Part 20 (2/2)

2 (p. 80) (p. 80) In the distance In the distance an an enormous brewery: enormous brewery: Here Crane includes a simple bit of foreshadowing. This brewery, snorting smoke like some kind of monster, is the creature that suffuses the entire story and is the source of George's downfall. Here Crane includes a simple bit of foreshadowing. This brewery, snorting smoke like some kind of monster, is the creature that suffuses the entire story and is the source of George's downfall.

3 (p. 83) (p. 83) He began to be vexed.... it was depressing: He began to be vexed.... it was depressing: This paragraph and the others describing the imagined prayer meeting are so vivid that they must have been based on Crane's own experiences in his ultrareligious childhood home. The religious regimen of his youth consisted of going to church twice on Sundays and once on Wednesdays, as well as twice-daily Bible readings at home. This paragraph and the others describing the imagined prayer meeting are so vivid that they must have been based on Crane's own experiences in his ultrareligious childhood home. The religious regimen of his youth consisted of going to church twice on Sundays and once on Wednesdays, as well as twice-daily Bible readings at home.

4 (p. 95) (p. 95) One day he met Maggie Johnson on the stairs: One day he met Maggie Johnson on the stairs: One can only say ”poor George” and ”poorer still Maggie.” If only they had stopped to chat ... One can only say ”poor George” and ”poorer still Maggie.” If only they had stopped to chat ...

5 (p. 108) (p. 108) almost the exact truth: almost the exact truth: In other words, at least one of George's co-workers knew what had happened earlier. George had gotten blind drunk somewhere and pa.s.sed out. In other words, at least one of George's co-workers knew what had happened earlier. George had gotten blind drunk somewhere and pa.s.sed out.

6 (p. 112) (p. 112) Kelcey sometimes wondered whether he liked beer: Kelcey sometimes wondered whether he liked beer: This is one of the most telling lines in the book, and certainly the funniest. If George had thought a bit harder about the question he would have realized that he probably didn't like beer and would be happier without it. This is one of the most telling lines in the book, and certainly the funniest. If George had thought a bit harder about the question he would have realized that he probably didn't like beer and would be happier without it.

Other Stories 1 (p. 157) (p. 157) Indeed, it was not until the Binkses had left the Indeed, it was not until the Binkses had left the city ... city ... recovered their balances: recovered their balances: Given that New Jersey has now become the punch line of jokes about urban sprawl and air pollution, it is hard to recall that until recently, the state of New Jersey was considered a verdant paradise compared with the smoky and cobble-bound New York City. Just across the Hudson River were green fields, fresh water, and the quiet of rural life. New Jersey supplied most of the fresh vegetables for New York and Philadelphia. It is no coincidence that New Jersey is called the ”Garden State.” Given that New Jersey has now become the punch line of jokes about urban sprawl and air pollution, it is hard to recall that until recently, the state of New Jersey was considered a verdant paradise compared with the smoky and cobble-bound New York City. Just across the Hudson River were green fields, fresh water, and the quiet of rural life. New Jersey supplied most of the fresh vegetables for New York and Philadelphia. It is no coincidence that New Jersey is called the ”Garden State.”

2 (p. 195) (p. 195) If If a a beginner beginner expects ... expects ... until the next morning: until the next morning: Crane steadfastly maintained that he had never smoked opium. The vividness of this paragraph suggests otherwise. When asked in open court about his opium use, Crane took cover behind the Fifth Amendment. Crane steadfastly maintained that he had never smoked opium. The vividness of this paragraph suggests otherwise. When asked in open court about his opium use, Crane took cover behind the Fifth Amendment.

