The objectives of the research are to find some aspects of naturalism in Maggie: A
Girl of the Streets, to prove and to give information to the readers about how far this
novel fulfils the requirements of the naturalism genre. Structuralism approach is used to
answer the problems of this research.
This research is a descriptive-qualitative study. The subject of this research is a
novel entitled Maggie: A Girl of the Streets written by Stephen Crane. The data were
some phrases, clauses, sentences, and discourses related to the characteristics of
naturalism genre. The key instrument of this research was the researcher herself with the
concepts that there must be some reasons why this novel is categorized as naturalistic
novel which were drawn from the theory by Donald Pizer as illustrated in the framework
of thinking. The researcher collected the data using read-write technique. The data
analysis was conducted through six steps: identifying the data, reading and rereading the
whole data, coding and categorizing the data, sorting the data, making the interrelation
between the description of the data and the theory, finally making an interpretation
based on the researcher’s comprehension about the theory. To obtain trustworthiness,
the researcher used triangulation technique.
There are two results of the research. The first result is answering the question
about the aspects of naturalism which is classified into four aspects; determinism,
pessimism, detachment of the story (objectivity), and unpredictable ending.
Determinism aspect is divided in two parts; the external and internal forces. The external
force is presented by the family condition and the environment (circumstance) and the
internal force is presented by passion and instinct. Furthermore, there are four parts
which represent pessimism aspect of naturalism namely having lost of hopes; lost hopes
for jobs, lost hopes for love, lost hopes for security, and lost hopes for a better future.
Meanwhile there are two pairs classified as the data for detachment of the story
(objectivity) namely telling the story as close as possible to reality and creating
nameless characters. The unpredictable ending in the end of the story leads the readers
in one direction at the beginning and in the middle ultimately drifting towards a
completely unexpected course. The second result is answering the question about how
far Maggie: A Girl of the Streets can fulfil the requirements of the naturalistic genre. It
is answered by juxtaposing the theory from Donald Pizer with other theories of
naturalism; Charles Child Walcutt and Emile Zola. Those theories are gathered and
classified in order to show that Maggie: A Girl of the Streets fulfills the requirements of
the naturalistic genre and it is proved to be a naturalistic novel
