Maggie: A Girl of the Streets and Other Writings About New York (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)

1 (p. 7) for the honor of Rum Alley ... howling urchins from Devil’s Row: As far as can be determined there was neither a Rum Alley nor a Devil’s Row in Manhattan. Crane used these unpleasant names to underscore the squalor in which he had set his story. Rum Alley could be construed as a gentle dig at his mother’s devotion to the cause of temperance.

2 (p. 7) a dock at the river: The river mentioned here is the East River, which is not a river at all, but a tidal estuary that connects Upper New York Bay with Long Island Sound.

3 (p. 7) Over on the Island: This is a reference to Blackwell’s Island (now Roosevelt Island), which has been home to prisons, a quarantine hospital, and a potter’s field. Because the island can be seen from Rum Alley, we know that the action of the story takes place in a slum on the east side of Manhattan known as Dutch Hill, roughly where the United Nations building stands today.

4 (p. 18) The babe, Tommie, died: These four simple words are typical of Crane’s writing style. This clipped, emotionless, technique was the antithesis of the more flowery style of the day.

5 (p. 19) His father died and his mother’s years were divided up into periods of thirty days: This is another example of Crane’s dispassionate voice. (“Thirty days” is a reference to the fact that she is living month to month in her hovel.) It is interesting to note that there is no mention of extravagant grief over the death of a husband and child, as opposed to Mary Johnson’s lamentations following the death of her daughter.

6 (p. 21 ) Yet he achieved a respect for a fire engine: The thundering of fire engines through the chaotic streets stopped even the most jaded New Yorkers in their tracks. Jimmie, who respects very little, respects the firemen in their rigs because they are stronger and even greater daredevils than he is.

7 (p. 22) “Deh moon looks like hell, don’t it?”: This is perhaps the most famous line in the book, and the inarticulate limit of Jimmie’s appreciation of life beyond the gutter.

8 (p. 22) “Mag, I’ll tell yeh dis!” Here Jimmie explains Maggie’s options, the two choices of slum women—hell (prostitution) or the presumed reward of heaven that comes with monotonous, unhealthy, poorly paid labor.

9 (p. 23) to a boxing match in Williamsburg: Williamsburg was a separate city from New York and Brooklyn. Presumably going to far-off Williamsburg was something of an adventure. Williamsburg was later incorporated into the city of Brooklyn, which in turn became a borough of New York City in 1898.

10 (p. 29) nationalities of the Bowery: As the legitimate theater moved uptown, the Bowery, which had once been the great entertainment center of New York, was given over to tawdry dance halls and music halls such as the one described here.

11 (p. 33) She began to see the bloom: This is almost the only example in the book of Maggie’s sense of her own worth.

12 (p. 42) “Anybody what had eyes could see dat dere was somethin’wrong wid dat girl. I didn’t like her actions”: The neighbors in the tenement function as a chorus commenting on the action of the story. They are by turns mocking, appalled, offended, and, as this line illustrates, almost always wrong.

13 (p. 53) ease of Pete’s ways toward her: This is a simple suggestion that Pete is bored with Maggie and ready to move on. His excitement at seeing Nell a few lines later only compounds this.

14 (p. 63) Maggie went away: With these three words Crane tells the reader, but not Maggie, that this is the beginning of the end for her.

15 (p. 65) she was neither new, Parisian, nor theatrical: Although we get the impression that Maggie was the most naive, inept prostitute to walk the streets of New York, this line suggests that she must have gained some worldly knowledge in the course of her brief career.

16 (p. 72) “She’s gone where her sins will be judged”: Here is another example of the tenement dwellers acting as commentators on the action of the story.

George’s Mother

1 (p. 78) A man with a red, mottled face ... shook his fist: This paragraph tells us that although we are now in the world of the upright, hardworking Kelceys, we are back in the slums, back in Maggie’s milieu.

2 (p. 80) In the distance an 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.

3 (p. 83) 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.

4 (p. 95) 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 ...

5 (p. 108) 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 passed out.

6 (p. 112) 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.

Other Stories

1 (p. 157) Indeed, it was not until the Binkses had left the city ... 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.”

2 (p. 195) If a beginner expects ... 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.