To Pretend to be What One is Not One of the many themes shown in Maggie: a Girl of the Streets is that of hypocrisy. Hypocrisy occurs when one pretends to be something that he or she is not, and most people associate the word to a person that speaks poorly of something, yet commits that something him or her self. In Maggie, many of the main characters in the novel display the evil trait of hypocrisy. The trait is displayed by the characters of Pete, Jimmie, and both Mr. and Mrs. Johnson. They pretend to be what they are not.In the beginning of the novel, Jimmie gets into a fight with his peers of the street. After the fight has progressed for some time, Jimmie's father must spilt up the children. Mr. Johnson, who is Jimmie's father, says, "Here, you Jim, git up, now, while I belt yer life out, you damned disorderly brat" (Crane 5). This quotes is a strong display of hypocrisy. Mr. Johnson acts in disapproval of Jimmie's fighting. As a disciplinary action against further fighting, Mr. Johnson threatens to beat Jimmie up. To stop his son from fighting, Mr. Johnson does what he tells Jimmie not to do by beating him.Another main character in Maggie displays the trait of hypocrisy. That character is Pete. At one point in the novel, he is sitting with his "girlfriend," Nell, talking about how kind he is to her and all her friends. He says, "An'body treats me right, I allus trea's zem right!" (Crane 56). In truth, Pete does not treat his girlfriends with any respect at all. Earlier in the novel, he left Maggie, his current girlfriend, basically by herself as he ran off with Nell. When he says thisquote to Nell and her friends, he treats himself as one that is loving to others and expects kindness and respect in return, when he is actually cruel and uncaring. He pretends to be something that he is not, and he later tells Nell to be nice to him, ignoring the fact that he is not really nice to her. During the lowest p...
