Analysis of The Portrayal of The Female Protagonist as a Prostitute in Paulo Coelho's 'Eleven Minutes' and Stephen Crane's 'Maggie: A Girl of The Streets'.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................... i
TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study......................................................................
Statement of the Problem .....................................................................
Purpose of the Study ............................................................................
Method of Research .............................................................................
Organization of the Thesis ...................................................................
1
3
3
4
4
CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF THE PORTRAYAL
OF THE FEMALE PROTAGONIST AS A PROSTITUTE
IN ELEVEN MINUTES .................................................................... 5
CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF THE PORTRAYAL
OF THE FEMALE PROTAGONIST AS A PROSTITUTE
IN MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS.................................... 15
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION ............................................................ 25
BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................... 29
APPENDICES:
Synopsis of Eleven Minutes.................................................................
Synopsis of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets ...........................................
Biography of Paulo Coelho..................................................................
Biography of Stephen Crane ................................................................
ii
32
34
36
38
Maranatha Christian University
ABSTRACT
Dalam Tugas Akhir ini, saya menganalisis karakter yang ada pada
tokoh utama dalam novel Eleven Minutes karya Paulo Coelho serta Maggie: A
Girl of the Streets karya Stephen Crane. Walaupun kedua tokoh utama tersebut
berprofesi sama, yaitu menjadi pelacur, karakteristik yang ada pada kedua tokoh
tersebut sangatlah berlawanan.
Penggambaran seorang pelacur dalam tokoh utama yang bernama
Maria dalam novel Eleven Minutes yang memiliki karakteristik berani, penasaran,
sombong, religius, berkeinginan kuat, serta bijaksana mengundang perhatian
banyak pembaca karena penggambarannya yang begitu positif. Hal ini dilakukan
oleh Coelho karena ia ingin menampilkan konsep ide utamanya, yaitu pencarian
jati diri melalui prostitusi.
Sedangkan penggambaran pelacur dalam tokoh utama Maggie dalam
novel Maggie: A Girl of the Streets sangatlah berlawanan dengan tokoh Maria.
Maggie digambarkan sebagai seorang gadis yang tidak berpendidikan, naif dan
pasrah sampai akhirnya kematian menjemputnya. Penokohannya sangatlah negatif.
Hal ini dimaksudkan oleh Crane untuk menciptakan gambaran kehidupan nyata di
Amerika, khususnya di kota New York pada saat industrialisasi mulai
berkembang serta bentuk sindiran secara tidak langsung terhadap zaman
romantisme yang digambarkan dengan kemewahan yang elegan.
iii
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SYNOPSIS OF ELEVEN MINUTES
BY PAULO COELHO
Maria, a young girl from the interior of Brazil, has her heart broken by
her first innocent brushes with love and convinces herself that love is a terrible
thing that will make her suffer. Then, as time goes by, she grows to become a
beautiful girl from a poor family. Her adventure starts when she goes to
Switzerland for a holiday but unintentionally she is offered a job as a samba
dancer by a foreigner. However, that job does not last long because she feels
cheated by the boss. Instead of going back to Brazil, she chooses to stay and work
as a prostitute in an expensive bar called the Copacabana.
There, she learns how to please men by reading books about sex in a
library. She even participates in a sadomasochism activity. With the hope that one
day she will go back to Brazil triumphantly and buy a farm for her parents, Maria
works hard in order to get a lot of money.
One day when she meets a special client named Ralf Hart, she is
gradually faced with two hard choices: she has to keep being a prostitute or she
has to end her adventure and follow her heart to love Ralf Hart.
Finally, Maria decides to stop working as a prostitute in the
Copacabana and go back to Brazil. Unexpectedly, she meets Ralf Hart again when
32
she transits in Paris. Not wanting to lose someone she loves for the nth time, she
decides to get together with Ralf Hart and they live happily in the end.
