Maggie: A Girl of the Streets Fate Versus Free Will Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

The babe, Tommie, died. He went away in a white, insignificant coffin, his small waxen hand clutching a flower that the girl, Maggie, had stolen from an Italian.

She and Jimmie lived. (4.1-2)

Crane reports events around life and death as if they are not at all surprising—perhaps because in a world in which existence is predestined, nothing is surprising.

Quote #5

The inexperienced fibres of the boy's eyes were hardened at an early age. He became a young man of leather. He lived some red years without laboring. During that time his sneer became chronic. He studied human nature in the gutter, and found it no worse than he thought he had reason to believe it. He never conceived a respect for the world, because he had begun with no idols that it had smashed. (4.3)

To make it in this game, you have to harden yourself fast. Here, we hear about Jimmie and how life never surprises him: He has always expected things to be grim, so he's not disappointed because he never expected anything in the first place.

Quote #6

While they got warm at the stove, he told his hearers just where he calculated they stood with the Lord. Many of the sinners were impatient over the pictured depths of their degradation. They were waiting for soup-tickets. (4.3)

Meanwhile, at the Church… the priest is telling people who don't give two hoots about God just what God thinks about them. The only reason people are put off by hearing about their place with God is that it delays the meals they are so eager to receive.