AN INSPIRATION FOR CRANE'S WRITINGS ABOUT NEW YORK: JACOB RIIS'S HOW THE OTHER HALF LIVES AND MUCKRAKING Stephen Crane's Maggie: A Girl of the Streets Girl of the Streets (1893) was the first major work of naturalism in American fiction. The novel's vivid, unflinching narrative, set in the inhumane living conditions in the tenements of New York City, inspired scores of other American writers to record their observations with a near-photographic realism. Crane's material for his remarkably true-to-life novel came from firsthand experience. He had immersed himself in the very conditions he describes in (1893) was the first major work of naturalism in American fiction. The novel's vivid, unflinching narrative, set in the inhumane living conditions in the tenements of New York City, inspired scores of other American writers to record their observations with a near-photographic realism. Crane's material for his remarkably true-to-life novel came from firsthand experience. He had immersed himself in the very conditions he describes in Maggie Maggie and his newspaper articles, several of which appear in the present volume. and his newspaper articles, several of which appear in the present volume.

Three years before Maggie appeared, social activist Jacob Riis published an unfaltering depiction of life in New York City with How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York How the Other Half Lives: Studies Among the Tenements of New York (1890), a groundbreaking work of nonfiction and photography. Riis, who like Crane had a background in journalism, wrote a startling expose of the squalid existence of New York's immigrant poor. Riis's work, well-received from the start, had a tremendous impact on social policy. With its publication, officials recognized the appalling living conditions of many of the city's residents and made tenement reform a priority on the political agenda. Theodore Roosevelt, at the time New York City's police commissioner, called Riis ”the most useful citizen of New York.” (1890), a groundbreaking work of nonfiction and photography. Riis, who like Crane had a background in journalism, wrote a startling expose of the squalid existence of New York's immigrant poor. Riis's work, well-received from the start, had a tremendous impact on social policy. With its publication, officials recognized the appalling living conditions of many of the city's residents and made tenement reform a priority on the political agenda. Theodore Roosevelt, at the time New York City's police commissioner, called Riis ”the most useful citizen of New York.”

Much of the emotional appeal of How the Other Half Lives How the Other Half Lives arose from Riis's unforgettable photographs of the extreme misery of people living in tenements. The pictures forced readers to confront head-on the staggering circ.u.mstances of large numbers of people in a manner that prose could not possibly convey. Riis's explicit photographs allowed him to maintain a more subdued tone in his writing that lent credibility to his call for reform. The success of his work paved the way for Stephen Crane, who in many ways tried to replicate the photographic impact of arose from Riis's unforgettable photographs of the extreme misery of people living in tenements. The pictures forced readers to confront head-on the staggering circ.u.mstances of large numbers of people in a manner that prose could not possibly convey. Riis's explicit photographs allowed him to maintain a more subdued tone in his writing that lent credibility to his call for reform. The success of his work paved the way for Stephen Crane, who in many ways tried to replicate the photographic impact of How the Other Half Lives. How the Other Half Lives. Crane's narrative style is often referred to as ”imagistic,” and in Crane's narrative style is often referred to as ”imagistic,” and in Maggie, Maggie, his first mature work, Crane compensates for a lack of actual images with his colorful, even lurid prose impressions. his first mature work, Crane compensates for a lack of actual images with his colorful, even lurid prose impressions.

Crane and Riis are a.s.sociated with the tradition of American journalism known as ”muckraking.” The loose term refers to journalists who wrote expose and reform stories in the period between the 1890s and World War I. Overly sensational, condescending, and truth-distorting accounts by some journalists lent muckraking a dubious reputation, although many writers made their cases for reform with integrity. Notable ”muckraking” journalists include Lincoln Steffens, Ray Stannard Baker, and Ida Tarbell. Riis's How the Other Half Lives How the Other Half Lives inspired socialist-leaning author Jack London to write an a.n.a.logous depiction of London's East End, t.i.tled inspired socialist-leaning author Jack London to write an a.n.a.logous depiction of London's East End, t.i.tled The People of the Abyss The People of the Abyss (1903). (1903).