33
SYNOPSIS OF MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS
BY STEPHEN CRANE
Maggie, a young beautiful girl, lives in the tenements of the Bowery, a
slum area of New York City. She comes from a broken family and lives with her
mother, Mary, and her two brothers Jimmie and Tommie. Her brother, Jimmie,
and she always suffer child abuse. Her mother gets used to hitting and pounding
them every time she gets drunk.
As time passes, her father and her little brother, Tommie, die. She
grows up to be a beautiful girl who is covered by poverty. Pete, Jimmie’s friend
and a bartender, begins dating her. She is taken to the public entertainments by
him. Feeling cared for by Pete, she starts to be interested in him. She sees in him a
promising escape from the misery of her present life. She even puts her life in his
hand because she thinks of him as her hero.
There comes a night when Maggie comes home, her mother throws her
out of the house because her mother accuses her of doing something bad and
disgracing her family. She then leaves home and lives with Pete. Her behavior
becomes a neighborhood scandal. The neighbors often ask her mother about her
existence.
A few weeks after leaving her house, she is with Pete in a bar where
they meet Nellie. Nellie is Pete’s friend who influences Pete to leave Maggie.
34
Abandoned, Maggie tries to return home, but she is rejected by her family. She
then visits Pete at work, and he refuses her too because he thinks that he is not
responsible for her and her ruin; besides, he is also tired of her.
After several months, Maggie becomes a prostitute in the street of New
York. She tries hard to get a client, but no one hires her. The next day, there is the
news that her dead body is found in the river.
35
BIOGRAPHY OF
PAULO COELHO
Coelho was born on August 24, 1947 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where
he attended law school, but in 1970 abandoned his studies to travel throughout
Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile, as well as Europe and North Africa. Before
dedicating his life completely to literature, he worked as theatre director and actor,
lyricist and journalist. He and his wife Christina live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and
in Tarbes, France.
In 1982 Coelho published his first book, Hell Archives, which failed
to make any kind of impact. In 1985 he contributed to the Practical Manual of
Vampirism, although he later tried to take it off the shelves, since he considered it
bad quality. In 1986, Paulo Coelho did the pilgrimage to Saint James of
Compostella, an experience later to be documented in his book The Pilgrimage. In
the following year, Coelho published The Alchemist. Slow initial sales convinced
his first publisher to drop the novel, but it went on to become one of the best
selling Brazilian books of all time.
Other titles include Brida (1990), The Valkyries (1992), By the river
Piedra I sat Down and Wept (1994), the collection of his best columns published
in the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo entitle Maktub (1994), the
compilation of texts Phrases (1995), The Fifth Mountain (1996), Manual of a
36
Warrior of Light (1997), Veronika Decides to Die (1998), The Devil and Miss
Prym (2000), the compilation of traditional tales in Stories for Parents, Children
and Grandchildren (2001), Eleven Minutes (2003), The Zahir (2005). He also
adapted The Gift (Henry Drummond) and Love Letters of a Prophet (Kalil Gibran).
Coelho has sold a total of 75 million copies and, according to the
magazine Publishing Trends; he was the most sold author in the world in 2003
with his book Eleven Minutes – even though at the time it had not been released in
the United States, Japan and 10 other countries.
(Source: “Paulo Coelho”)
37
BIOGRAPHY OF
STEPHEN CRANE
Stephen Crane was born in Newark, New Jersey, as the 14th child of a
Methodist minister Jonathan Townley Crane and his wife Mary Helen Peck Crane
in 1871. Crane started to write stories at the age of eight. At 16 he was writing
articles for the New York Tribune. Both of his parents did some writing and two of
his brothers became newspapermen. His mother was active in the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union, and published fiction. His first article, on the
explorer Henry M. Stanley, appeared in 1890 in Villette. Crane studied at
Lafayette College and Syracuse University. After his mother's death in 1890,
Crane moved to New York. He worked as a free-lance writer and journalist for the
Bachelor-Johnson newspaper syndicate. While supporting himself by his writings,
he lived among the poor in the Bowery slums to research his first novel, Maggie:
a Girl of the Streets (1893), a milestone in the development of literary naturalism.
