- The Influence of Social Disparity Toward the Main Character in Stephen Crane’s Maggie, A Girl of the Streets A Sociological Approach

Category : Literary Reseach

The writer of this research chooses a novel entitled Maggie A Girl of the Streets written by Stephen Crane as a topic of her writing. There are some considerations why the writer chooses this title as the subject of the study. First, the writer feels motivated to analyze the intrinsic elements such as character and characterization, setting, plot, point of view, and theme. Second, the writer feels motivated to analyze the description of the society reflected in the novel as seen from the social aspect, economic aspect and the cultural aspect. This thesis is intended to 1) describe the influence of social disparity towards the main character in the novel, 2) to describe the characterization of the main character, namely “Maggie” in the novel Maggie, a Girl of the Streets, 3) to understand and to describe the structural elements of the novel.

The writer uses two approaches; they are the objective approach (to describe the intrinsic element of the novel), and the mimetic approach (to reveal the American Society from this novel). This thesis employs the sociological study that is the writer uses the library research. The technique of collecting data is done through library study. The data are collected by the writer in library through the documentary study as the way of finding, studying and selecting references that are able to be data source. For the research instrument, the writer uses data card to record and to classify the data.

The result of the research can be described as follows: (1) The theme of this novel is the influence of poverty that causes prostitution. (2) There are four major characters: (a) Maggie, (b) Mrs. Marry, (c) Pete, (d) Jimmie. And six minor characters: (a) Mr. Johnson, (b) Tommie, (c) The Old Woman, (d) Nellie, (e) Miss. Smith, (f) Billie. (3) The setting of place is in Bowery, New York and the setting of time is about 1871-1900. (4) The plot of the story uses forward plot in which the story starts through four stages, namely: exposition, complication, climax, and resolution. (5) The author uses the third person limited point of view. (6) The description of American society as reflected in the novel especially the social disparity are: social, economy, and culture. The condition of prostitution, uneducation, alcoholic, having no skill, and the night life are common to their life. They try to support their life immediately. This is a portrait of society life in the slum area which happened in America. From this research, it is hoped that there are some moral teachings that the readers can get after analyzing this novel.
ABSTRACT Himmawati, Atik