Dependence and Destinies

Across many types of literature that have a universal theme, do you have a say in what happens to you? In other words, is your life dictated by your fate? Or do your actions and decisions shape you. In Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets written by Stephen Crane both Nellie and Maggie depict what it is like being a woman in 19th Century New York City. Although both women are “cut from the same cloth”, they go about their lives in completely different ways. Maggie lets her upbringing which was filled with abuse and neglect dictate her life while Nellie is solely dependent on herself and has become financially stable and respected which shows that you dictate what happens to you and you have a say in what course your life is going to take.

Maggie never had the picture perfect upbringing. She grew up poor, with an alcoholic mother and an abusive father. Even her own brother wasn’t in her corner supporting her. Maggie didn’t have the ideal childhood to grow up and be successful but not many people do. Everyone has baggage, nobody has a perfect life. However, she let her past dictate her future. She grew up feeling useless and that she didn’t matter and that carried over to her adult life. Maggie had “none of the dirt of Rum Alley… in her veins.” (Crane 9), she wasn’t tough or strong spirited like her brother was, not that Jimmie was an ideal role model but he took care of himself and make a life for himself. Maggie wasn’t the type of girl to stand up for herself and what she wanted.  Maggie never had hope for herself until she met Pete. Pete was everything she wished she could be or had. He wasn’t wealthy but he was comfortable financially. He could have been able to support her in every way. Maggie saw him as a gentleman and what a man should be but in reality he was nothing special, he was just another guy who wasn’t polite. Maggie saw him as better than he was since all the men in her life are the worst of the worst. Maggie wants a better life and she thinks being with Pete is the way to get there.

Nellie can be described as a person with “brilliance and audacity”. Although we don’t know the conditions in which Nellie grew up we can infer that she didn’t have the picture perfect upbringing either since she ended up being a prostitute. Nellie chooses not to rely on anyone, especially a man. The first time Maggie laid eyes on Nellie she instantly noticed how she held herself, “. . .took instant note of the woman. She perceived that her black dress fitted her to perfection. Her linen collar and cuffs were spotless. Tan gloves were stretched over her well-shaped hands. A hat of a prevailing fashion perched jauntily upon her dark hair.She wore no jewelry and was painted with no apparent paint. She looked clear-eyed through the stares of the men” (Crane 64). Nellie didn’t have to stoop down to anyone’s level, she elevated herself. She was confident in herself and didn’t let anyone push her around or just have their way with her. Throughout Maggie’s relationship with Pete, she tried to become everything she wasn’t in order to impress Pete. “She envied elegance and soft palms. She craved those adornments of person which she saw every day on the street, conceiving them to be allies of vast importance to women.”(Crane 36) She didn’t think that her true self would ever be enough for Pete so she tried to appear wealthier and more polite. She put up a facade of being apart of a higher class than she was.  Throughout the book we can see that Maggie is consistently in awe of Pete but Nellie only sees him for what he’s worth; money. Maggie and Nellie both end up becoming prostitutes but for completely different reasons. Nellie becomes a woman of the streets because she sees it as the best way of supporting herself and Maggie becomes a prostitute in hopes of finding her prince charming to give her a better life.

The readers aren’t the only ones who can see the major differences between Nellie and Maggie, Pete also realizes this. It becomes very clear to Pete early on that Maggie depends on him and needs him to survive so when he had his first encounter with Nellie, he was drawn in by her bold and confident personality. Soon after their first meeting, Pete becomes interested in Nellie because he realizes that Nellie can give him what Maggie never could. He’s intrigued by how strong of a woman she is and how self-reliant she is. He isn’t accustomed to knowing this type of woman.  Now that Maggie has no one to support since her family completely kicked her to the curb and now Pete has abandoned her she is compared to a dog by the author. At this point in time she can be described as a girl with no sense of identity or direction who completely relies on those around her. “Three weeks had passed since the girl had left home. The air of spaniel-like dependence had been magnified and showed its direct effect in the peculiar off-handedness and ease of Pete’s ways towards her” (Crane 65). This metaphor can sum up Maggie’s entire existence, always depending on somebody else to provide for her and never taking the initiative to take care of herself like Nellie did. Maggie was incredibly naive in thinking that someone would swoop in and give her this incredible life she always dreamed of and she never realized that she needed to work hard to get what she’s always wanted.

Both Maggie and Nellie led the same life to a certain extent. They both ended up being prostitutes but their motives behind it were polar opposites. The endings to both of their stories as far as the book is concerned can completely sum up how different they are. We are unclear on how Maggie dies but we can infer that she was either murdered or she killed herself but the final scene we see Nellie in she is walking away from Pete grinning like a cheshire cat with Pete’s money leaving him drunk and vulnerable at the bar. Nellie never let her childish whims get in the way of what she had to do. All of us are “cut from the same cloth” but it is our choice how we choose to deal with the hand of cards that life dealt us.