Jillian Wilson

CAP Honors English

9A
Period Six
December 23, 2014

Henry David Thoreaus Walden

and
Stephen Cranes Maggie: A Girl of
the Streets: A Compare and

Henry David Thoreau, in Walden, and Stephen Crane, in Maggie:

A Girl of the Streets, would agree in their perspectives on
philanthropists, but would disagree on the role of self-reliance and the
idea that choice determines a persons life path instead of fate.
Walden is about the two years Thoreau spends in a cabin he builds
next to Walden Pond. During those two years, Thoreau leads a simple
life as he tries to find out the essentials of life and learns to give up
many things, both material and spiritual, that prevent a person from
achieving true happiness. In Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, Crane tells
the story of a young girl who is learning how to survive in the slums of
late 19th-century New York City. Maggie and her brother, Jimmie,
discover new things such as love, alcohol, and temptation. Maggie
eventually turns to prostitution to gain money to support her family.
Henry David Thoreau and Stephen Crane would agree with each
others views on philanthropists. Although Thoreau supports the idea
of helping others, he is cynical of people's motivations, stating that a
person's ". . . goodness must not be a partial and transitory act, but a
constant superfluity, which costs him nothing and of which he is
unconscious"(63). Thoreau believes that to truly do something for
others, the action should be done selflessly, lamenting that a
"philanthropist too often surrounds mankind with the remembrance of
his own cast-off griefs, as an atmosphere, and calls it sympathy" (63).
Stephen Crane expresses his view that philanthropists are hypocrites

through the character of the priest, " . . . a stout gentleman in a . . .

chaste black coat whose decorous reached from his chin to his knees"
(86). Maggie, in desperate need of spiritual and physical help,
approaches the clergyman, since his "eyes shone good-will" (86). But
as Maggie "timidly accosted him, he gave a convulsive movement and
saved his respectability by a vigorous side step (86-87). Crane
depicts a hypocritical clergymen, who is supposed to be a
philanthropist to everyone, especially those who are in need of help.
Instead of absolving her of her sins, he avoids her since in his mind she
is a ruined soul beyond saving.
Henry David Thoreau and Stephen Crane would disagree with
each others views on self-reliance. Thoreaus first paragraph in
Walden says " . . . I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor,
in a house which I had built myself, on the shore of Walden Pond, in
Concord, Massachusetts, and earned my living by the labor of my
hands only (7). He then goes on to say that men have become the
tools of their tools (33), meaning that the more people use complex
tools to help them do things, the less they know how to do things
simply. They do not rely on their own ingenuity and what they can do
without tools, because the tools have become a part of their lives and
make them forget how to be self-reliant. To Thoreau, self-reliance is
something that all people should have so no one needs to ask for help.
Stephen Crane, on the other hand, believes that people should rely on

others and be allowed to ask for help, which is shown through Maggies
character. When Maggie is with Pete at a music hall, Maggie was pale.
From her eyes had been plucked all look of self-reliance. She leaned
with a dependent air towards her companion (73). Throughout the
story, Maggie relies on Jimmie, Pete, and her parents for everything
and is unsure of what to do with herself when they refuse to help her.
When Pete refuses to help Maggie after she's been kicked out of her
tenement, "She wandered aimlessly for several blocks. She stopped
once and asked aloud a question of herself: 'Who?' " (86). Crane shows
that a person should always be allowed to rely on others or else she
might not survive.
In addition to their contrasting view of self-reliance, Henry David
Thoreau and Stephen Crane would also disagree with each others
views on whether choice or fate determines a persons life path.
Thoreaus belief is that What a man thinks of himself, that is what
determines, or rather indicates, his fate (10-11). Thoreau believes
that achieving personal goals is possible through the life choices one
makes, and through hard work and good decisions, and that one's
potential is unlimited, because ". . . man's capacities have never been
measured; nor are we to judge of what he can do by any precedence,
so little has been tried" (12). Stephen Cranes view is that a persons
fate is predetermined. Crane writes that Jimmie . . . 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 to smash" (46). Since Jimmie has
always lived in New York Citys slums, he never thinks about becoming
rich and living in better conditions because he believes that would be
unattainable to a person such as himself. When Pete takes Maggie to
the theatre, She wondered if the culture and refinement she had seen
imitated, perhaps grotesquely, by the heroine on stage, could be
acquired by a girl who lived in a tenement house and worked in a shirt
factory (62). She wonders about it, but never achieves the goal of one
day being like the heroine in the play. To Jimmie and Maggie, living
anywhere besides a tenement building seems like a fantasy, something
that they can only dream about achieving.
Henry David Thoreau and Stephen Crane have similar opinions
about philanthropists, but different opinions about self-reliance and
how choice determines a persons life paths instead of fate. Thoreau
and Crane would both agree that philanthropists can be hypocritical,
and that one must be truly selfless to give to others. Thoreau believes
that a person can choose his fate and must rely on his own skills to
achieve his goals, while Crane creates the character of Maggie who
needs to rely on others to survive, and believes that fate has sealed
her station in life. Both authors have very different writing styles, yet
somehow manage to get the same messages across to readers.

Works Cited

Thoreau, Henry David. Economy. Walden and Civil Disobedience.

New York:

Barnes & Noble, 2003. 7-63.

Crane, Stephen. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. Boston: Bedford/St.

Martins, 1999.