Upton Sinclair's muckraking novel The Jungle The Jungle (1906) is singular among works of fiction for its positive effect on the real world. The novel's horrifying descriptions of the unsanitary handling of food in Chicago's meatpacking district caused public outrage, and the reality of rotten and diseased food being offered to consumers was confirmed by Chicago newspapers. In response to the furor caused by (1906) is singular among works of fiction for its positive effect on the real world. The novel's horrifying descriptions of the unsanitary handling of food in Chicago's meatpacking district caused public outrage, and the reality of rotten and diseased food being offered to consumers was confirmed by Chicago newspapers. In response to the furor caused by The Jungle, The Jungle, Roosevelt, who had become president of the United States, ordered the Department of Agriculture to investigate conditions in the stockyards, and Congress pa.s.sed the Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act just months after the novel's publication. Roosevelt, who had become president of the United States, ordered the Department of Agriculture to investigate conditions in the stockyards, and Congress pa.s.sed the Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act just months after the novel's publication.

The term ”muckraking,” ironically, was coined as a pejorative by Roosevelt in 1906, more than a decade after he had praised Riis's work. The word comes from John Bunyan's Christian allegory The Pilgrim's The Pilgrim's Progress Progress (part I, 1678; part II, 1684), which refers to the Man with the Muck-rake: ”the man who could look no way but downward, with the muck-rake in his hand; who was offered a celestial crown for his muck-rake, but who would neither look up nor regard the crown he was offered, but continued to rake to himself the filth of the floor.” In coining the term in its modern application, Roosevelt meant to discourage the sort of reckless journalism that, rather than responsibly exposing injustices, attempted to increase circulation with negative stories dependent upon hyperbole and sensationalism-methods both Crane and Riis avoided. In signing the reform legislation, however, and in his praise of Riis, Roosevelt implicitly acknowledged the usefulness of ethical muckrakers. (part I, 1678; part II, 1684), which refers to the Man with the Muck-rake: ”the man who could look no way but downward, with the muck-rake in his hand; who was offered a celestial crown for his muck-rake, but who would neither look up nor regard the crown he was offered, but continued to rake to himself the filth of the floor.” In coining the term in its modern application, Roosevelt meant to discourage the sort of reckless journalism that, rather than responsibly exposing injustices, attempted to increase circulation with negative stories dependent upon hyperbole and sensationalism-methods both Crane and Riis avoided. In signing the reform legislation, however, and in his praise of Riis, Roosevelt implicitly acknowledged the usefulness of ethical muckrakers.

Later ”muckrakers” include civil-rights activist Angela Davis, feminist and political activist Gloria Steinem, Fast Food Nation Fast Food Nation (2001) author Eric Schlosser, and filmmaker Michael Moore, whose films include (2001) author Eric Schlosser, and filmmaker Michael Moore, whose films include Roger & Me Roger & Me (1989), (1989), Bowling for Columbine Bowling for Columbine (2002), and (2002), and Fahrenheit Fahrenheit 9/11 (2004). 9/11 (2004).

COMMENTS & QUESTIONS.

In this section, we aim to provide the reader with an an array of perspectives on the texts, array of perspectives on the texts, as as well well as as questions that challenge those perspectives. The commentary has been culled from sources questions that challenge those perspectives. The commentary has been culled from sources as as diverse diverse as as reviews contemporaneous with the works, letters written by the reviews contemporaneous with the works, letters written by the author, author, literary criticism of literary criticism of later generations, and appreciations later generations, and appreciations written throughout the works' histories. Following the commentary, written throughout the works' histories. Following the commentary, a a series of questions seeks to series of questions seeks to filter filter Stephen Stephen Crane's Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Other Writings About New York Crane's Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Other Writings About New York through through a a variety of points of view variety of points of view and and bring bring about a about a richer understanding of these enduring works. richer understanding of these enduring works.

Comments HAMLIN GARLAND.

['Maggie'] is of more interest to me, both because it is the work of a young man, and also because it is a work of astonis.h.i.+ngly good style. It deals with poverty and vice and crime also, but it does so, not out of curiosity, not out of salaciousness, but because of a distinct art impulse, the desire to utter in truthful phrase a certain rebellious cry. It is the voice of the slums. It is not written by a dilettante; it is written by one who has lived the life. The young author, Stephen Crane, is a native of the city, and has grown up in the very scenes he describes. His book is the most truthful and unhackneyed study of the slums I have yet read, fragment though it is. It is pictorial, graphic, terrible in its directness. It has no conventional phrases. It gives the dialect of the slums as I have never before seen it written-crisp, direct, terse. It is another locality finding voice....

