Symbolism at Maggie's end

If I were teaching Maggie in a classroom, I would definitely want students to delve deeper into the symbolism associated with Maggie's shoes at the end of the book; it's important not only in understanding the final scene but also the effect of Maggie's actions on her family (particularly her mother). It also says something about childhood in a society that has all these strange points of view being expressed. 

Maggie's mother immediately recalls Maggie's shoes from when she was a child upon hearing that her daughter is dead. She tells Jimmy to put them back on Maggie, and Jimmy responds like a cold-hearted observer and points out that they obviously won't fit anymore. I want students to see, first off, these two differing points of view and then hopefully have them realize that these shoes could possibly stand as symbols of childhood and innocence. They act as a vehicle for forgiveness because the mother wants to show Maggie's true nature, who she was as a child and how innocence and pure her daughter is on the inside. The condition of the shoes speaks to what childhood was like in those times, similar to Jacob Riis's photographs of poverty-stricken children in the street. But at the end of the book, the beat up pair of shoes representing Maggie's true character as perhaps a victim of uncontrollable circumstances like so many children were at the time. Maggie's mother feels guilty and sorry for the way Maggie was brought up and how she ended up; her mother takes responsibility for the life that Maggie was condemned to, which is what Steven Crane most likely wanted: for people to start caring about whats going on around them, not just observing.