Crane had to print the book at his own expense, borrowing the money from his
brother. Crane's faithfulness to accuracy of details led him once to dress up as a
tramp and spend the night in a flophouse. This produced the sketch 'Experiment in
Misery' in 1894. Crane's work also inspired other writers, such as Hutchins
Hapgood (1869-1944), to examine the Lower East Side.
38
In 1898 Crane settled in Sussex, England, where he became friends
with Joseph Conrad, H.G. Wells, and Henry James. During these restless years,
Crane refined his use of realism to expose social ills, as in George's Mother
(1896), which explored life in the Bowery. In 1899 appeared Active Service,
which was based on the Greco-Turkish War.
In 1899 Crane returned to Cuba, to cover the Spanish-American War.
Due to poor health he was obliged to return to England. Crane died on June 5,
1900 at Badenweiler in Germany of tuberculosis, which was worsened by malarial
fever he had caught in Cuba.
Crane’s works introduced into American literature realism although his
innovations in technique and style and the use of symbolism gave much of his
best work a romantic rather than a naturalistic quality.
(Source: “Stephen Crane”)
39
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Prostitution is generally defined as performing or offering to perform a
sexual act for money or anything that is valuable. Prostitution is always related to
sex by many people. It is a taboo thing to talk about in our culture, but it is not the
case in Eleven Minutes written by Paulo Coelho and Maggie: A Girl of The
Streets written by Stephen Crane. In these two novels, prostitution is considered
natural because the protagonists live their lives by being prostitutes. They become
prostitutes because of the poverty they have to face. They do not have high
education and enough experience to work aside from being prostitutes.
In Eleven Minutes and Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, the protagonists
come from a low-class society. They are raised in poverty and they work as
prostitutes.
In Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, Maggie comes from a low-class
society in one part of New York City's impoverished Bowery neighborhood. She
makes a living as a prostitute because she was rejected to return home by her
family after she was left by the boy with whom she ran away to escape from the
misery of her childhood. In Eleven Minutes, the protagonist, Maria, comes from a
1
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small village in Brazil. She goes to Switzerland to seek her fortune, but she ends
up as a prostitute because of her choice as a path of self-discovery and love.
The author of Eleven Minutes, Paulo Coelho, is one of the world’s
bestselling authors and he dares to write about prostitution in a positive point of
view. In addition, Paulo Coelho uses daring words in his novel about sex and this
makes a different view in the reader’s eyes. I agree with Patricia Martín’s writing
in Biafra Nigeria World Magazine, that: “The ideas, philosophy and subject
matter covered in his [Coelho’s] books touch the aspirations of millions of readers
searching for their own path and for new ways of understanding the world.”
(Martín). Paulo Coelho also entered the Guinness Book of Records as the author
that signed more books in different editions. He won the Bambi 2001 Award in
Germany, Golden Book in Yugoslavia 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 and
2004, Wilbur Award presented by the Religion Communicators Council in USA
2006, and many more. His works have been translated into 62 languages, and
published in more than 150 countries. From all the novels, Eleven Minutes topped
all lists in the world, except for England, where it was in second place.
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is written by Stephen Crane. It is his first
novel which is a result of his learning much about big city life and his
explorations of the Bowery when he began his career as a newspaper journalist in
New York City. This novel shows realistic conditions of America at that time. He
describes every detail in a realistic way. I also agree with what is said in
amazom.com: “…, he lived among the poor in the Bowery slums to research his
first novel, Maggie. Crane's faithfulness to accuracy of details led him once to
dress up as a tramp and spend the night in a flophouse, …” (Luikonen). Because
2
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of his effort to show realism in his first novel, he won favorable attention from the
influential novelists Hamlin Garland and William Dean Howells. Stephen Crane
is the first realist that introduced realism to American literature.