The dictum is amazingly simple and fine for so young a writer. Some of the words illuminate like flashes of light. Mr. Crane is only twenty-one years of age, and yet he has met and grappled with the actualities of the street in almost unequalled grace and strength. With such a technique technique already at command, with life mainly already at command, with life mainly before him, before him, Stephen Crane is to be henceforth reckoned with. Stephen Crane is to be henceforth reckoned with.

-from Arena (June 1893) NEW YORK TIMES.

Mr. Crane pictures Maggie's home with colors now lurid and now black, but always with the hand of an artist. And the various stages of her career, until in despair at being neglected she, we are led to believe, commits suicide by jumping into the river, are shown with such vivid and terrible accuracy as to make one believe they are photographic. Mr. Crane cannot have seen all that he describes, and yet the reader feels that he must have seen it all. This, perhaps, is the highest praise one can give the book. Mr. Crane is a master of slum slang. His dialogues are surprisingly effective and natural. The talk Pete indulges in while intoxicated makes one see in his mind's eye the very figure of the loathsome beast for the loss of whom Maggie died.... Mr. Crane's story should be read for the fidelity with which it portrays a life that is potent on this island, along with the life of the best of us. It is a powerful portrayal, and, if sombre and repellent, none the less true, none the less freighted with appeal to those who are able to a.s.sist in righting wrongs.

-May 31, 1896

MORNING ADVERTISER.

A Girl of the Streets, Stephen Crane's latest novel, is a picture of the lowest stratum of society in its gloomiest form. It is as realistic as anything that Emile Zola has ever written. Though some of its chapters are enough to give one the 'creeps,' none can deny that the characters which he draws with such a master hand are absolutely true to life. The dialect is also natural, and nothing is lacking to give Devil's Row and Rum Alley, slums of the darker New York, such prominence as they never had before. It may, in fact, be said that Mr. Crane has discovered those localities and revealed them to the astonished gaze of the world for the first time. The reader, in going over the pages of A Girl of the Streets, Girl of the Streets, is reminded of nothing so much as the slimy things that crawl and blink when a long undisturbed stone is removed and the light is thrown upon them. The hero and heroine, if such they may be called, are Jimmie and Maggie Johnson, brother and sister, residents of Devil's Row. Maggie is the only redeeming character in the book, and even she does not redeem to any extent. She is betrayed and she dies, and the mourning of Devil's Row at her wake is fearfully grewsome. a.n.a.lytical powers are the chief feature of the novel. It is free from maudlin sentiment. No missionary ever ventures near Rum Alley. Its denizens are left to their own resources, and they simmer in them. is reminded of nothing so much as the slimy things that crawl and blink when a long undisturbed stone is removed and the light is thrown upon them. The hero and heroine, if such they may be called, are Jimmie and Maggie Johnson, brother and sister, residents of Devil's Row. Maggie is the only redeeming character in the book, and even she does not redeem to any extent. She is betrayed and she dies, and the mourning of Devil's Row at her wake is fearfully grewsome. a.n.a.lytical powers are the chief feature of the novel. It is free from maudlin sentiment. No missionary ever ventures near Rum Alley. Its denizens are left to their own resources, and they simmer in them.

-June 1, 1896

WILLIAM DEAN HOWELLS.

