Walden and Maggie: The Chance of Shaping Ones Life

Maddie Evangelista English Blue Group 12-4-12

Maggie: Girl of the Streets by Stephen Crane and Walden by Henry David Thoreau show that with enough determination, one can change the course of his life. Maggie and Walden explore how self-reliance and self-knowledge are interconnected and essential for success, conveying that being independent builds a persons character and awareness of such character. The two texts are also exemplary of the idea that possessions can be burdensome, and both stories show why materialism is one of the downfalls of mankind. Implied throughout both texts is the message that who a person is and can be relies heavily upon circumstance. While Cranes Maggie follows the life of a girl with little control over her own life, Thoreau tells the story of how he shaped his life and how others can do the same in Walden. Maggie and Walden both condemn mans detrimental fixation on material possessions, demonstrate the relevance of independence to self-awareness, and show how chance and circumstance impact peoples lives. Stephen Cranes Maggie: Girl of the Streets tells the story of a poor girl named Maggie living in the city of New York who longs to escape her poverty. She becomes fascinated by an older boy named Pete, and likewise with his possessions and higher social class. Seeing what she could have and could be, Maggie begins to dwell on her lacking of extravagant possessions and appearance. She then regards her home in a new light, contemplat[ing] the dark, dust-stained walls, and the scant and crude furniture of her home Some faint attempts she had made with a blue ribbon, to freshen the appearance of a dingy curtain, she now saw to be piteous (53). Maggie goes on to painstakingly craft a lambrequin to display in her home to impress Pete, but he takes no notice and Maggie becomes upset with herself. Crane makes an example of Maggie, showing that because the extravagant material possessions she desires are out of her reach, they will only serve to hurt her. Maggie begins to constantly compare herself to the wealthy and debase her own lifestyle, and when Pete takes her

to a play, a luxury that she could never afford, she wonder[s] at the splendor of the costumes and los[es] herself in calculations of the cost of the silks and laces instead of indulging in the experience and simply enjoying herself (57). Crane delves into the idea that Maggie is preoccupied with the richs possessions solely because she has never known them. When attending the play with Pete, Maggie notices that Pete seems very comfortable and familiar with what, to her, is a spectacle, and a knowledge of this fact make[s] Maggie feel very little and new (56). Crane articulates the destructive nature of materialism through Maggie as she lets her newfound materialism make her feel inferior to those of a higher social class. Henry David Thoreau, like Crane, expresses a clear disapproval of materialism. In order to retreat from a society that he feels is fixated on frivolities, Thoreau goes to live in the woods by Walden Pond. He eliminates most of the material possessions from his life to display how a plethora of possessions is detrimental and can lead to an unhealthy dependence on them. Thoreau tries to improve his life and become better than the men who, through mere ignorance and mistake, are so occupied with the factitious cares and superfluously course labors of life that its finer fruits cannot be plucked by them (9). He means that by becoming entranced by the pointless things in life, gaining and appreciating those that matter, such as the knowledge he obtained from learning to live without material possessions, becomes more difficult. Thoreau also says that men nowadays overwork themselves to afford possessions that they put more effort into maintaining than they should for what they get out of them. Because men have exhausted themselves in order to acquire their possessions, they are too weary from their efforts to focus on anything other than material objects. He compares these working men to train passengers, saying that, No doubt they can ride at last who shall have earned their fare, but they will probably have lost their elasticity and desire to travel by that time, or their sight of

