Mazie Philip’s partiality for the streets is intrinsic; nobody pressures her to bestow her existence to the street life: “People ask me why I spend so much time on the streets. I tell them it’s where I grew up. These streets are dirty, but they’re home, they’re beautiful to me. The bums know about the beauty of it. The bums love it like its’ their own skin. The ruddy dust from the streets, the mud in the parks where they sleep sunk deep in the lines in their foreheads, jammed up under their fingernails. The sun and the dirt mixed up with their sweat and the booze. All the dirt. It’s the earth. If you can’t see the beauty in the dirt then I feel sorry for you. And if you can’t see why these streets are special, then just go home already.” Individuals who do not grasp the substance of the street in Mazie’s life would be stunned by the amount of time that she dedicates to the bums. Mazie’s childhood, all of which is sculpted by the streets, stimulates her not to vacate the streets. The streets may be disagreeable for outsiders based on the ubiquitous dirt, but Mazie perceives beauty in all the dirtiness. Evidently, the streets are contributing to modelling Mazie and the bums’ identities and world views. The contributory utility of the streets in the bums’ being renders it an astoundingly stunning locale which they would not trade for anything. Mazie’s unambiguous emphasis on the street’s beauty validates her verdict about the implication of the streets.
Mazie displays a feminist spirit which sanctions to cultivate a competitive persona: In her entry for 8th July 1909 she writes, “I can run faster than any of those boys from the block. I told them I would prove it and I did. I raced them all tonight on the roof and won. I beat Abe and Gussy and Jacob and Hyman and not a one of them were even close. They were all spitting in my dust. Even in my dress I can beat those boys. Gussy said I cheated but how could I cheat? He’s a cheat for even saying that. He’s a crummy lying jerk. After, Rosie yelled at me for getting dirty but I told her I didn’t care.It was only a dress.” Mazie’s running feat is remarkable for it is not inhibited by her femaleness. She proves that she can compete with males and trounce when even in her dress which is emblematic of femaleness. Mazie’s mind set heartens her to beat the males one of who reproaches her of cheating to dent the integrity of her dexterity. Clearly, Mazie affirms that females do not have to cheat in order to trounce males. Furthermore, she is not alarmed about dirtying her dress as long as it permits her to exhibit her worth and forte.
Mazie appreciates her freedom immeasurably. When Louis appeals that she aid him with working at the theater Mazie thinks, “That ticket booth! All day, hours and hours, the whole world going on around me. I ‘m going to miss everything. The world will pass me by. I will grow old and then die in the cage.” Mazie’s contemplation proves that she prefers roaming in the streets rather than working in a ‘ ticket booth’ which corresponds to a jail that would hamper her independence of movement. Perhaps if it were another party, other than Louis, who had bidden her assistance, Mazie would not have accepted to work at the booth ; Mazie does not appreciate assignments which confine her freedom.
