Maggie: A Quick Read edition: A Girl of the Streets

Crane's novella is a demonstration of literary naturalism, a philosophical term that suggests a biological and environmental determinism in full control of the individual's life.The title character, Maggie Johnson, was born and brought up in a very chaotic and traumatic environment. Her parents were drunkards, her mother was violent, and her brother Jimmie could not care less for his sister's portion of that gloomy inheritance. In such dreary circumstances, Maggie discovered Pete, one of her brother's friends. His polished appearance and superior bearing to all of Maggie's acquaintances had fatally drawn her towards him. Her naivete in all that concerned love-making sprang from a lack of training since her drunkard mother was utterly could not and did not provide moral guidance. In this manner, the gloomy ending which awaited her appears fatalistic and unavoidable in accordance with the guidelines of naturalism.At the same time, the novella illustrates a sad case of abandonment, the worst part of which is arguably Jimmie's desertion of his sister. Maggie is depicted ever since the earliest chapters to have nurtured a tender affection for her brother with whom she had nestled closely whenever their parents were fighting. To be betrayed by him was, consequently, equivalent to being betrayed by life itself. This desertion on the part of Jimmie reflects the moral degradation and hypocrisy of the age. The Johnson household was, by no means, a pinnacle of respectability. The mother was a regular at court, a drunkard, and a vulgar woman. Jimmie, himself, had had experiences with women, and had afterwards wondered negligently whether they were somebody else's sisters. In such a tainted and despicable family, the most saintly member was Maggie. But the hypocrisy of her community had singled her out as the scapegoat of a fictitious respectability, which had prompted everyone to turn their backs on her, and thus force her into a gloomy and inevitable end.