Frank Norris’s Novel McTeague
Frank Norris’s novel McTeague explores the decay of society in the early twentieth century. Set in San Francisco, “a place where anything can happen…where fact is often stranger than fiction” (McElrath, Jr. 447), Norris explores themes of greed and naturalism, revealing the darker side of human psyche. What can be found most disturbing is the way that Norris portrays McTeague, in shocking detail, as nothing more than a brute animal at his core. Norris explores the greed and savage animalism that lurks inside McTeague.
McTeague is first portrayed as a gentle giant. The reader is introduced to McTeague as he sits in his dental parlor, smoking his cigar and drinking his steam beer. He is described as a tall, slowly moving man.
McTeague’s mind was as his body, heavy, slow to act, sluggish. Yet there was nothing vicious about the man. Altogether he suggested the draft horse, immensely strong, stupid, docile, obedient (Norris 7).
Immediately one can visualize McTeague, a large lumbering mass, going about his daily activities in quiet solitude. The dental practice that McTeague runs provides him with a sound income, and in the first few chapters of the novel, he desires nothing more out of life than to practice what he loves. “When he opened his Dental Parlors, he felt that his life was a success, that he could hope for nothing better” (Norris 7).
Upon meeting Trina, his best friend Marcus’s love interest who comes to him because of a broken tooth, his psyche begins to change and animalistic feelings begin to well up inside McTeague. “The male, virile desire in him tardily awakened, aroused itself, strong and brutal. It was resistless, untrained, a thing not to be held in a leash an instant” (Norris 25). Norris uses the animal imagery to describe the deterioration of McTeague’s human qualities.
When McTeague tells Marcus of his intentions with Trina, there is a palpable tension between the two characters. Although at first they act like gentlemen, there is a silent rivalry between them.
“Well, what are we going to do about it, Mac?” he said.
“I don’ know,” answered McTeague in great distress. “I don’ want anything to—to come between us, Mark.”…
“Well, say, Mac,” he cried, striking the table with his fist, “go ahead. I guess you—you want her pretty bad. I’ll pull out; yes, I will. I’ll give he...
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...ull at his right wrist; something held it fast. Looking down, he saw that Marcus in that last struggle had found strength enough to handcuff their wrists together. Marcus was dead now; McTeague locked to the body. All about him, vast interminable, stretched the measureless leagues of Death Valley (Norris 340).
In this last scene, McTeague is left to die in the brutal conditions of Death Valley, a force that his primitiveness and greed cannot escape.
Norris develops the novel in a way that takes the reader through the mind of McTeague. The final effect is one of chilling realism. McTeague develops a greed and brute quality that can be realized in all of us. Norris magnifies the deconstructive traits that lurk inside of society and all of us and shows them too us, if we dare to look for them.
Works Cited
Brief, Peter. 1,300 Critical Evaluations of Selected Novels and Plays: “McTeague.” Vol. 3, McT-ROB. Salem Press, 1978.
McElrath Jr, Joseph. Twentieth Century Literary Criticism: “McTeague.” Vol. 24. Gale Research Company, 1987.
Norris, Frank. McTeague. USA: Signet Classic, 1964.
Rexroth, Kenneth. Afterword from “McTeague.” USA: New American Library, 1964.
Michael Patrick MacDonald lived a frightening life. To turn the book over and read the back cover, one might picture a decidedly idyllic existence. At times frightening, at times splendid, but always full of love. But to open this book is to open the door to Southie's ugly truth, to MacDonald's ugly truth, to take it in for all it's worth, to draw our own conclusions. One boy's hell is another boy's playground. Ma MacDonald is a palm tree in a hurricane, bending and swaying in the violent winds of Southie's interior, even as things are flying at her head, she crouches down to protect her children, to keep them out of harms way. We grew up watching Sesame Street, Reading Rainbow and Peanuts. Michael Patrick MacDonald grew up watching violence, sadness and death.
Bromden, the narrator, always vies himself as small, even though he’s actually a large person. To him, McMurphy is big, which he says metaphorically. In the passage, McMurphy makes the patients big: “It started slow and pumped itself full, swelling the men bigger and bigger. I watched, part of them, laughing with them- and somehow not with them. I was off the boat, blown up off the water and skating the wind with those black birds, high above myself…” (Kesey 249-250). People who are small are weak and powerless, like Bromden and the patient’s, scared and willing to submit to power. Meanwhile, people who are big, like McMurphy, are confident and not afraid. McMurphy made the men “bigger”, more powerful, just by laughing and giving them confidence. All in all, the metaphor and contrast between being big and small reveal how McMurphy made them stronger and more confident just by being
In the short story, “Carnal Knowledge,” T. Coraghessan Boyle portrays the character Jim as one man’s inner conflict between his lust for a beautiful activist, Alena, and his own convictions. Although he lacks interest in animal rights that she strongly feels passionate about, he finds himself respecting her perspective, but he doesn’t seem to be amused. Despite irony, the author shows the fantasy life that Jim lives with Alena can only come disoriented at the end because of its superficiality, irony, and the different point of view.
