1. Critical Analysis of Crane's Text
2. Discussion of the Political Implications of "Determinism"
3. Familiarization with Literary Naturalism
4. Familiarization with zeitgeist of 1890's New York City
5. Participation in Formal Debate

• 1.A. Video Introduction
• 1.B  Synchronous Meeting: Introduce Project
• 1.C.  Homework Assignments: Group Work
• 1.D.  Synchronous  Discussion of Maggie Chapters 1-9
• 1.E.  Homework Assignments: Group Work
• 1.F.  Synchronous Discussion of Maggie Chapters 10-19
• 1.G  Debate Preparation
• 1.H Synchronous Live Debate
• 1.I. Feedback/ Deconstruct Video of Debate

• Watch video on Mid-19th Century Vision of the City: Crossing Brooklyn Ferry by Walt Whitman (on-line annotated version)
• Watch video on Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives (1888)  (video 9:44)
• Prepare answer to this question for discussion: What happened to Whitman's hopeful vision of the American city during the second half of the nineteenth century?
• Read the first chapter of the novel Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (1892):  Chapter 1: The Street Fight (3-6)

• Crane Biography (Youtube)
• Crane's Naturalism (Youtube)

• Setting: Describe the situation of children who grow up in the Rum Alley ghetto. (Does the arrival of adults make matters better or worse?)
• Who wins the pitched fisticuffs for the honor of Rum Alley?
• Who comes to Jimmie’s rescue? 
• How does Jimmie's Dad's react when he finds out his son has been brawling? 

• Plot: What can you predict will happen to the heroine in a melodrama? 
• melodrama- A dramatic form characterized by excessive sentiment, exaggerated emotion, sensational and thrilling action, and an artificially happy ending. 
• Will crane confirm or surprise these expectations?
  

• Style: What is Crane's perspective on his characters? Read out loud the moment when the convulsed tenements metamorphose into voracious animals (6) 

• Naturalism: A literary movement seeking to depict life as accurately as possible, without artificial distortions of emotion, idealism, and literary convention. The school of thought is a product of post-Darwinian biology in the nineteenth century. It asserts that human beings exist entirely in the order of nature. Human behavior is determined by two kinds of forces, hereditary and environment. The individual's compulsive instincts toward sexuality, hunger, and accumulation of goods are inherited via genetic compulsion and the social and economic forces surrounding his or her upbringing. (Literary Terms and Definitions)

• Is Crane obeying the rules of Naturalism?

• We will be doing a close reading of Maggie during the next two classes. You will be responsible for reading the whole text and also preparing  reports on a specific chapters to share with the class via Googledocs.
• We will be working towards a formal debate on the topic of Crane's philosphical perspective on the problem of poverty in New York City in  the 1890's. We will generate the debate topic during our next class.

The Bend, Jacob Riis
How the Other Half Lives (1890)

Sleeping Boys from Jacob Riis
How the Other Half Lives (1890)

Lewis Hines, Factory Girl (1908)

A Mother with Babes Jacob Riis
How the Other Half Lives (1890)

Jimmie

Lewis Hines, Adolescent Girls (1907)

Five Cents a Spot from Jacob Riis
How the Other Half Lives (1890)

Playing Dice, from  Jacob Riis
How the Other Half Lives (1890)

Daumier, Melodrama Show (1860)

A sweatshop in the 1890's

A Black and tan Dive from Jacob Riis
How the Other Half Lives (1890)

• Post answers to the questions on your chapter to the Googledocs study guide.
• Prepare a video paragraph in which you relate your chapter to one of the Key Questions and post it on the Video Thread page. 
• Quote the text to support your idea. 
• Review your classmates' posts before our next synchronized meeting and think about Crane's overall intention.

