Stephen Crane's Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets

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Confinement: Jimmie’s Inability to Control His Destiny Because of the unavoidable circumstances of his life and his fatalistic outlook of the world, life restrains Jimmie Johnston to a predestined fate in Stephen Crane’s novella, Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. Jimmie’s exposure to the abusive relationship of his parents result in his predisposition to violence and drinking as an adult. As Jimmie’s neighbor questions him if his “fader beatin’ [his] mudder or [his] mudder beatin’ [his] fader” (10), Crane suggests that this violence is a regular occurrence for Jimmie. Violent models surround young Jimmie, which result in his inability to fix his problems through anything other than violence. Jimmie’s career as a cab driver only further encourages …show more content…
(Change wording-idk) Jimmie’s acceptance of the life in which he is contested results in his embracement of his determined future. Because he does not see any improvement in other Bowery occupants’ lives, he takes to the fact that his life will not improve either. Jimmie’s external appearance develops to match his internal outlooks once “his sneer grew so that it turned its glare upon all things […] so sharp he believed in nothing” (16). His deteriorating hope in his situation improving grounds his acceptance of his fate, and his life begins to set its course on the path to despair when Jimmie decides to give up on changing his situation. When Pete ruins Maggie, though Jimmie initially subconsciously thinks about the relevance of the matter, he “hastily throws [the theory] aside” (50). Society did not accept man’s doing in circumstances such as that of Maggie and Pete’s. Contradicting societal views in his environment, and his willingness to abandon the justification of his sister illuminates his readiness to consent to the standards world in which he bred. Similarly, as Jimmie considers that “all sisters, excepting his own, could be ruined” (38), he verifies that he parallels Pete in his actions with women. Nonetheless, Jimmie’s irritation ends in nothing more than a pointless fist fight. Through these experiences, he ponders looking through his sister’s
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