Naturalism In 'Maggie: A Girl Of The Street'

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American disharmonies. “Failures, moral ambiguity, corruption, misery - naturalism strikes a note of opposition in the utopic representation of America.” Discuss with reference to Crane. Maggie: a girl of the street by Stephen Crane situates within the frame of Naturalism. It tells the story of a girl who is forced to grow up in a hostile environment with her profligate family, facing everyday’s poverty and failure. The aim of this essay is to analyse the characteristics of Naturalism that seem relevant in the context of the novella and to illustrate them by reference to the primary source. in this attempt, a New-Criticism-based analysis will be employed. As said above, the novella is a Naturalistic one. Like Realism, Naturalism seeks to depict reality in all its aspects, insisting on the fact that everything that exists in the literary dimension is correlated to the exterior world. What distinguishes it from Realism is the interest towards the darker aspects of human beings or nature and the main difference is that Naturalistic characters shape their personalities according to the exterior factors that surround them, such as social backround, that work as latent forces and determine, unconsciously, their later behaviour. One characteristic of Naturalism is the interest towards …show more content…

Crane 205) Outside them though, the world carries on with its unrelenting rhythm. Life seemed merry because it happens far from them. The cars and the glittering lights were unapproachable; once they come closer, life becomes again common and dim: ‘The varied sound of life, made joyous by distance and seeming unapproachableness, came faintly and died away to a silence.’ (S. Crane

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