Maggie: A Girl of the Streets Poverty Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

As thoughts of Pete came to Maggie's mind, she began to have an intense dislike for all of her dresses. (8.1)

First the apartment, now her clothes. Maggie has dreams and aspirations of playing the princess to Pete's knight in shining armor.

Quote #8

The air in the collar and cuff establishment strangled her. She knew she was gradually and surely shriveling in the hot, stuffy room. The begrimed windows rattled incessantly from the passing of elevated trains. The place was filled with a whirl of noises and odors. (8.5)

Work in a stuffy factory seems all the gloomier now that Maggie has met her golden boy and imagined the possibility of a different life. Her senses are assaulted by the environment, making industrial work a true form of punishment.

Quote #9

In the hero's erratic march from poverty in the first act, to wealth and triumph in the final one, in which he forgives all the enemies that he has left, he was assisted by the gallery, which applauded his generous and noble sentiments and confounded the speeches of his opponents by making irrelevant but very sharp remarks. (8.24)

In this book, rags-to-riches tales are only fictions to watch unfold on stages. Alas, Maggie crosses her fingers they might apply to her life someday anyway.