why they worked for their ticket in the first place (45). Thoreau takes a clear stance against materialism because of how he feels it has lessened mens understanding of their lives. Maggie also offers the idea that a lack of independence can coincide with a dangerous lack of self-awareness. Maggie is a poor girl living in a rough area of New York, yet still looks at life romantically, hoping that Pete, whom she glorifies as the beau ideal of a man, will save her from her unfulfilling life of poverty (52). She fails to realize, however, that Pete does not care for her enough to support her and that she will be unable to support herself without him or her family. After seeing the play with Pete, she wonder[s] if the culture and refinement she had seen imitated by the heroine onstage could be acquired by a girl who lived in a tenement house, but she does not apply this thought to her actual life and makes no effort to become independent so that she could be the kind of cultured and elegant woman that she adored from the play (62). Maggie blindly expects Pete to let her be dependent on him, but both her family and Pete reject her, and having nowhere to turn, she must resort to a life of prostitution, which eventually leads to her death. As Maggie approaches her death, she sees varied sounds of life, made joyous by distance and seeming unapproachableness and realizes too late that the happy life she had hope for was one that she could never obtain (89). Stephen Crane shows the reader that because Maggie is largely dependent on others for her well being, she is unable to put into perspective that she needs to make her own effort in order to achieve the sophistication that she craves. Thoreau, likewise, writes about how an extensive self-knowledge can stem from independence and self-reliance. One of Thoreaus principles by which he feels one should live is that one should be self-reliant. When a man depends on only himself, he learns about his needs, capabilities, strengths, and overall self through his trial and error of providing for himself. Dependence on others is not valuable to self-knowledge according to Thoreau because, Public

opinion is a weak tyrant compared with our own private opinion. What a man thinks of himself, that is what determines, or rather indicates his fate (10). Thoreau expresses that relying on others will not advance ones progress in life, while an insight into ones true self is what allows man to thrive. Stephen Crane, by showing how Maggies impractical and idealistic attitudes bring her down, creates the feeling that Maggie was unable to thrive simply because she was born into a poor family in a harsh place. Crane shows that Maggie blossomed and had potential rare to the mud puddle in which she grew up. Although none of the dirt of Rum Alley seemed to be in her veins, Maggie could not clean herself of the tatters and grime that came of living in the poor area that she did (49). Crane characterizes Maggie as a girl of intelligence and beauty beyond that of Rum Alley, and the philosophers up-stairs, down-stairs and on the same floor, puzzled over it (48). While Maggies mother and brother are discussing her moral decline, her brother interjects, saying that Maggie was not like any of the other girls who were in her situation and implying that he thought she was something noteworthy. Because Maggie lived in a harsh environment, her being remarkable was not enough to rescue her from poverty and her dismal fate. Crane expresses that while Maggie may have had potential in another place as part of another family, the poor circumstances of her life prevented her from making something of herself. Walden counters the idea that circumstance ultimately decides a persons fate, arguing that every man possesses the ability to amend his life. Thoreau asks the readers at the beginning of his narrative to examine their own lives and see what they want to alter about them. He conveys that since every man is different and has a different life, readers should not try to mimic his own new lifestyle, but to create their own. Thoreau argues that even though many of the

readers are poor, find it hard to live, are sometimes, as it were, gasping for breath, their struggles to survive are precisely what enable them to summon the strength to modify their lives to what they want them to be (9). Thoreau makes the case that regardless of a mans social or economic conditions, he can always defy circumstance and create the life that he wants to live. Stephen Crane and Henry David Thoreau explore the detriments of materialism, describe how self-reliance and self-awareness coincide, and create the idea that circumstance is the largest factor in determining ones lifestyle and success, but can sometimes be challenged. Maggie is a hopeful girl living in a harsh environment, and Crane shows that solely because she was born into such a life, she does not have room for romantic thoughts or dreams of luxury. She becomes fixated on material possessions that she cannot realistically obtain given her lifestyle, and she makes herself unhappy. Thoreau, however, was able to easily brush aside possessions because he was accustomed to them and felt no longing for what, to him, were commodities. He argues that regardless of a persons conditions, one can always have an impact on his own life. Through Maggies lack of control over her life and Thoreaus ability to manipulate his lifestyle at will, Maggie: Girl of the Streets and Walden exemplify how a persons desires and freedom to make choices are dependent on the circumstances into which one is born, and can be challenged only with a substantial amount of determination.

Works Cited Crane, Stephen. Maggie: Girl of the Streets. Boston/New York: Bedford/St. Martin's, 1999. Print. Thoreau, Henry David. Walden. 1849. New York: Barnes and Noble Classics, 2003. Print.