d irony or menacing beauty…”(5844). Aside from his contrasting views, the dialogue among Crane’s character’s is unavoidable and at times somewhat difficult to follow. “The conversation has the exactitude of the dull repetitious speech of half-drunken boasters, and Crane is responsible for the fictional theory that such repetition is realistic art”(Quinn, 534). Perhaps the best example of the uneducated dialogue between the characters is most evident at the beginning of the novel when Maggie and her bother Jimmy are just children. They have both just come home only to be greeted with the loud crying of a baby’s voice:Ah, what deh hell!, cried Jimmie. Shut up er I’ll smack yer mout’. See?….The father heard and turned about. Stop that Jim, d’yeh hear? Leave yer sister alone on the street. It’s like I can never beat any sense into yer dammed wooden head (Crane, 7).Scenes like these are typical in the opening chapters of the novel. His uncensored dialect help in the creation of Crane’s, “…modern slum-world, ferocious and sorid…”(Berryman58-59). It continues in this manner until Maggie and Jimmie are Parra 4introduced as young adults. The tone as well as the dialect of the book becomes much lighter and the tension between the characters lessens.The main focus of the remaining chapters is the change of Maggie. After being introduced to Peter, one of Jimmie’s friends, Maggie undergoes a drastic change. She becomes aware of her surroundings and begins to take note of the world around her. Perhaps the greatest irony of the novel lies in this change that occurs to Maggie. When first introduced to Maggie, we are given a picture of complete and utter innocence. She is presented to us as a strong, defiant child battling to overcome life’s hardships. She is unaware of life beyond her way of living and is much too nave to r...
