Stephen Crane and Horatio Alger are both authors who discuss issues that deal with New York City in the 1800's. They are different in one major way. Crane is known as more of a realist, whereas Alger is known as mythic. Two examples that distinguish these authors' styles are Maggie, A Girl Of The Streets, by Crane and Ragged Dick Or, Street Life in New York with the Boot Blacks, by Alger. Both stories illustrate attempts to rise to the upper classes of society or become "respectable."

Crane's story is about a girl named Maggie who grew up in a life that would cause any person with feelings to have the utmost sympathy for her. To explain briefly; her brother was a roughneck in the community, her mother and father were alcoholics, a younger brother died at a young age, and they lived in a tenement building. Crane...