In his novel Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, Stephen Crane used two particular types of symbolism to dehumanize common people and to emphasize their filthiness, low quality of life, and inability to rise above their place in the world. Crane used animal images, such as worms and bugs, as well as color symbols, such as yellow and pale green, to portray the ugliness and insignificance of the common people's plight.
In Maggie a Girl of the Streets, Stephen Crane uses animal images and color symbolism to de-humanize and emphasize the filthiness and insignificance of the common people.
Crane begins using animal images and color symbols in the beginning of MAGOTS, when he refers to a line of convicts as a worm: ."..a worm of unknown convicts..." (1). By comparing the convicts to a worm, Crane emphasizes both the filthiness and insignificance of the common people. Worms are grubby creatures that live in the dirt and grime. The link between the convicts and the dirty worms shows that the convicts are filthy, just like the worms. Worms are very small and insignificant creatures. This comparison shows just how little the lives of the lowly common people mean to the rest of the world. Crane continues, connecting colors to the convicts: .".. came from the shadow of a gray ominous building..." (1). The fact that the convicts emerge from the shadow of a gray, ominous building is also very important. The color gray symbolizes boredom, lifelessness and sorrow. Symbols connected with shadows are also very negative. The connection of the color gray to the convicts emphasizes the dullness and unhappiness of their lives. The image of a worm in association with the symbols connected to the color gray work to de-humanize, and stress the dirtiness and insignificance of the common people.
As the story continues, Crane compares the common people to bugs once again: "In him grew a majestic contempt for those strings of street cars that followed him like intent bugs" (5). This link works to de-humanize the commoners by comparing them to bugs. The association also shows the insignificance of the common people once again. Bugs are small and unimportant just as the common people are trivial to the rest of the city. After this simile, Crane compares the common people to insects a third time: "Foot passengers were mere pestering flies with an insane disregard for their legs and his convenience" (5). Flies are dirty, annoying, and small. Yet again, Crane stresses the insignificance and dirtiness of the commoners by comparing them to small, dirty flies. These images of bugs work to emphasize the dirtiness and insignificance of the common people.
As the story continues, Crane uses more color symbolism in association with the common people. He often uses the color yellow: "She received a stool and a machine in a room where sat twenty girls of various shades of yellow discontent" (5). The image of the color yellow paints a picture of something old, dull, and worn-out. These images are much like the lives of the tedious, dingy common people who live dreary, monotonous lives. Symbolically, yellow is the most expansive and intense of all the colors. The association of yellow with the common people discloses that the terrible quality and monotony of their lives is everlasting. This color symbolism further emphasizes the dirtiness and the low quality of life that the common people possess.
As Crane progresses, many new symbolic colors appear. During a particular bar scene, color symbolism is evident: "An orchestra of yellow silk women and bald-headed men on a elevated stage near the center of a great green-hued hall..." (7). Once again, the color yellow is present. Yellow continues symbolizing the everlasting filth and horribly quality of life that the common people endure. The green hued hall represents the growth and improvement in life that many of the common people desire. Though the people stand on a stage near the center of a green-hued hall, they still remain apart from it. This physical situation parallels the lives of the common people. They may hope for an improved quality of life, and though it seems to be within reach, they never attain it. Their lives remain dingy, sorrowful, and repetitive forever. This use of color symbolism once again calls attention to the common peoples' everlasting filth and low quality of life.
Crane continues with another color-symbol rich scene in which Maggie and Pete go to a play. A particular scene in the play parallels the lives of the common people: "The latter spent most of his time out at soak in pale-green snow storms, busy with a nickel-plated revolver, rescuing aged strangers from villains" (8). The "pale-green snowstorms" in the play symbolize the lives of the common people, and what eventually becomes of them. Green symbolizes growth and development. And "pale" represents no change. The combination of "pale" and "green" symbolizes no growth. Also, during a snowstorm, nothing grows because of the freezing snow. The pale-green snowstorms that Maggie and Pete see in the play parallel the lives of the common people because the common people never experience growth, and rise above their place in the world.
As the story proceeds, Crane uses the "pale-green snowstorms" again. He uses it to increase the isolation of the common people from the rest of the world: " When anybody died in the pale-green snowstorms, the gallery mourned. They sought out the painted misery and hugged it as akin" (9). People within the "pale green snowstorms" remain cut off from the rest of the world. This furthers the idea that the common people are separate and insignificant to those in better situations. It is almost as if these low-class people live within a snowstorm, hidden from the rest of the world. They are meaningless to all of the people who have different lives outside the "snowstorm." Those within the snowstorm will remain there until death, never rising above their place in the world. The isolation the "pale-green snowstorms" cause contributes to the everlasting low quality of life, and the insignificance of the common people.
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