Thoreau/Crane Paper

Amanda Rutledge
CAP English 9
Red Group
11/20/15

Henry David Thoreaus Walden and Stephen Cranes Maggie: A Girl of the Streets hold
comparing views on the idea of philanthropists, but hold contrasting views on the ideas of fate
and self-reliance. Thoreau writes Walden to detail his experiences during the two years he
chooses to live independently at Walden Pond. Thoreau journals what he surmised about human
existence during his stay. He believes that he obtains this knowledge by solidary living and
receiving no help or contact from other people. Along with information on how to better ones
life, Thoreau details expenses for his trip to Walden Pond, and how he lives without the material
objects in life people consider necessary. His writing is a non-fiction work, created by Thoreau to
dispel talk of what he experienced during his absence from everyday life (7). Cranes fictitious
Maggie tells a different tale. The story is not optimistic and, unlike Thoreau, does not describe a
situation where life can become better. Maggie, for whom the text is named, is a young girl
living in the tenements of New York City. Her family is poor, and her parents are cruel. She
grows up in the slums, and when she is older, falls in love with her brothers friend. Eventually,
he ruins her, and she is forced out of her home by her mother and brother (Crane 83). After
leaving home, she joins the painted cohorts of New York, having being forced to become a
prostitute to survive (87). At the end of Cranes novella, Maggie kills herself, the first and only
action in her life in which Maggie takes control. Even though the text of Walden compares to the
text of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets on the ideas of philanthropists, the texts strongly contrast on
the ideas of fate and self-reliance.
Henry David Thoreau and Stephen Crane would that while philanthropy itself is good in
idea, most philanthropists themselves are typically only kind to others out of self-interest. In the
section Economy of Walden, Thoreau states that in order for a philanthropist to be true, his
goodness must not be a partial and transitory act...which costs him nothing and of which he is

unconscious (63). Unfortunetely, according to Thoreau, these actions are often not done by
philanthropic people. Later in the section, Thoreau says that philanthropy hides a multitude of
sins (63). Thoreau also states that philanthropists use their good deeds as a part of a checklist.
He writes: thus, by a few years of philanthropic activityhe cures himself of his dyspepsia
(64). This passage supports Thoreaus assumption that if philanthropists are only helpful as a
necessity, his/her actions are only for personal benefit. In Cranes Maggie, philanthropists play a
similar role. After Maggie has been kicked out of the tenement by her mother and brother, the
other families come into the hallway to watch the spectacle. A baby crawls toward Maggie and
another woman sprang forward and picked it up will a chivalrous air (Crane 84). The word
chivalrous often has a positive connotation, but is negative in this context. The philanthropist
is trying to protect a child from Maggie, who has just been outcast from the only family she has
ever known. People who actually intend to spread good would not have to shun a scared,
harmless, teenaged, girl. In this passage, Crane is stating that philanthropists who mean well
often do not exist in reality, much less in the chaos and noise that engulfs the tenements of New
York. Later in the novella, Maggie is walking the streets. Having heard about the kindness of the
church, she decides to stop a clergy man on the street. He turns away, for how was he to know
that there was a soul before his that needed saving? (87). Normally, a member of the clergy is
supposed to represent a person of great power and forgiveness. When faced with Maggie,
however, the man simply steps aside. He decides not to act as a philanthropist, even if that is
what his profession entails. It is in this way that Crane shows that even outside of the tenements,
many people are falsely philanthropic in their actions.
While Henry David Thoreau and Stephen Crane compare on the ideas of philanthropy,
they contrast on the ideas of fate. Thoreau mentions that ones fate is not predetermined, and that