In my major thesis, I am going to analyze the portrayal of the female
protagonist as a prostitute in Eleven Minutes and Maggie: a Girl of the Streets
using formalism. A character itself is defined as “an imaged person who inhabits a
story” (Kennedy 45). An author may have a motivation to create such characters
through the actions and the behaviors of the characters in the story (Kennedy 45).
Some novelists may create such characters using an omniscient way in telling the
story in order that they can reveal a view of the world which is, however disguised,
his alone (Harvey 74). In this analysis, I want to show the characteristics of the
two protagonists and also the reason why both authors create such characters.
Statement of the Problem
There are some statements of the problem in analyzing these two
novels (Eleven Minutes and Maggie: A Girl of the Streets) using formalism:
1. How are the protagonists portrayed in the novels?
2. Why do the authors create such protagonists?
Purpose of the Study
In this analysis, the purpose of the study is:
1. To show how the protagonists are portrayed in the novels.
2. To show why the authors create such protagonists.
3
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Method of Research
The method of research I use in this study is library research. First, I
look for and read the novels I want to discuss for my major thesis. Second, I find
the information from the references in the library and multimedia source to help
me with the analysis. I then analyze the two novels using references and make the
conclusion.
Organization of the Thesis
This thesis is divided into four chapters that are preceded by the
Acknowledgements and the Abstract. Chapter One is the Introduction consisting
of Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the Study,
Method of Research, and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two is the analysis
to find the portrayal of the protagonist in Eleven Minutes. Chapter Three is the
analysis to find the portrayal of the protagonist in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets.
Chapter Four is the Conclusion. The thesis ends with the Bibliography and the
Appendix, which consists of the Summaries of the two novels and the Biographies
of the two Authors.
4
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary text:
Coelho, Paulo. Eleven Minutes. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.
Crane, Stephen. Maggie: a Girl of the Streets. New York: Penguin Group, 1991.
Book References:
Harvey, W.J. Character and the Novel. New York: Cornell University Press, 1965.
Kennedy, X.J. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 3rd
Edition. London: Little Brown, 1983.
Internet References:
Campbell, Donna M. “Realism in American Literature,1860-1890.” Literary
Movements. 20 Oct. 2007
Coelho, Paulo. “How I came to write Eleven Minutes.” Harper Academic.com. 12
Sept. 2007
Coelho, Paulo. “PAULO COELHO ANSWERS QUESTIONS ABOUT ELEVEN
MINUTES”. March 2003. Harper Academic.com. Trans. Margaret Jull
Costa. 12 september 2007
29
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Gale, Thomson. “Encyclopedia of World Biography on Stephen Crane.” 2006. 4
March 2007
Hickenbottom, Iris Leos. “Women’s Issues Then & Now: Prostitution.” 18 May
2002. 12 Sept. 2007
Luikonen, Petri. “Stephen Crane (1871-1900).” 2003. 29 Oct. 2006.
Martín, Patricia. “Profile of Paulo Coelho the Alchemist.” Biafra Nigeria World
magazine 2002. 8 March 2007
.
Naturalism.org. “Center for Naturalism.” 20 Oct 2007
SparkNotes. “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets: Chapter 14-19.” 20 Oct. 2006.
SparkNotes. “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets: Summary.” 20 Oct. 2006.
Online Internet Services. “Biography”. 2006. 4 March 2007
.
Wikipedia.org. “Naturalism (Literature).” 18 Oct. 2007. 20 Oct.2007
Wikipedia.org. “Paulo Coelho.” 26 Oct. 2006. 29 Oct. 2006
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Wikipedia.org. “Stephen Crane.” 17 Oct 2007. 20 Oct. 2006
31
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS........................................................................... i
TABLE OF CONTENTS............................................................................... ii
ABSTRACT .................................................................................................... iii
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study......................................................................
Statement of the Problem .....................................................................
Purpose of the Study ............................................................................
Method of Research .............................................................................
Organization of the Thesis ...................................................................