Murphy, B. & Shirley J. The Literary Encyclopedia. [nl], August 31, 2004. Available at: http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=2326. Access on: 22 Aug 2010.
Into the wild is a non-fiction book which expanded from the nine-thousand-word article by Jon Krakauer. This article ran in the January 1993 issue of the magazine Outside. Jon Krakauer was very much drawn toward the tale of McCandless and decided to write his story. He spent more than a year tracking down the details of the boy’s tramp. Then he used matter-of-fact tones to narrate what he chased on the path about the boy. The framework presented in this book can be separated into three parts: (1) retracing, including the interview with most of the important people who once kept company with Chris; (2) wildness, presenting mails generated from readers and several idealists that were in the similar situation with Chris; (3) affection, including the memory of parents, sister and friends.
The author wrote this story in response to a magazine company, and eventually published it into a book. He used many styles and techniques to describe the life and death of McCandless. The mood throughout the novel constantly varies with the excitement of McCandless’s adventures and the emotions caused by his disappearance. Krakauer’s ability to engage multiple senses of a reader truly makes his novel special.
Stillinger, Jack, Deidre Lynch, Stephen Greenblatt, and M H. Abrams. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Volume D. New York, N.Y: W.W. Norton & Co, 2006. Print.
The idea of emasculation, getting the power of male sexuality taken away, is also very present in the story. The symbol of this idea is shown with Rawler and his suicide. Rawlers death was described as “ Old Rawler. Cut both nuts off and bled to death, sitting right on the can in the latrine, half a dozen people in there with him The story provides two dramatically polar-opposite symbols of power: McMurphy and Ratched (and her fog machine).
As he trudges across the docks towards the unfamiliar, suit-clad man looming like utopia in the distance, Terry Malloy is clearly a product of his relationships. His rapport-catalyzed metamorphosis from a follower of Johnny Friendly to a genuine “contender” is profoundly powerful, however the ending is bleak – with corruption still lingering as the gate slides closed behind the men, engulfing them into another cycle of exploitation as Bernstein’s music reaches a haunting shrill.
...e story. Once again using whiskey as a symbol to manhood, Macomber enjoys the strong spirit out of celebration of his newfound masculinity and happiness. Francis Macomber’s happiness is short lived when his wife ironically shoots him down, right after he explains his newfound joy to Wilson:
Abrams, M.H. and Greenblatt, Stephen eds. The Norton Anthology of English Literature: Seventh Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2001.
Afflicted by his father’s familial neglect due to his dual marriages, Chris opted to “express his rage obliquely, in silence and sullen withdrawal” (Krakauer 123). Ostensibly, Chris’ decision to turn to a life of adventurous isolationism was stimulated by the periodic absence of his father as he divided his love, loyalty, and charity between two households. Thus, being never regarded as a priority and being exposed to a perplexing hierarchy of siblings, half-siblings, parents, and parental lovers, Chris’ taciturn retreat to the remote Alaskan wilderness substituted the confusion, tension, and neglect of home with simplicity, independence, and pacifism. Coincidingly, after Montag’s exodus from the authorities and a brief reminisce of his past life and lover, Mildred, Montag “[doesn’t] miss her” and “[doesn’t] feel much of anything” regarding his wife (Bradbury 148). Always unsatisfied after his enlightenment, Montag has countlessly tried to fill his deepening void with philosophy, poems, and literature. Looking to the past, Montag can accredit that his cleft of deprivation can be credited to his inert, robotic wife who failed to support him through his metamorphosis. Additively, Bradbury, through the portrayal of Mildred, exemplifies how mass mechanization and globalization can enslave the creativity of a human mind and stultify the primitive human functions of conversing,
This realistic novel opens many doors of mankind and what it is capable of. Jack is the evil side of civilization which is hidden but once that evilness rises when confronted with the choice between civilization and savagery by the isolation of moral values an society, Jack choose to forget the values of the civilization and becomes the beast that everyone fears. This shows that people choose savagery over civilization as projected by Jack. Jack illustrates a very big picture that savagery is not cramped to certain people in certain situation but is present in every
3. Shipley, Joseph T. The Crown Guide to the World's Great Plays. New York: Crown Publishers, Inc., 1984. 332 - 333.
Abrams, M.H., ed. The Norton Anthology of English Literature. 6th ed. Vol. 2. New York: Norton, 1993.