Often times, the desperation that festers in the lowest class neighborhoods of these inner cities only amplifies the danger lurking. Be it rape, random violence, or theft, inner cities are a place where crimes against women and men both prevail. When any individual feels threatened or scared, his or her power dwindles as the fear increases. In many pieces of literature, we see women in poor situations appearing to succumb to the circumstances they are in because they are female. In West Side Story, Maria frequently is shuffled around like a doll because of the city turf war. Maggie of Stephan Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets falls prey to a city man and his city life when she develops an infatuation with the ideas of both. In a report provided by the United Nations Population Fund, the story of a girl named Geeta who grows up a pavement dweller in Mumbai, India describes the harsh living conditions poor families are subjected to in the dirty downtown streets.

Though not from a man’s perspective, perhaps the grittiest description of the filth, bugs, and exhaustion of living at rock bottom on inner city streets can be found in George Orwell’s story Down and Out in Paris in London. Amidst this description lies a sickening account of a young girl held against her will to be sold to men for sex. All of these accounts show the danger of living at the bottom of the social and economic chain in cities, especially for women. Initially, one might walk away from these stories with an ache in their heart for the situations of the women. However, one can also look deeper to a secondary role of women in these pieces of writing. These roles might not be the leads, but they show that in due course, it is the women of these cities that hold the ultimate power, despite their circumstances.

Anyone who has seen the play West Side Story is aware of the two main themes, circling around the ideas of gang violence and the love affair between Tony and Maria. In addition, viewers are also aware of how the love story becomes the victim of the gang war. However, when considering the gangs, one must determine at least some of the reasons why turf wars seem so prevalent in the cities. One very rarely sees knife fights, fist fights, and death over a bale of hay or an acre of land in the rural areas of our country. A significant portion of the problem is the restriction of space. When people flock to America, because “everything is free in America” the population skyrockets but that does not mean the amount of living space also increases. A place to call home is important to families and cultures around the world, be it in the United States or Puerto Rico. When someone tries to walk in to your home uninvited, we feel ready to take on the world to protect what is ours. In city life, crossing over into another’s home, or community, is all too easy to do when space is so limited.

When we have little, we are more apt to fight harder to keep it and protect it. This is exactly why the turf war develops between the Americans and the Puerto Ricans. The territoriality festers and escalates until it climaxes into full blown war with another culture. Both cultures also feel territorial over the women of their families. To cross over the line drawn between cultures on the pavement was just as dangerous as engaging someone who was not in your family in conversation, much less as embrace. As one can observe in the dance seen in the play, Bernardo is quick to put an end to the relationship developing between Tony and Maria. Bernardo stops the clasping of hands between the young lovers, and orders Maria home immediately, telling her “We are family, Maria. Go.” Maria must succumb to the orders of her brother in law and to the danger of the escalating situation as both sides are put on the offensive. A number of times in the play, the women are sent away for their safety or while the men plan ways to stake claim to their territory. As a woman, Maria does not have power of her situation. She must listen to Bernardo, and she appears in potentially violent situations.

What is interesting, however, is that ultimately Maria is the one to make a decision that sets to action the eventual deaths of both Tony and Bernardo. As the story develops, Maria and Tony fall in love despite the hatred around them. Tony’s love for Maria blossoms so he is willing to do anything for her. When Maria asks Tony to stop the fight-to-end-all-fights between the Americans and the Puerto Ricans, she is ultimately sending Tony to his death. It is a woman the dictates the fate of the two powerful men. It is very unlikely that a scenario like this one could have played out in any other environment. The elements of why a turf war exists in a city and the love between Tony and Maria make for the ingredients of a story that could only occur in the city. Instead of the city being a dangerous place for the women, it is a fateful place for the men.

Like Maria in West Side Story, we also see Maggie in Stephen Crane’s Maggie: A Girl of the Streets be subjected to the dangerous woes of city life and its male occupants. Maggie’s world is suddenly expanded after she falls in love with Peter, a true man of the city. Peter treats Maggie to shows and reveals to her a glitzier side of the city that previously was unbeknownst to her, and she “saw the golden glitter of the places where Pete was to take her” (28). Soon, Maggie’s love for Peter is matched for her love of being part of the city-life environment. Maggie wonders at the splendor of the costumes (32).” She falls prey to that love, and ultimately is heart-broken and homeless when Peter moves on. Maggie must live in danger as she makes her home the streets. Survival of the fittest reigns, and Maggie must learn to live in the danger if she wishes to survive. Maggie explains, for example, to always look as if one is going walking with a purpose, for those who do not garner unwanted attention on the streets. At the end of the story, Maggie’s loses her battle to an undisclosed death while living on the streets. Her downfall is directly attributed to falling in love with the glitzy side of the city and Peter.

Important to look into deeper though, is the catalyst for Maggie’s downfall. While she held Peter’s attention and mild affection briefly, Peter himself was drawn like a flame to an old flame, named Nell. For as much as Maggie worshiped the idea of Peter and the tastes of the city he had to offer, Peter was even farther under the spell of the sophisticated Nell. It was the unexpected appearance of Nell that instantly dimmed Peter’s affection for Maggie. Nell cast a spell on every man about her as she “reduced Pete to a pulp” (64) during a dinner conversation when she simply informed Peter she did not find him particularly interesting. Although Maggie suffered the hardest hit upon the loss of Peter and his city, the ultimately most powerful individual was the femme-fatale, Nell. The city that savvy Nell, “a woman of brilliance and audacity” (82) thrived in cultivated her into a female force to be reckoned with. In a place where many women suffered the fate of Maggie, a few managed to rise above even the jauntiest city men. At the end of the story, we see Nell get the last laugh as the woman of brilliance and audacity gathers up Peter’s money and deems him a “damn fool” (83) after he passes out drunk in his dinner. Though Maggie dies as a woman of the streets, the reigning champion of the city and story is a woman of brilliance and audacity.

