Crane's exigence in ''Maggie'' is not to establish and promote the need for change in the women's work force, but to promote consciousness of social and economic equality, especially in the slums of America.
What he does to really establish his motivation is he presents us with a character who does not have to resources to lift herself up, whose only choice is to dig herself in deeper. Not only that, but at a point in the book, he also presents us with a character who directly contrasts Maggie--the wealthy older man who, without a second thought, side-steps Maggie, and in doing so, he represents a socially and economically negligent America as a whole. America has also side-stepped these slums, America has put them at the back of its hive-mind. With "Maggie", Crane seeks to wake America up to the smell of dirty, slumming bodies and says without saying it, "Look at this. There is something wrong."
I completely agree. I even wrote about this in my Critical Analysis. I can definitely see how people might think Maggie: A Girl of the Streets has a feminist agency, because Maggie is the one that is harmed and killed, while the men in the story like Jimmie and especially Pete, are able to survive their environments. However, I think Crane's main purpose was to uncover the wrongs in society's such as Maggie's and bring it to light. His abundant use of animal imagery implies that Maggie's environment is inhuman, primal, and animalistic--things that no human society wants to be. I also think that the scene where Maggie approaches the clergyman is very important. This is the pivotal scene right before Maggie becomes a prostitute. Because the man side-steps Maggie and ignores her, it is implying that the ignorance of society is what ultimately destroys Maggie, because right after this interaction, Maggie is wandering the streets as a prostitute. Because Crane makes these appeals to society, it is more likely that Maggie: A Girl of the Streets succeeded in bringing about more change than it would have if he had not included critiques of Maggie's society.
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