• Describe the situation of children who grow up in the Rum Alley ghetto. 
• Can you pinpoint a moment in Jimmie’s development when he could have altered the final shape of his character?
• Can you pinpoint a moment in Maggie's development into adulthood when she could have altered the final shape of her character?
• Remember that Maggie herself is a character in a melodrama. Is Crane hinting at a way for her to escape the plot in which she is enmeshed? 
• What is the only virtue which Mary Johnson possesses? Why is this particular virtue so important to tenement culture?
• What are we to make of Crane’s brutal ridicule of the poor? Is his stereotyping justifiable? What does he find most contemptible about Jimmie, Pete and Maggie? Could he be as savage in his depiction of the impoverished today? (Imagine Pete as a black man or as an Hispanic?)

• Chapter 2: The Johnson Family (6-9)
• Who are the members of the Johnson family?
  Who is in charge of the Johnson’s happy home? (7)
  What do the kids get fed for dinner? What does Mrs. Johnson have?
• What kind of childhood must Maggie survive? See Maggie eating her dinner (9)

• Chapter 3: Jimmie’s Evening Adventure (10-13)
• What does the old lady who lives next door to the Johnsons do for a living?
• What happens to the pail of beer that Jimmie buys for her? (11)
• Describe what Jimmie sees when he creeps back into his apartment?
• Note Crane’s ending to the first section of his narrative. (13)

• Chapter 4: Jimmie’s Determined Existence (13-16)
• Can you pinpoint a moment in Jimmie’s development when he could have altered the final shape of his character?
• the inexperienced fibers of the boy’s eyes were hardened at an early age. (10-16)
• Jimmie's Religion: How effective is the church’s intervention in Jimmie’s life? (13)
• Jimmie's Education: How does he spend most of his time as a teenager? (14) Why doesn't Jimmie ever go to school?
• Jimmie on the Job: What job does Jimmie finally land? Describe how Jimmie learns to deal with traffic
• Jimmie and the Law: How does Jimmie eventually get in trouble with the law? (16) What is the only thing in Jimmie's world which fills him with awe?

• Chapter 5: Maggie Blossoms ‘in a mud puddle’ (16-19) 
• Can you pinpoint a moment in Maggie's development into adulthood when she could have altered the final shape of her character? According to the melodramatic vision of the beautiful slum girl, how should Maggie escape poverty? 
• Maggie blossoms into ‘a puty good looker’(16)
• Maggie's Job: Describe what work in the sweatshop is like. (Did she have any trouble finding a job?) 
• Describe what Maggie sees when she meets sneering Pete for the first time? (17) What do you see?
• What tale does Pete tell to impress Maggie? He struts his stuff (17-19) 
• How does Maggie measure herself at this moment?

• Chapter 6: The Knight in Shining Armor (19-22)  
• Look at the way Maggie describes Pete and then again here. Now, listen to the way he talks. (What is Crane's point?) (19-22)
• How does Pete makes his move?
• What does Maggie believe she must do to make herself worthy of Pete’s affection?  Is this a moment of insight for Maggie? (19-20) 
• What does she dream about while working at the factory?

• Chapter 7: Pete and Maggie at the Vaudeville Show (22-25)
• How does Crane use the various entertainments he details to comment on the action of his story? 
• Where does Pete take Maggie on their first date? What does Maggie think when Pete insists that she be brought a big glass of beer? 
• Name some of the acts in the show. Describe Maggie's reactions to them.
• What is Pete’s response when Maggie won’t kiss him goodnight?
• On their subsequent dates Pete and Maggie go to dime museums (freak shows), to a menagerie in Central Park, and the Metropolitan Museum. Pete only likes the monkeys at the menagerie How does Maggie think? 

• Chapter 8: Maggie’s Sweatshop Reveries; The Melodrama Show (25-28) 
• Look carefully at the moment when Maggie realizes the future which awaits her in the factory. Has she recognized her situation in life?  Is Pete her route out of the ghetto? Does she have any other options?
• Describe the key moments Maggie treasures in the melodrama show?
• Think about what Crane is up to when he describes Maggie's reaction to seeing the melodrama show.  Remember that Maggie herself is a character in a melodrama. Is he hinting at a way for her to escape the plot in which she is enmeshed? Should she behave like the character with whom she identifies in the show?