1
3
3
4
4
CHAPTER TWO: ANALYSIS OF THE PORTRAYAL
OF THE FEMALE PROTAGONIST AS A PROSTITUTE
IN ELEVEN MINUTES .................................................................... 5
CHAPTER THREE: ANALYSIS OF THE PORTRAYAL
OF THE FEMALE PROTAGONIST AS A PROSTITUTE
IN MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS.................................... 15
CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSION ............................................................ 25
BIBLIOGRAPHY .......................................................................................... 29
APPENDICES:
Synopsis of Eleven Minutes.................................................................
Synopsis of Maggie: A Girl of the Streets ...........................................
Biography of Paulo Coelho..................................................................
Biography of Stephen Crane ................................................................
ii
32
34
36
38
Maranatha Christian University
ABSTRACT
Dalam Tugas Akhir ini, saya menganalisis karakter yang ada pada
tokoh utama dalam novel Eleven Minutes karya Paulo Coelho serta Maggie: A
Girl of the Streets karya Stephen Crane. Walaupun kedua tokoh utama tersebut
berprofesi sama, yaitu menjadi pelacur, karakteristik yang ada pada kedua tokoh
tersebut sangatlah berlawanan.
Penggambaran seorang pelacur dalam tokoh utama yang bernama
Maria dalam novel Eleven Minutes yang memiliki karakteristik berani, penasaran,
sombong, religius, berkeinginan kuat, serta bijaksana mengundang perhatian
banyak pembaca karena penggambarannya yang begitu positif. Hal ini dilakukan
oleh Coelho karena ia ingin menampilkan konsep ide utamanya, yaitu pencarian
jati diri melalui prostitusi.
Sedangkan penggambaran pelacur dalam tokoh utama Maggie dalam
novel Maggie: A Girl of the Streets sangatlah berlawanan dengan tokoh Maria.
Maggie digambarkan sebagai seorang gadis yang tidak berpendidikan, naif dan
pasrah sampai akhirnya kematian menjemputnya. Penokohannya sangatlah negatif.
Hal ini dimaksudkan oleh Crane untuk menciptakan gambaran kehidupan nyata di
Amerika, khususnya di kota New York pada saat industrialisasi mulai
berkembang serta bentuk sindiran secara tidak langsung terhadap zaman
romantisme yang digambarkan dengan kemewahan yang elegan.
iii
Maranatha Christian University
SYNOPSIS OF ELEVEN MINUTES
BY PAULO COELHO
Maria, a young girl from the interior of Brazil, has her heart broken by
her first innocent brushes with love and convinces herself that love is a terrible
thing that will make her suffer. Then, as time goes by, she grows to become a
beautiful girl from a poor family. Her adventure starts when she goes to
Switzerland for a holiday but unintentionally she is offered a job as a samba
dancer by a foreigner. However, that job does not last long because she feels
cheated by the boss. Instead of going back to Brazil, she chooses to stay and work
as a prostitute in an expensive bar called the Copacabana.
There, she learns how to please men by reading books about sex in a
library. She even participates in a sadomasochism activity. With the hope that one
day she will go back to Brazil triumphantly and buy a farm for her parents, Maria
works hard in order to get a lot of money.
One day when she meets a special client named Ralf Hart, she is
gradually faced with two hard choices: she has to keep being a prostitute or she
has to end her adventure and follow her heart to love Ralf Hart.
Finally, Maria decides to stop working as a prostitute in the
Copacabana and go back to Brazil. Unexpectedly, she meets Ralf Hart again when
32
she transits in Paris. Not wanting to lose someone she loves for the nth time, she
decides to get together with Ralf Hart and they live happily in the end.
33
SYNOPSIS OF MAGGIE: A GIRL OF THE STREETS
BY STEPHEN CRANE
Maggie, a young beautiful girl, lives in the tenements of the Bowery, a
slum area of New York City. She comes from a broken family and lives with her
mother, Mary, and her two brothers Jimmie and Tommie. Her brother, Jimmie,
and she always suffer child abuse. Her mother gets used to hitting and pounding
them every time she gets drunk.
