me on earth. The one person that most children can count on is their mother. Maggie’s mother Mary was not the role model most daughters have. Instead Mary was the cold one, abusing and having addictions in front of her children. The Johnson family didn’t communicate and were not passionate, so when Maggie tried to defy the system, she only ended up hurting herself.Crane’s sympathy was given toward almost everyone, mainly Maggie because he allowed her to fall. One of the remarkable things about Maggie is that although the novel refuses to blame Maggie, the community still doesn’t forgive her for her mistakes. When she tries to return home her mistakes are exposed more then the environmental factors that lead to her downfall and death. Maggie's romantic nature doesn’t give her the ability to see the world clearly, and becomes much to blame for her downfall, as are the forces of reality. This is a novel that shows sympathy to the humanity of every one of its characters, with the arguable exception of Mary. The novel recognizes that, to a great extent, these are people brutalized and hardened and victimized by social forces beyond their control. But it is also a novel that humiliate through showings of cheap pity. Even as it extends sympathy to all its characters, it critiques the injustices they work, their hypocrisy, sentimentalism, ridiculous ideas and attitudes. Maggie is a novel that forgives and seeks to understand even those things that it cruelly exposes. Who is to blame for these tragedies that continue to repeat themselves, tragedies that recycle? Crane’s handling of Maggie is one that is very American. It leaves the reader without closure of the character. After Maggie’s death her mother wants too forgive her, but it is all too late. Nathaniel Hawthorne’s treatment of Hester Prynne was too be expected because of the society she lived in and of course because her “mis...
