Social problems of New York slum society in 1890s as portrayed in Maggie : A Girl of The Streets by Stephen Crane

ABSTRACT

Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is a milestone in the development of literary naturalism and also considered a classic example of American naturalism. Because of the author’s effect that is influenced by Naturalism movement, this novel is finally published by exposing the real condition of society in time the novel was created. It seems to be suitable with the Glickberg’s statement that “all literature, however fantastic or mystical in content, is animated by a profound social concern, and this is true of even the most flagrant nihilistic work.”

In accordance with Glickberg’s statement above, the researcher tries to prove that statement by analyzing this novel which has two objectives of the study; those are exploring social problems that happen in the novel and describing the relation between social problems portrayed in the novel with the real phenomenon of New York slum society in 1890s. These two objectives of the study are supposed to be able to cover the focus of analysis and reach a good result.

In order to reach a maximal result, the researcher uses the tools of research that is suitable with the statement of the problems that is sociological approach. As an approach that has a perspective as social document in which is a reflection of a situation when it was created, the researcher hopes by using sociological approach in this analysis there will be a synchrony results because the main purpose of this analysis is whether the novel really written based on the real social condition of New York or not.

As the result of analysis, the researcher is sure that there are two results of this research. The first, there are some social problems that happen in the novel which really cause a bad effect to the slum people especially Maggie Johnson as main character such as poverty, prostitution, violent crime, and alcoholism. These problems are the effect of two main problem, those are over population and the unfair government that held the power. The second result is there is a relation between social problems in the novel with the real phenomenon of New York slum society in 1890s. This relation appears because this novel is written based on the real condition of society when this novel is created. So, it seems to be true that “all literature, however fantastic or mystical in content, is animated by a profound social concern, and this is true of even the most flagrant nihilistic work.”