Mahendra Thapa

Desire, Despair and Death in Maggie: a Girl of the Street: Crumbling of the American Dreams of the Slum Dwellers Mahendra Thapa

This study analyzes Maggie: A Girl of the Streets on the basis of the life pattern of Maggie, the protagonist. It tries to show that Maggie's journey from life to death is convincingly predestined or shaped by the circumstances that come her way. However, it is worthwhile mentioning that it is Maggie's desire in the first place that prompts us to see a sequel as we consider Maggie's fate throughout the novel. Once Maggie's desire is made or set, the sequel of Desire, Despair and Death in Maggie's follows inevitably. Maggie is a simple girl born and brought up in a slum. Her childhood passes in exactly the same manner a slum child has to undergo. However, as she stands in her adolescence, she breaks the trend. Against her own family background, she grows up to be a girl who looks descent and uncontaminated by anything belonging to the slum. She is innocent and ignorant too. She doesn't know how selfish the people are and how unreal people are in their real self. In this case, it is Pete whose true self Maggie fails to recognize in time. He is intent to seduce her and he does it with his sophisticated talks and dandy dresses. Maggie sets a desire to be Pete's hoping that he will giv