. The American dream promised so many things such as being able to start a new life and build your way up to a comfortable lifestyle. In the Stephen Crane novella Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, the American dream is portrayed in a much more realistic manner. Through this different perspective, Crane gives a new version of the American dream, one that depicts the opportunities of immigrants accurately.

The ideas and concepts present in the American dream have the misconception that people can immigrate to America and make a bearable life for themselves and often their family as well. In Maggie: A GIrl of the Streets this poverty-stricken city of immigrants makes this cliche idea of the American dream apparent. Maggie, the daughter of Irish immigrants, living in a minuscule, dilapidated tenement house in the crude slums of New York, leaves an entirely new perspective of the American dream with the reader. Her parents are portrayed as drunk and unfit parents who have left their children to care for themselves and provide for the entire family.  With poor treatment, discrimination, and unfit living circumstances immigrants of all kinds were unable to live out the desired American dream. With all the discrimination in areas such as the workplace, it made creating a life for themselves extremely difficult.

Not only did all immigrants face discrimination in their everyday lives but to receive an education was also something seen as impossible. This is another example of the sham that is the American dream; a world full of opportunities. Education did exist but it was seen as solely a male privilege, but even then most could not attend school. All children were needed to work to make ends meet in families, and those who did go to school usually did not last very long due to needing to eventually help provide for their families. If young girls were not working in a dangerous factory their mothers were and girls were needed at home to care for younger siblings or to take care of household chores. Instead of attending school, masses of children served in the workforce, in all kinds of different factories. Children often worked dangerous jobs, that could easily coast them their fingers or health. These dangerous jobs were common and work accidents were regular. This lifestyle for children was not something included in the description of the American dream.

Children as young as ten and twelve had to work dangerous jobs to help support their families, and those who did not have families often had to turn to much more extreme measures. In Crane’s novella, it is implied the protagonist Maggie has turned to the streets to make money; becoming a prostitute. After her family had abandoned her and shut her out, “Where kin I go?” (Crane 78)  Maggie had no other choice than to find some way to provide for herself. Prostitution which was heavily frowned upon in society became a very common practice with young women. Women who work on the streets are often described as someone who has gone to the devil “She’s gon to de devil” (Crane 43). This was used to describe someone who has turned to prostitution they were considered to have committed an awful sin. As this practice was not uncommon many women resorted to prostitution in order to survive. Selling your body was not something expected in the American dream. Young women were forced to extreme measures of selling their bodies in order to survive. This abandonment of self-respect and dignity is not a choice people make willingly but one someone does when all outside hop is lost. The American dream at this point is gone, it has been demolished by the dark power that comes from these women who have given up their honor due to the lack of opportunities and the death of the American dream.

The American dream is not a realistic concept for those who are considered immigrants or an unwanted race.  The concept is over-romanticized by storytelling and has become a literary embarrassment and overdone idea. Crane showed a new side to the over-romanticized idea that is the American dream.  This new representation was daring for Crane who gave the world an eye opener of the society they lived in. One that forced children into dangerous jobs and neglected to educate their youth as well as such an unstable and unfair economy that left so many unsupported women on the streets with no option but to turn to prostitution. A society such as this does not offer the all-praised American dream.