In Geeta’s world in Mumbai, India, the women are also brilliant. The efforts of the community to get Geeta and other pavement dwellers out of the city were fruitless once the women decided to take it upon themselves to rise about their lives of poverty and filth. Although both of Geeta’s parents held jobs, their efforts combined were not enough to provide a true house for their family. When their “home” was not being torn down by city workers or members of the community, it was a flimsy structure of “two piece of cardboard and a sheet of black plastic for a roof.” The pavement dwellers were reliant on members of the community, like employers and neighbors, for basic necessities such as water and clothing. If they had lived in the country, the likelihood of finding individuals willing to part with such things would be significantly less likely. The city was also able to provide employment opportunities that were not available in the rural parts of India. Despite these advantages, though, city life for pavement dwellers was dirty, dangerous, and disease-ridden. There was a heavy burden placed on Geeta and the female family members to provide for the family.

Although the men were the primary decision makers in the Indian culture, it was the women who had to support the family, especially in Geeta’s circumstances. It was not until the women of the pavement dwelling community pulled together and saved that improvement in living standards occurred. Officially having an address allowed children an education and better access to health care. Again, all of this arose exclusively from the efforts of the women as they banded together as a Mahil Milan group. The group was able to accomplish in very little time what the men were not able to provide. Even more, the women stepped in when spouse abuse occurred, as “the women of the committee go to their house and try to work things out” to better the lives of the women stuck under the abuse of the men. Geeta goes as far to say she does not wish to be married because of the control her future husband would have over her. By avoiding what is intended for every young woman, Geeta is retaining her independence and control of her own life. Without what she and the female members of the pavement dweller community have accomplished in their city lives, Geeta would have to face a much different, powerless fate.

Much like Geeta’s story, the one of George Orwell’s Down and Out in Paris and London also provides some of the most graphic depictions of inner city life at the lowest, poorest levels. The reader is drowned in descriptions of the filth, bugs, disease, and desperation that those below the poverty line contend with on a daily basis. There is an unprecedented amount of desperation and dirt oozing out of these individuals. An important concept to consider is why anyone would remain in the city if the living conditions were as such. The answer to this question lies in what the city has to offer that a rural life does not: opportunity. Just as we see the Puerto Ricans in West Side Story choosing to immigrate to an inner city, we see the narrator of Orwell’s writing choose city life for the opportunity it had to offer. In this narrator’s case, there lies a heavy focus on finding a job to make ends meet. The city offers a much higher chance of landing a job than if one chose to bumble around the rural country-side instead.

The journey is as important as the destination, and we see the narrator take a few side trips during his life. One particularly graphic side trip involves shelling out precious monies for a guide who leads him to a whorehouse. It is in this establishment that the reader gets his first glimpse at the hell the city has to offer the women. Having paid his fee, the narrator darts into the room and begins forcing himself on the very young woman held there for his use. “She have a whimper of fright. With a bound I was beside the bed . . . I seized her by the throat – tight! She struggled, she began to cry out for mercy, but I held her fast” (13). The passage only continues to the graphic rape of the young woman. Although ultimately the narrator feels regret and revulsion, he allowed the audience to view the true horrors to which women of the inner city life are subject. Even today, fear of rape or attack lies in the hearts of all women who live in the city, especially at the lowest levels where desperation is a disgusting catalyst for despicable and lowly actions.

Seeing as how this account falls so soon into the text, one might feel inclined to feel that all women in the city will eventually be condemned to a powerless fate due to men. However, small and even passing references bring forth a small vindication for some women. After the narrator joins forces with his old friend, Boris, the latter feels that his fate lies in the hands of his former mistresses. His is quite confident that he “will only have to ask, and they will help” (29) him in his destitute. With this statement, Boris quickly and surely hands back some of the power stolen from women in the city. Instead of being at the whims of men, women suddenly become the very thing that Boris feels will pull him out of the trenches of poverty and hunger. Although not vindication for the appalling situations of some of the women, it is still a small victory.

Later in the story, the women once again get the last laugh, this time at the expense of the narrator himself. The chance of starvation looming largely, the narrator’s jog down this path is temporarily suspended thanks to the good graces of a woman named Maria. Although poor herself, this woman of the city is still able to score the food that the narrator himself could not. Desperate enough to pray to Sainte Eloise, the narrator is also finally humble enough to want to pay thanks in the form of lighting a candle in her honor. At this point in the tale, the women get the greatest laugh once the true identity of “Sainte Eloise” is revealed. The idea to appeal to the saint was sparked by an old painting on the narrator’s current residence. Once he points this out to Maria, she cannot contain her laughter when she informs the narrator that the saint in the picture was really Suzanne May, “the famous prostitute of the Empire” (88). The kudos must go to the deceased prostitute as well as Maria for their ability to accomplish what the narrator and Boris cannot. While this victory is not equal to the horrors situated on the women of the streets of the city, it adds up to something greater.

In conclusion, men and women in the inner cities face danger and despair regularly. Although these are a result of living in the city and are induced because of things like territoriality, the drawbacks are oft offset by advantages, such as a greater opportunity of success. However, it is the women who ultimately face the greatest danger and are subjected to the worst fears and treatment. Seemingly on the surface, men control the lives and futures of the women. However, if one takes the opportunity to look deeper, it becomes apparent that the women have the ability to make their mark, even with the odds stacked against them. In most literature that displays the despair of women in inner cities at the poverty level, there are also displays of the power of these very same women. This leaves the audience to wonder, what would women of a higher social and economic class be able to accomplish in the cities around the world?