Color Imagery In Maggie: A Girl Of The Streets

Color imagery is an important part of Stephen Crane's impressionistic style. Using color with great variety, Crane associates it with his characters, with these characters' hopes and fears, and with aspects of the environment. His color imagery contributes forcefully to his ideology and the themes in his work. Maggie: A Girl of the Streets reflects Crane's deterministic, fatalistic philosophy which is evident in its themes.

The predominant color used in Maggie is red, followed by black, yellow, and blue. Although the color is used symbolically, much of it is used realistically and some of it is used with symbolic overtones. Color images surround each character in Maggie. It is significant that Crane uses red, a color traditionally associated with prostitutes, sparingly in images surrounding Maggie.

The colors white and black also contributed largely to the imagery associated with Maggie. When Jimmie, creeps silently into the rooms in order not to arouse his drunken parents, Maggie is described with a white face. This is realistic use of white, because Maggie is fearful, and has symbolic overtones signifying her innocence. 

Another realistically accurate description of Maggie, but again with symbolic connotations, is made by Nellie. She comments that Maggie is a little pale thing with no spirit. However, Maggie's paleness contrasts with the intensity of her death; in committing suicide she escapes the hopelessness of her environment, but for Nellie and Pete there is no escape. 

Going on her first date with Pete, Maggie fears that she might appear mouse-colored. That she sees herself as gray, indicates her inability to survive. She does not survive because unlike Jimmie Maggie is a romantic. Being romantic, she perceived Pete as an ideal man. Maggie associates Pete with gold color and it is the only mention of the color. The color rose is also used once in the novel. It connotes happiness. Maggie imagines the future as rose-tinted as it is distanced from her experiences. Rose and gold exist only in Maggie's mind.

Maggie's descent to the river is itself, symbolically depicted. Her walk to the river and her death are viewed in terms of light and shade. Increasing blackness envelops her as she approaches to water. Crane juxtaposes society's indifference to the individual by contrasting darkness and light. As a prosperous, well-dressed group of people emerge from the theaters, Maggie, a prostitute, walks in the rain.

In contrast to Maggie, the colors most often associated with her mother are red and yellow. Both have unpleasant connotations. Although used mostly for descriptive purposes, these colors also have symbolic suggestions. Red describes her skin as well as her emotional state. Her red skin connotes not only the harshness of her physical being and personality but of her world.