• Chapter 9: Mama Goes on a Bender (28-31) 
• What event finally convinces Maggie to leave home and live with Pete? (31) 
• Did she have any choice in the matter? What curse rings in her ear when she leaves? 

Maggie

Jimmie

• Can you pinpoint a moment in Jimmie’s development when he could have altered the final shape of his character?
• Can you pinpoint a moment in Maggie's development into adulthood when she could have altered the final shape of her character?
• Remember that Maggie herself is a character in a melodrama. Is Crane hinting at a way for her to escape the plot in which she is enmeshed? 
• What is the only virtue which Mary Johnson possesses? Why is this particular virtue so important to tenement culture?
• What are we to make of Crane’s brutal ridicule of the poor? Is his stereotyping justifiable? What does he find most contemptible about Jimmie, Pete and Maggie? Could he be as savage in his depiction of the impoverished today? (Imagine Pete as a black man or as an Hispanic?)

Pete

Henri, Robert Salome 1909 Mead Art Museum

Daumier, Melodrama Show (1860)

John Sloan, Turning Out the Light (1904)

John Sloan, McSorley's Bar (1912)

John Sloan, The Haymarket (1907)

John Sloan,  Election Night (1907)

Nearing the East River

• Read  Maggie: A Girl of the Streets (part two) Study Guide Chapters 10-19  (pp.32-61) 
• Post answers to the questions on your chapter to the Googledocs study guide.
• Prepare a video paragraph in which you relate your chapter to one of the Key Questions and post it on the Video Thread page. 
• Quote the text to support your idea. 
• Review your classmates' posts before our next synchronized meeting and think about Crane's overall intention.

Key Questions:

• What prevents Maggie from achieving the insight necessary to understand her situation? What makes her unable to accomplish this goal? Do you hold her responsible?
• What could Maggie have learned from Nellie? Would that have saved her?
• What has Maggie realized when Pete throws her out of his bar? What options does Maggie have at this point?
• Could Maggie have done anything to interrupt this slide down the slippery slope? 

• Chapter 10: Jimmie’s Sense of Family Honor (32-34)
• What line has Maggie crossed when she sleeps with Pete? (Carefully consider the old neighbor's gleeful gossip and its effect on Jimmie. Why is a young woman’s reputation given such emphasis? Is a young woman’s virtue a potential path out of poverty?)
• How does Mother Johnson respond? How about Jimmie? (Note that he has committed the same sin several times.)

• Chapter 11: The Bar Fight (34-39)
• Describe the build-up to the fight? (What makes it so funny?) How does Crane describe Pete, Jimmie and Jimmie’s friend at the height of the bar fight? (38) What is Crane’s point? Why does he focus so intently on this scene?

• Chapter 12:  Maggie and Pete at the 'Hall of Irregular Shape' (39-41)
• Does Maggie have any sense of Pete’s readiness to dump her as she sits with him at the club? What is she thinking of instead? 
• What indications should she have noticed? To what kind of club has he taken her? (41)

• Chapter 13: Maggie’s Mortal Sin: “Queering” the Johnsons’ Reputation (41-44)
• How does Mary plan to save face in the building? 
• Why does the precinct judge think Mary must have forty-two daughters? 
• Why will Rum Alley society accept prodigal sons but not prodigal daughters? (43)
• What does Jimmie admit to himself but no one else about Maggie’s fall? (44)

• Chapter 14: The Hilarious Hall: Nell Steals Pete (44-48) 
•  Again, Crane devotes considerable space to describing the riotous atmosphere of ‘the hilarious hall’ where Maggie will lose Pete. (44) What is Crane’s purpose?
• Describe Nellie. What makes her so interested in Pete? How does her approach towards life (and men) differ from Maggie’s? What does she think of Maggie?
• How does Maggie respond to getting dumped?