As time passes, her father and her little brother, Tommie, die. She
grows up to be a beautiful girl who is covered by poverty. Pete, Jimmie’s friend
and a bartender, begins dating her. She is taken to the public entertainments by
him. Feeling cared for by Pete, she starts to be interested in him. She sees in him a
promising escape from the misery of her present life. She even puts her life in his
hand because she thinks of him as her hero.
There comes a night when Maggie comes home, her mother throws her
out of the house because her mother accuses her of doing something bad and
disgracing her family. She then leaves home and lives with Pete. Her behavior
becomes a neighborhood scandal. The neighbors often ask her mother about her
existence.
A few weeks after leaving her house, she is with Pete in a bar where
they meet Nellie. Nellie is Pete’s friend who influences Pete to leave Maggie.
34
Abandoned, Maggie tries to return home, but she is rejected by her family. She
then visits Pete at work, and he refuses her too because he thinks that he is not
responsible for her and her ruin; besides, he is also tired of her.
After several months, Maggie becomes a prostitute in the street of New
York. She tries hard to get a client, but no one hires her. The next day, there is the
news that her dead body is found in the river.
35
BIOGRAPHY OF
PAULO COELHO
Coelho was born on August 24, 1947 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where
he attended law school, but in 1970 abandoned his studies to travel throughout
Mexico, Peru, Bolivia, and Chile, as well as Europe and North Africa. Before
dedicating his life completely to literature, he worked as theatre director and actor,
lyricist and journalist. He and his wife Christina live in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and
in Tarbes, France.
In 1982 Coelho published his first book, Hell Archives, which failed
to make any kind of impact. In 1985 he contributed to the Practical Manual of
Vampirism, although he later tried to take it off the shelves, since he considered it
bad quality. In 1986, Paulo Coelho did the pilgrimage to Saint James of
Compostella, an experience later to be documented in his book The Pilgrimage. In
the following year, Coelho published The Alchemist. Slow initial sales convinced
his first publisher to drop the novel, but it went on to become one of the best
selling Brazilian books of all time.
Other titles include Brida (1990), The Valkyries (1992), By the river
Piedra I sat Down and Wept (1994), the collection of his best columns published
in the Brazilian newspaper Folha de São Paulo entitle Maktub (1994), the
compilation of texts Phrases (1995), The Fifth Mountain (1996), Manual of a
36
Warrior of Light (1997), Veronika Decides to Die (1998), The Devil and Miss
Prym (2000), the compilation of traditional tales in Stories for Parents, Children
and Grandchildren (2001), Eleven Minutes (2003), The Zahir (2005). He also
adapted The Gift (Henry Drummond) and Love Letters of a Prophet (Kalil Gibran).
Coelho has sold a total of 75 million copies and, according to the
magazine Publishing Trends; he was the most sold author in the world in 2003
with his book Eleven Minutes – even though at the time it had not been released in
the United States, Japan and 10 other countries.
(Source: “Paulo Coelho”)
37
BIOGRAPHY OF
STEPHEN CRANE
Stephen Crane was born in Newark, New Jersey, as the 14th child of a
Methodist minister Jonathan Townley Crane and his wife Mary Helen Peck Crane
in 1871. Crane started to write stories at the age of eight. At 16 he was writing
articles for the New York Tribune. Both of his parents did some writing and two of
his brothers became newspapermen. His mother was active in the Woman's
Christian Temperance Union, and published fiction. His first article, on the
explorer Henry M. Stanley, appeared in 1890 in Villette. Crane studied at
Lafayette College and Syracuse University. After his mother's death in 1890,
Crane moved to New York. He worked as a free-lance writer and journalist for the
Bachelor-Johnson newspaper syndicate. While supporting himself by his writings,
he lived among the poor in the Bowery slums to research his first novel, Maggie:
a Girl of the Streets (1893), a milestone in the development of literary naturalism.