changes in life can be made by anyone. He has the idea that humankinds obsession with fate
has, in part, something to do with the Bible. He writes, men labor under a mistake and that
they are employed, as it says in the old book (9). According to Thoreau, people can chose their
own life path. He writes: The young may build or plant or sail, only let him not be hindered
(59). Thoreau believes that young adults have many dreams and ambitions, but are trained by
society to remember these hopes to be unobtainable. To change ones life path, he/she must try
hard and push forward, no matter the hardships. Crane disagrees with Thoreau, using his words
to state that fate seals ones life path. Maggie is doomed to despair from birth, having
blossomed in a mud puddle (Crane 49). The tenements where she grows up are filled with
crime and anger, her brother having been a member of the street fights from a young age. Even if
Maggie seems to grow up without the dirt of Rum Alley, Maggie is still doomed to an early
death (Crane 49). After becoming a prostitute to survive on the streets of New York, Maggie
eventually decides to kill herself. It is the only decision in Maggies short life that she can claim
as her own. In her death, the varied sounds of life...died away to a silence (Crane 89). The
same intense emotions that have been present in Maggies upbringing play a large role in her
death, and Maggie has no protection from the cruel streets of New York City. In these passages,
Crane determines that Maggie, like many others born to less fortunate circumstances, are and
will be stuck in their lives, no matter what people do to alter fate.
Thoreau and Crane also disagree on the ideas of self-reliance. Thoreau has the mentality that
self-reliance is something to strive toward and something that needs to be achieved to complete
ones life. Thoreau uses the ideas of excess to support the idea that the one can be, and would
succeed at being, self-reliant. The writing that it would be some advantage to live a primitive
and frontier life...to learn what are the gross necessaries of life was essentially why Thoreau

decided to journey out to Walden Pond (14). Thoreau also writes that inheritance is sin that
deferrs self-reliance. He states: I see young men...whose misfortune it is to have inherited
farms, houses, barns, cattle, and farming tools (8). Upon removing the unneeded, young people
can live life to the fullest. Crane has the conflicting opinion that self-reliance, while appearing to
be a good concept, is not obtainable in many situations. He uses the example of the character
Maggie in his novella, who eventually dies because she has no one to turn to. After Maggie is
kicked out of her home, she wandered around aimlessly for several blocks, stopping once and
asked aloud a question of herself (Crane 86). Since Maggie has been ruined by Pete, her
family no longer allows her in the house, and Maggie does not have any idea what to do. Her
whole life has been with her family in the slums, and Crane argues that, in her particular
position, self-reliance is not an option. In the novella, Maggie also has not the opportunity to be
self-reliant because of her upbringing. Before she is kicked out, when Maggie returns home late,
her mother confronts her with where deh hell yeh been? (Crane 84). Throughout her life in
Rum Alley, Maggies mother had been a negative impact, pushing Maggie around with either
physical or emotional violence. When Maggie is kicked out, she is forced to make the transition
from being consumed by negative forces to being completely alone. She is forced into becoming
a prostitute because of this. Maggies life in Rum Alley and on the streets of New York City are
hard and unyielding, and Crane uses his work to show that in some circumstances, there is no
possible way for people to be self-reliant.
Walden, written by Henry David Thoreau and Maggie, A Girl of the Streets, written by
Stephen Crane, compare on views of philanthropists, but contrast on views of fate and selfreliance. This is, in part, because of the literary movements each work represented. Thoreau is a
transcendentalist. The Transcendentalist Movement was founded on the beliefs of rising above

normal society, interest in common man, and the absence of organized religion. These
characteristics are seen in Thoreaus writing and are a reason that Thoreau believes so
passionately about the rise from ones fate and the need to be self-reliant. Crane is a part of a
literary movement almost the opposite of transcendentalism; realism. Realist authors, like Crane,
sought to tell stories of the poor and needy. The characters often had flaws that lead to their
downfalls, and live in the poor tenements of major cities. Maggie was more tragic than Walden.
The two authors do agree on that philanthropists are false. Both authors write that
philanthropists often ignore those who need aid, or complete philanthropic actions for personal
benefit. In the end, the shared view on philanthropists is not enough to create two like texts.
Thoreau and Crane created two unique and powerful literary pieces, that while comparing on
ideas of philanthropists, strongly contrast on ideas of fate and self-reliance.

Works Cited:
Crane, Stephen. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. 1892. Boston: Bedford, 1999. Print.
Thoreau, Henry David. "Walden." Walden and Civil Disobedience. New York: Barnes and
Noble Classics, 2003. Print.