During his visits to New York Crane was able to establish an understanding and develop a feeling for what life was like in the slums. He soon acquired a craving for individuality and a yearning to express his experiences. He began his mission by placing upon himself the desire to become his own individual, separating himself from other writers of the era by using his unique style of realistic writing as well as dialect (Cantwell, 141). According to Hamlin Garland a well-known critic as well as a writer during this time, Crane, “…gives the dialect of the slums as I never before seen it written—crisp, direct, terse” (121). His use of dialect throughout the novel is virtually impossible to ignore. The choppy uneducated lines and dialogue shows the obvious knowledge of the way the poor lived and the purpose behind the writing. Crane was able to develop his own dialect which was reflected in his writings. His dialogue is perhaps the best aspect of his writing gained through his experience. Crane used dialect as the basis of his writings (Karlen, 5843). All other techniques fell into place and based themselves around this aspect (Karlen, 5843). Crane’s unique way of expressing the events that are taking place is perhaps one of the most admirable qualities of his writings. “The girl, Parra 3Maggie, blossomed in a mud puddle. She grew up to be a most rare and wonderful production of a tenement district, a pretty girl”(Crane, 16). Crane’s choice of wording in this description of a grown Maggie is one of the many examples of Crane’s unique choice of wording in contrasting Maggie, a beautiful girl, to a mud puddle, the tenements, which she’d grown up around. Amo Karlen describes this kind of writing as being one of Crane’s, “…little masterpieces of the most subtle and difficult prose effects—rhythm, assonance, alliteration—and full of premeditate...
