"Maggie" Blog Post Three

I found that one of the most interesting elements within "Maggie," was the dysfunction that Maggie's alcoholic mother creates. Besides the fact that Maggie's family is poor, I couldn't help but wonder about her mother, Mary, and the household that Mary herself was raised in. In many novels, it is rare to see such an aggressive mother, as it is more the father figure that takes the role of abusive alcoholic. In "Maggie," however, we see Mary tear apart the house, destroy any sort of semblance of home that Maggie tries to create and abuse her children and husband throughout the entirety of the novella. We also see her sobbing over her daughter's death at the end of the novel as if she cared about Maggie. It seems as though Mary also grew up in the slums and was subjected to the same sort of domestic violence that she now inflicts on her family. Would Maggie suffer from the same terrible fate if she had had a stable mother or a stronger familial bond? I asked myself this question at the end of the novella, and while I do believe that Maggie may have avoided death and the destruction of her dignity, I think that she still would have taken even worse path's in order to try and create a better life for herself. Regardless of Maggie's home life, and Mary's childhood, the lack of money and resources seem to be the root to all of their problems. Alcohol abuse, domestic violence, or not Maggie was in search of something better. I think that a story with a functional family life, but one that still suffered from extreme poverty would be an interesting case study to look at and compare to "Maggie."


In the Oscar nominated movie Precious, actress Monique plays an alcoholic, abusive mother.