Crane had to print the book at his own expense, borrowing the money from his
brother. Crane's faithfulness to accuracy of details led him once to dress up as a
tramp and spend the night in a flophouse. This produced the sketch 'Experiment in
Misery' in 1894. Crane's work also inspired other writers, such as Hutchins
Hapgood (1869-1944), to examine the Lower East Side.
38
In 1898 Crane settled in Sussex, England, where he became friends
with Joseph Conrad, H.G. Wells, and Henry James. During these restless years,
Crane refined his use of realism to expose social ills, as in George's Mother
(1896), which explored life in the Bowery. In 1899 appeared Active Service,
which was based on the Greco-Turkish War.
In 1899 Crane returned to Cuba, to cover the Spanish-American War.
Due to poor health he was obliged to return to England. Crane died on June 5,
1900 at Badenweiler in Germany of tuberculosis, which was worsened by malarial
fever he had caught in Cuba.
Crane’s works introduced into American literature realism although his
innovations in technique and style and the use of symbolism gave much of his
best work a romantic rather than a naturalistic quality.
(Source: “Stephen Crane”)
39
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Prostitution is generally defined as performing or offering to perform a
sexual act for money or anything that is valuable. Prostitution is always related to
sex by many people. It is a taboo thing to talk about in our culture, but it is not the
case in Eleven Minutes written by Paulo Coelho and Maggie: A Girl of The
Streets written by Stephen Crane. In these two novels, prostitution is considered
natural because the protagonists live their lives by being prostitutes. They become
prostitutes because of the poverty they have to face. They do not have high
education and enough experience to work aside from being prostitutes.
In Eleven Minutes and Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, the protagonists
come from a low-class society. They are raised in poverty and they work as
prostitutes.
In Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, Maggie comes from a low-class
society in one part of New York City's impoverished Bowery neighborhood. She
makes a living as a prostitute because she was rejected to return home by her
family after she was left by the boy with whom she ran away to escape from the
misery of her childhood. In Eleven Minutes, the protagonist, Maria, comes from a
1
Maranatha Christian University
small village in Brazil. She goes to Switzerland to seek her fortune, but she ends
up as a prostitute because of her choice as a path of self-discovery and love.
The author of Eleven Minutes, Paulo Coelho, is one of the world’s
bestselling authors and he dares to write about prostitution in a positive point of
view. In addition, Paulo Coelho uses daring words in his novel about sex and this
makes a different view in the reader’s eyes. I agree with Patricia Martín’s writing
in Biafra Nigeria World Magazine, that: “The ideas, philosophy and subject
matter covered in his [Coelho’s] books touch the aspirations of millions of readers
searching for their own path and for new ways of understanding the world.”
(Martín). Paulo Coelho also entered the Guinness Book of Records as the author
that signed more books in different editions. He won the Bambi 2001 Award in
Germany, Golden Book in Yugoslavia 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 and
2004, Wilbur Award presented by the Religion Communicators Council in USA
2006, and many more. His works have been translated into 62 languages, and
published in more than 150 countries. From all the novels, Eleven Minutes topped
all lists in the world, except for England, where it was in second place.
Maggie: A Girl of the Streets is written by Stephen Crane. It is his first
novel which is a result of his learning much about big city life and his
explorations of the Bowery when he began his career as a newspaper journalist in
New York City. This novel shows realistic conditions of America at that time. He
describes every detail in a realistic way. I also agree with what is said in
amazom.com: “…, he lived among the poor in the Bowery slums to research his
first novel, Maggie. Crane's faithfulness to accuracy of details led him once to
dress up as a tramp and spend the night in a flophouse, …” (Luikonen). Because
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of his effort to show realism in his first novel, he won favorable attention from the
influential novelists Hamlin Garland and William Dean Howells. Stephen Crane
is the first realist that introduced realism to American literature.