• Chapter 15: The Return of the Prodigal Daughter (48-51)
• Who accosts Jimmie on the street before he arrives home to discover the return of the prodigal daughter? (49)
• How is Maggie driven from home? (50-51) What is Crane’s attitude towards the scene? Does he treat this moment as a great tragedy?

• Chapter 16: Pete’s Brief Struggle of Conscience (Any glimmers for Maggie?) (51-54)
• How does Pete explain to himself the violence of the Johnson’s anger? (51)
• Why is he afraid for his job when Mag comes by to confront him at the bar? (52) What does he tell her?
• To whom does she turn? Is this a moment of recognition for her? (53)

• Chapter 17: Maggie’s Walk to the East River (54-56)
• During Maggie’s walk to the East River, you can trace the stages in her descent: list the various potential ‘johns’ whom she passes. (54-56): Maggie's Descent
• Melodrama Film Idea?

• Chapter 18: Pete’s Apotheosis (56-60)
• How does Pete receive his comeuppance?
• What is he babbling about throughout the scene? 

• Chapter 19: “Mag’s Dead!” (60-61)
• What is Mary’s reaction when she finds out that Mag is dead?
• What do her fellow mourners demand from Mary?

Key Questions:

• What prevents Maggie from achieving the insight necessary to understand her situation? What makes her unable to accomplish this goal? Do you hold her responsible?
• What could Maggie have learned from Nellie? Would that have saved her?
• What has Maggie realized when Pete throws her out of his bar? What options does Maggie have at this point?
• Could Maggie have done anything to interrupt this slide down the slippery slope? 

• Discuss the philosophical term 'determinism' and decide whether this conception of Fate applies to Maggie.
• Revise Debate Resolution
• Debate Format
• Students schedule their own Google Hangout to divide up responsibilities and assign roles. With unlimited money, a student-mentor (coach) could be assigned to each group to monitor their progress. Otherwise, a team captain is assigned who will report to the teacher about progress.
• Debate Evaluation Rubric via  Googledocs
• The student writes his/her individual speech, and rehearses it online (via Asynchronous Un-Moderated voice thread).
• Encourage students to share comments and suggestions after reviewing each other’s speeches and anticipating rebuttal. (Google Hangout)

• Devise Debate Resolution: Does Crane hold Maggie Responsible for her fate?
• Debate Evaluation Rubric
• Video for Student Analysis
  

• Debate Evaluation Rubric
• Video for Student Analysis

• Creative Writing ala Crane
• Melodrama Projects
• Muckraking Journalism

• More Online Resources for The Gilded Age

• John Wanamaker, the Siegel and Cooper Department Store (1877)
• Andrew Carnegie, The Gospel of Wealth (1889) --selection
• Andrew Carnegie, Richest Man in the World (PBS Film)
• Social Darwinism and American Laissez-faire Capitalism--Herbert Spenser's "social darwinism"
• Eugene Debs addresses the American Railway Union (1894) --  American Socialism
• William Jennings Bryan, “The Cross of Gold Speech” (1896) -- call for a silver standard
• Thomas Bailey Aldrich, “Unguarded Gates” (1895) -- nativist white nationalism
• Thorstein Veblen, excerpts from Theory of the Leisure Class (1890)
• Overview of the Gilded Age; The Rise of Big Business; The Corporate Revolution; Why Business Grew; Corporations and the Law; The Debate Over Big Business; The Gospel of Wealth; Social Darwinsim; Controling the Shop Floor (the Taylor Method) (Digital History)
• The White City at the Chicago World's Fair (1893)
• Louis Sullivan at Great Buildings
• The Stanford White Murder Trial
• Gilded Age Mansions (Pinterest)
• E.L. Doctorow, Ragtime  (1975)
• The Gospel of Wealth: Robber Barons and the Rise of Monopoly Capitalism--a different view of the "gospel of wealth."
• Andrew Carnegie, Carnegie Steel Company and J.P. Morgan, U.S. Steel; John D. Rockefeller and Standard Oil
• Richard Hofstadter, The American Political Tradition (1948): “William Jennings Bryan: Democrat as Revivalist”; “Theodore Roosevelt: Conservative as Progressive”; 
• Doris Stearns Goodwin, The Bully Pulpit: Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, and the Golden Age of Journalism. (2012) see Doris Stearns Goodwin at Ted 