I think that what strikes me most in the story of Maggie Maggie is that quality of fatal necessity which dominates Greek tragedy. From the conditions it all had to be, and there were the conditions. I felt this in Mr. Hardy's Jude, where the principle seems to become conscious in the writer; but there is apparently no consciousness of any such motive in the author of Maggie. Another effect is that of an ideal of artistic beauty which is as present in the working out of this poor girl's squalid romance as in any cla.s.sic fable. This will be foolishness, I know, to the foolish people who cannot discriminate between the material and the treatment in art, and who think that beauty is inseparable from daintiness and prettiness, but I do not speak to them. I appeal rather to such as feel themselves akin with every kind of human creature, and find neither high nor low when it is a question of inevitable suffering, or of a soul struggling vainly with an inexorable fate. is that quality of fatal necessity which dominates Greek tragedy. From the conditions it all had to be, and there were the conditions. I felt this in Mr. Hardy's Jude, where the principle seems to become conscious in the writer; but there is apparently no consciousness of any such motive in the author of Maggie. Another effect is that of an ideal of artistic beauty which is as present in the working out of this poor girl's squalid romance as in any cla.s.sic fable. This will be foolishness, I know, to the foolish people who cannot discriminate between the material and the treatment in art, and who think that beauty is inseparable from daintiness and prettiness, but I do not speak to them. I appeal rather to such as feel themselves akin with every kind of human creature, and find neither high nor low when it is a question of inevitable suffering, or of a soul struggling vainly with an inexorable fate.

My rhetoric scarcely suggests the simple terms the author uses to produce the effect which I am trying to report again. They are simple, but always most graphic, especially when it comes to the personalities of the story; the girl herself, with her bewildered wish to be right and good; with her distorted perspective; her clinging and generous affections; her hopeless environments; the horrible old drunken mother, a cyclone of violence and volcano of vulgarity; the mean and selfish lover; a dandy tough, with his gross ideals and ambitions ; her brother, an Ishmaelite from the cradle, who with his war-like instincts beaten back into cunning, is what the b'hoy of former times has become in our more strenuously policed days. He is indeed a wonderful figure in a group which betrays no faltering in the artist's hand. He, with his dull hates, his warped good-will, his cowed ferocity, is almost as fine artistically as Maggie, but he could not have been so hard to do, for all the pathos of her fate is rendered without one maudlin touch.

So is that of the simple-minded and devoted and tedious old woman who is George's mother in the book of that name. This is scarcely a study at all, while Maggie is really and fully so. It is the study of a situation merely: a poor, inadequate woman, of a commonplace religiosity, whose son goes to the bad. The wonder of it is the courage which deals with persons so absolutely average, and the art that graces them with the beauty of the author's compa.s.sion for everything that errs and suffers. Without this feeling the effects of his mastery would be impossible, and if it went further or put itself into the pitying phrases it would annul the effects. But it never does this; it is notable how in all respects the author keeps himself well in hand. He is quite honest with his reader. He never shows his characters or his situations in any sort of sentimental glamour; if you will be moved by the sadness of common fates you will feel his intention, but he does not flatter his portraits of people or conditions to take your fancy.

In George and his mother he has to do with folk of country origin as the city affects them, and the son's decadence is admirably studied; he scarcely struggles against temptation, and his mother's only art is to cry and to scold. Yet he loves her, in a way, and she is devotedly proud of him. These simple country folk are contrasted with simple city folk of varying degrees of badness. Mr. Crane has the skill to show how evil is greatly the effect of ignorance and imperfect civilization. The club of friends, older men than George, whom he is asked to join, is portrayed with extraordinary insight, and the group of young toughs whom he finally consorts with is done with even greater mastery. The bulldog motive of one of them, who is willing to fight to the death, is most impressively rendered.

-from New York World (July 26, 1896)

H. G. WELLS.

The relative merits of the Red Badge of Courage Red Badge of Courage and and Maggie Maggie are open to question. To the present reviewer it seems that in are open to question. To the present reviewer it seems that in Maggie Maggie we come nearer to Mr. Crane's individuality. Perhaps where we might expect strength we get merely stress, but one may doubt whether we have not been hasty in a.s.suming Mr. Crane to be a strong man in fiction. Strength and gaudy colour rarely go together; tragic and sombre are well nigh inseparable. One gets an impression from the we come nearer to Mr. Crane's individuality. Perhaps where we might expect strength we get merely stress, but one may doubt whether we have not been hasty in a.s.suming Mr. Crane to be a strong man in fiction. Strength and gaudy colour rarely go together; tragic and sombre are well nigh inseparable. One gets an impression from the Red Badge Red Badge that at the end Mr. Crane could scarcely have had a gasp left in him-that he must have been mentally hoa.r.s.e for weeks after it. But here he works chiefly for pretty effects, for gleams of sunlight on the stagnant puddles he paints. He gets them, a little consciously perhaps, but, to the present reviewer's sense, far more effectively than he gets anger and fear. And he has done his work, one feels, to please himself. His book is a work of art, even if it is not a very great or successful work of art-it ranks above the novel of commerce, if only on that account. that at the end Mr. Crane could scarcely have had a gasp left in him-that he must have been mentally hoa.r.s.e for weeks after it. But here he works chiefly for pretty effects, for gleams of sunlight on the stagnant puddles he paints. He gets them, a little consciously perhaps, but, to the present reviewer's sense, far more effectively than he gets anger and fear. And he has done his work, one feels, to please himself. His book is a work of art, even if it is not a very great or successful work of art-it ranks above the novel of commerce, if only on that account.