In my major thesis, I am going to analyze the portrayal of the female
protagonist as a prostitute in Eleven Minutes and Maggie: a Girl of the Streets
using formalism. A character itself is defined as “an imaged person who inhabits a
story” (Kennedy 45). An author may have a motivation to create such characters
through the actions and the behaviors of the characters in the story (Kennedy 45).
Some novelists may create such characters using an omniscient way in telling the
story in order that they can reveal a view of the world which is, however disguised,
his alone (Harvey 74). In this analysis, I want to show the characteristics of the
two protagonists and also the reason why both authors create such characters.
Statement of the Problem
There are some statements of the problem in analyzing these two
novels (Eleven Minutes and Maggie: A Girl of the Streets) using formalism:
1. How are the protagonists portrayed in the novels?
2. Why do the authors create such protagonists?
Purpose of the Study
In this analysis, the purpose of the study is:
1. To show how the protagonists are portrayed in the novels.
2. To show why the authors create such protagonists.
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Method of Research
The method of research I use in this study is library research. First, I
look for and read the novels I want to discuss for my major thesis. Second, I find
the information from the references in the library and multimedia source to help
me with the analysis. I then analyze the two novels using references and make the
conclusion.
Organization of the Thesis
This thesis is divided into four chapters that are preceded by the
Acknowledgements and the Abstract. Chapter One is the Introduction consisting
of Background of the Study, Statement of the Problem, Purpose of the Study,
Method of Research, and Organization of the Thesis. Chapter Two is the analysis
to find the portrayal of the protagonist in Eleven Minutes. Chapter Three is the
analysis to find the portrayal of the protagonist in Maggie: A Girl of the Streets.
Chapter Four is the Conclusion. The thesis ends with the Bibliography and the
Appendix, which consists of the Summaries of the two novels and the Biographies
of the two Authors.
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BIBLIOGRAPHY
Primary text:
Coelho, Paulo. Eleven Minutes. New York: HarperCollins, 2004.
Crane, Stephen. Maggie: a Girl of the Streets. New York: Penguin Group, 1991.
Book References:
Harvey, W.J. Character and the Novel. New York: Cornell University Press, 1965.
Kennedy, X.J. Literature: An Introduction to Fiction, Poetry, and Drama. 3rd
Edition. London: Little Brown, 1983.
Internet References:
Campbell, Donna M. “Realism in American Literature,1860-1890.” Literary
Movements. 20 Oct. 2007
Coelho, Paulo. “How I came to write Eleven Minutes.” Harper Academic.com. 12
Sept. 2007
Coelho, Paulo. “PAULO COELHO ANSWERS QUESTIONS ABOUT ELEVEN
MINUTES”. March 2003. Harper Academic.com. Trans. Margaret Jull
Costa. 12 september 2007
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Gale, Thomson. “Encyclopedia of World Biography on Stephen Crane.” 2006. 4
March 2007
Hickenbottom, Iris Leos. “Women’s Issues Then & Now: Prostitution.” 18 May
2002. 12 Sept. 2007
Luikonen, Petri. “Stephen Crane (1871-1900).” 2003. 29 Oct. 2006.
Martín, Patricia. “Profile of Paulo Coelho the Alchemist.” Biafra Nigeria World
magazine 2002. 8 March 2007
.
Naturalism.org. “Center for Naturalism.” 20 Oct 2007
SparkNotes. “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets: Chapter 14-19.” 20 Oct. 2006.
SparkNotes. “Maggie: A Girl of the Streets: Summary.” 20 Oct. 2006.
Online Internet Services. “Biography”. 2006. 4 March 2007
.
Wikipedia.org. “Naturalism (Literature).” 18 Oct. 2007. 20 Oct.2007
Wikipedia.org. “Paulo Coelho.” 26 Oct. 2006. 29 Oct. 2006
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Wikipedia.org. “Stephen Crane.” 17 Oct 2007. 20 Oct. 2006
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