Constraints On Self-Making In "Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets"

In “Maggie,” we see internal and external constraints on self-making. to a greater extent than importantly, the external factors that are in play before the mention is even aware that they are holding them back. Maggie is, first and foremost, a woman. This, during the time period, is restrictive enough. However, her social standing is damaging and leaves her with few options to become more. Maggie, as a member of the lower, working partition has very little knowledge of what the “others” are like make from those she passes in the street. Upon meeting Pete, Maggie uses him as a guide for how the “others” work and behave: “She vaguely tried to calculate the altitude of the meridian from which he must have looked down upon her” (969). Pete is the catalyst for Maggie’s desire for more than she has or is. She becomes more aware of the conditions she is intent in and is ashamed: “Some faint crusades she had made w ith puritanic ribbon, to freshen the expression of a dingy curtain, she now byword to be piteous” (969). This statement faden to us by the narrator illustrates not only her desire for a part way of life but also, by the narrator choosing rowing to describe her actions that she would never use, how unobtainable her desires are.

She has another vain travail at bettering her physical surroundings: “She spent some of her week’s pay in the purchase of flowered cretonne for a lambrequin. She made it with infinite care and hung it to the slightly-careening mantel, over the store, in the kitch en” (970). hence further in the chap! ter, amidst the wreckage she caused, “Maggie’s red mother, stretched on the floor, blasphemed and gave her womanish child a bad name” (970). This scene depict is emblematic and somewhat foreshadowing of Maggie’s future. She spends money from her baseborn muse to purchase something of decorative use only to give the appearance of an elevated station only to find that her...If you expect to know a full essay, order it on our website: BestEssayCheap.com

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