Plum Bun and Maggie, a Girl of the Streets Compared free essay sample

Analysis of Jessie Redmon Fausets novel Plum Bun and Stephen Cranes novel Maggie, a Girl of the Streets. A comparative essay on the issue of identity and how gender constructs affect the heroines of both novels who choose either to fight their victimization or submit to their socially prescribed roles. The ideals of existing social structures have managed to deprive individuals of self-created identities. W.I. Thomas writes in The Unadjusted Girl: the role which a girl is expected to play in life is indicated to her by her family in a series of aesthetic-moral definitions of the situation She has been the subject of a far-going idealization [Hence, the individual] does not know she has any particular value until she learns it from others? (98). Thomas theory, that ones identity is determined by these aesthetic-moral definitions, is relevant to the characters in Stephen Cranes Maggie, a Girl of the Streets and Jessie Redmon Fausets Plum Bun whose identities are mere receptacles of societal projections. We will write a custom essay sample on Plum Bun and Maggie, a Girl of the Streets Compared or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Maggie is perceived as a prostitute by her family and neighbors; therefore she is a prostitute. Similarly, Angelas identity is complicated when she disowns part of it. Through the problematic identities of its characters both novels explore the fundamental rules of civilization that attempt to govern ones life. In Maggie, a Girl of the Streets and Plum Bun the embracing of ones identity is essential in defying these social constructions.