• The Era of Muckraking Journalism:
•  Jacob Riis, How the Other Half Lives (1888) Documenting the Other Half (UVA) (video) excerpt New York City Tenement Life, 1890, 
• Jane Addams (nobel.org) , excerpts from Twenty Years at Hull House (1910) "The Subjective Necessity for Social Settlements" (1892)
• McClure's Magazine (1893–1929) an American illustrated monthly periodical credited with having started the tradition of muckraking journalism. Examples of its work include Ida Tarbell's series in 1902 exposing the monopoly abuses of John D. Rockefeller's Standard Oil Company, and Ray Stannard Baker's earlier look at the United States Steel Corporation which focused the public eye on the conduct of corporations: What the U.S. Steel Corporation Really Is and How It Works ( November 1901);  The Reign of Lawlessness, May 1904; The Rise of McClure's--Chapter II of a book-length study of the most famous muck-racking magazine of the Progressive Era.
• Lincoln Steffens, excerpts from The Shame of the Cities (1904): reports on the workings of corrupt political machines in several major U.S. cities: the first of the muckraking exposes. See "Tweed Days in St. Louis" (1902) 
• Upton Sinclair, from  The Jungle (1906) (excerpt); see "USDA Government Inspected", Chapter Nine of After the Fact, The Condemned-Meat Industry, 1906 ; The Jungle (1906); 1906: Rumble over 'The Jungle'--Sinclair's famous muckraking novel.
• Contemporary: Luc Sante, The Lower Depths

• Realism and Naturalism in Art: 
• The Ashcan School in Painting (ppt) Shift from emphasis on symbol (realism) to image (naturalism);  Artcyclopedia; (MET); (Smarthistory)
• Recommended Paintings: Bellows: Forty-two Kids, Stag at Sharkey's, Excavation at Night; 
• Ash Can School: What Was It?  
• (John Sloan Exhibit NYTimes review)
• Grit and Revolution: The Ashcan School.

• Realism and Naturalism in Fiction: 
• Charles Dickens,  from American Notes, chapter 6: the Five Points (1842);  
• Riis, Howells and Crane Prose Experiment: 
• Crane,  "An Experiment in Misery" (1893); "A Dark, Brown Dog" (1901); "The Blue Hotel" (1898); "The Open Boat" (1899)
• Anzia Yezierska "How I Found America" from Hungry Hearts (1920) vs. 
• Naturalism (The Stone)

• Stephen Crane Biography (upper middle class parents, difficult childhood, baseball, Syracuse dropout to write for NYC tabloids,Maggie: A Girl of the Streets,  The Red Badge of Courage, acquaintance with Teddy Roosevelt during his tenure as NYC Police Commissioner) (See Caleb Crain, The Red and the Scarlet: The hectic career of Stephen Crane. The New Yorker 6-30-14) 

• The Silent Movie and Melodrama: 
• The Little Matchgirl (1902) a silent melodrama
•  D.W. Griffith. Broken Blossoms (1919)
• Silent Movie Music Tracks
• D.W. Griffith, Way Down East (1920) starring Lillian Gish
• D.W. Griffith, Birth of a Nation Clip 1 (1915)
• Alfred Hitchcock, Blackmail and Easy Virtue (1927)
• Humphrey Bogart in "Dead End" (1937)
• Dead End Kids "They Made Me A Criminal" (1939)
• The Lower Depths in NYC: Scorcese, Gangs of New York, Cable Series: Copper
• Creative Writing ala Crane