A Walk Through Reality with Stephen CraneSearching for and expressing the pure truth is often more difficult than writing fictional stories. This truth can be harder on the reader than works of fiction; this can make an author's desire to reveal the essence of society through characters the reader relates to risky and unpopular. Stephen Crane wrote about ordinary people facing difficult circumstances that his readers could relate to (Seaman 148). Crane sought to demystify the ideas inherent in 19th-century literature, which depicted life in a more favorable, but often unrealistic, light. In Crane's works, Dorothy Nyren Curley says, "There is no misstep, no excess" (255). Crane's poor background helped him understand the cruelty of life. Crane's childhood was marked by tragedy. He was the youngest of fourteen children, but the four children born before Crane died within a year of their birth. When Crane was seven years old, his father died; when he was twelve, his sister, who had nurtured his budding literary interest, also died, and two years later his older brother was crushed by two freight cars. These misfortunes shaped Crane's view of human nature; his works focused on ordinary people facing the evils of war, poverty, and other obstacles that Crane saw and endured himself. Despite his sister's death, Crane clung to his literary interest, and at the age of twenty-one he wrote Maggie: A Girl of the Streets. It is the story of a young woman, Maggie Johnson, who “blooms in a mud puddle” (Maggie 16). Maggie grows up in the tenements of Manhattan, enduring abusive, alcoholic parents and the filth of poverty. Without education or money, Maggie takes a job in a handcuff... middle of paper......5/3/99).Crane, Stephen. Maggie: Street girl. New York: Bantam, 1984._____. Red badge of courage. New York: Bantam, 1983._____. The open boat. New York: Bantam, 1984. Curley, Dorothy Nyren. American Writers A Collection of Literary Biographies, New York: Ungar, 1960. McClurg, Alexander. “Critical Reception of the Red Badge of Courage: Early Reviews” www.xroads.virginia.edu/~HYPER/CRANE/ . (05/07/99). Sailor, David. “Stephen Crane.” www.extext.lib.virginia.edu/conditions.html (5/7/99).Ungar, Leonard. Modern American Literature, New York: Scribner's, 1974. Vanouse, Donald. “Stephen Crane (1871-1900).” www.etext.lib.virginia.edu/conditions.html. (7/05/99).Wyatt, Edith. “Stephen Crane.” The New Republic, v.4 n°45, 1915. Rpt. On the electronic version "Stephen Crane". www.etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/br (5/7/99).