-from Sat.u.r.day Review Sat.u.r.day Review (December 19. 1896) (December 19. 1896)

JOSEPH CONRAD.

[Stephen Crane] had indeed a wonderful power of vision, which he applied to the things of this earth and of our mortal humanity with a penetrating force that seemed to reach, within life's appearances and forms, the very spirit of life's truth. His ignorance of the world at large-he had seen very little of it-did not stand in the way of his imaginative grasp of facts, events, and picturesque men.

His manner was very quiet, his personality at first sight interesting, and he talked slowly with an intonation which on some people, mainly Americans, had, I believe, a jarring effect. But not on me. Whatever he said had a personal note, and he expressed himself with a graphic simplicity which was extremely engaging. He knew little of literature, either of his own country or of any other, but he was himself a wonderful artist in words whenever he took a pen into his hand. Then his gift came out-and it was seen to be much more than mere felicity of language. His impressionism of phrase went really deeper than the surface. In his writing he was very sure of his effects. I don't think he was ever in doubt about what he could do. Yet it often seemed to me that he was but half aware of the exceptional quality of his achievement.

This achievement was curtailed by his early death. It was a great loss to his friends, but perhaps not so much to literature. I think he had given his measure fully in the few books he had the time to write. Let me not be misunderstood: the loss was great, but it was the loss of the delight his art could give, not the loss of any further possible revelation. As to himself, who can say how much he gained or lost by quitting so early this world of the living, which he knew how to set before us in the terms of his own artistic vision? Perhaps he did not lose a great deal.

-from Notes on Life and Letters Notes on Life and Letters ( 1921 ) ( 1921 ) EDWARD GARNETT.

Two qualities in especial combined to form Crane's unique quality, viz his wonderful insight into, and mastery of, the primary pa.s.sions, and his irony deriding the swelling emotions of the self. It is his irony that checks the emotional intensity of his delineation, and suddenly reveals pa.s.sion at high tension in the clutch of the implacable tides of life. It is the perfect fusion of these two forces of pa.s.sion and irony that creates Crane's spiritual background, and raises his work, at its finest, into the higher zone of man's tragic conflict with the universe.... In ”Maggie,” 1896, that little masterpiece which drew the highest tribute from the veteran, W. D. Howells, again it is the irony that keeps in right perspective Crane's remorseless study of New York slum and Bowery morals. The code of herd law by which the inexperienced girl, Maggie, is pressed to death by her family, her lover and the neighbours, is seen working with strange finality The Bowery inhabitants, as we, can be nothing other than what they are; their human nature responds inexorably to their brutal environment; the curious habits and code of the most primitive savage tribes could not be presented with a more impartial exactness, or with more sympathetic understanding.

”Maggie” is not a story about people; it is primitive human nature itself set down with perfect spontaneity and grace of handling. For pure aesthetic beauty and truth no Russian, not Tchekhov himself, could have bettered this study, which, as Howells remarks, has the quality of Greek tragedy -from Friday Nights: Literary Criticism and Appreciation Friday Nights: Literary Criticism and Appreciation ( 1922) ( 1922) SHERWOOD ANDERSON.

Writers in America who do not know their Stephen Crane are missing a lot.

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