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Literary analysis of Frank Norris 's McTeague character
Literary analysis of Frank Norris 's McTeague character
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Social Darwinism is the theory of evolution that only the most fit will survive, and the weaker will die off. Frank Norris wrote McTeague with the theories of Social Darwinism. His characters demonstrated Norris’ views on urban society, that only the “fittest” with survive. Norris shows that humans born into a lower social class will not be able to advance classes, and those of lower class will inevitably die off, leaving only the survival of the fittest. Norris illustrates Social Darwinism by McTeague and Trina’s life deteriorating as the attempt to advance social class; and the immigrants,Zerkow and Maria, failure at procreating.
Norris’ novel, McTeague, follows the broken relationship between a coal miner, McTeague, and a poor immigrant, Trina. When the two hit a stroke of luck and win the lottery, their
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Zerkow and Maria’s marriage is built on greed, Zerkow only marrying Maria for the gold plates she claims she has. Both being immigrants, Zerkow and Maria are considered sickly and the weakest of humans. Therefore, as they tried to produce a child, he is born sickly and weak. Consumed by greed, Zerkow and Maria are unable to take care of the child, and the child perishes. Norris demonstrates that because Zerkow and Maria were not the fittest, they could only produce weak and sick offspring, and would perish so only the strongest will survive. Frank Norris writes in his novel, McTeague, of people in urban society through the theories of Social Darwinism. By McTeague and Trina attempting to advance in social class, their relationship falls apart. Zerkow and Maria were weak and sickly immigrants unable to reproduce a healthy child and properly care for it. Frank Norris illustrated through his characters that in urban society, one can never advance their social class, and the most fit humans will survive and thrive while the weakest will die
The novel Fifth Business by Robertson Davies does away with the stigma that Canadian literature is dull and boring. A master of his art, Davies creates a cast of vivid characters and skillfully weaves them into a story about love, guilt, myth and redemption. With the effective use of first-person narrative, Fifth Business is written as a fictional memoir of the character Dunstable Ramsey, who grows up in the small town of Deptford in Ontario, Canada. As a boy, Dunstable was unmistakably very intelligent, gifted with an uncanny ability to read others. He was raised in a Scottish household by strict Presbyterian parents, who into him hammered several religious canons and tenets. Thus, Dunstan understood the importance of respect and moral responsibility from a young age. There would seem to be no reason for such an exemplary youth, gifted with an intelligence exceeding of his small-town upbringing, to not go onto to lead a happy, satisfying life. Yet there is a single incident in Dustan’s boyhood that would define the rest his life. While in a quarrel with his friend and rival, Percy Boyd Staunton, Dustan evades a snowball in which Boyd had hidden a stone. The snowball misses Dunstan and strikes the pregnant wife of the town’s Baptist minister, Mary Dempster, causing her to give birth prematurely and subsequently slip into madness. This marks the beginning of Dustan Ramsey’s lifelong involvement with Mary Dempster, and the beginning of his lifelong struggle with guilt. As he is faced with the outcomes of his actions, Dustan’s core values are called into question. Throughout Fifth Business, Dunstan fails to understand both his true values and true self, which develops as a cons...
Making the most out of life is hard, especially life as a poor child in Ireland would have kept most people from reaching their goals in life but not for Frank McCourt, did not play into the stereotypes of many poor Irish people of that time. In the Memoir Angela’s Ashes written by Frank McCourt Frank has to persevere through much adversity in his not so desirable life as a poor Irish boy with a drunk for a father who could not provide for Frank and his family. Frank must get a job at a young age in order to bring in the money that his father Malachy drinks away, when he finally has money and moves to America, and when he eventually becomes a teacher even with all of his bad experiences as a child in school.
he beautiful, deeply moving story of a group of German nuns struggling in earthly goods (but bountiful in Faith) in a small southwestern town and the strong, young African-American man named Homer Smith who happens upon them one day during his travels. Homer loves being a wanderer, free, not tied down to anyone or any job--he has made the back of his station wagon into a bed, takes odd jobs here and there, and travels the country enjoying life. Yet something about the nuns makes him stay. It's not enough to just fix their roof, he soon finds himself wanting to help brighten their lives, sharing his cans of soup and peaches with them (for they have only the meager bread, milk and eggs from their few livestock) and helping to teach them English
Angela’s Ashes, by Frank McCourt is a genuine memoir that vividly tells the story of a young, Irish Catholic boy during the 1930’s and early 1940’s. Frank’s memory of his impoverished childhood is difficult to accept, however, he injects a sense of devilish humor into his biography. He creates a story where the readers watch him grow beyond all odds and live through the pinnacle of the miserable Irish Catholic childhood. “People everywhere brag and whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version: the poverty, the shiftless loquacious alcoholic father; the pious defeated mother moaning by the fire; pompous priests; bullying schoolmasters; the English and the terrible things they did to us for eight hundred long years”(McCourt 11). His interaction with his family proves that despite the hunger and pain, love and strength come out of misery. Although the book tells the experience of an individual, the story itself is universal.
“People everywhere brag and whimper about the woes of their early years, but nothing can compare with the Irish version”(1), McCourt writes as he begins to describe the world in which he grows up. For he creates a separate world for himself, where people he knows wander in and out whenever they can hold his attention. McCourt’s world serves as a coping mechanism as well as an expression of his creativity. He surrounds himself with the depressing truth about his home and family, but brings in each morsel of truth with his own explanation, often humorous, thus exposing himself only to his interpretation of reality. McCourt’s task is to contain his world in the four hundred sixty pages of the book and to have the reader immersed by the end of the first chapter. The opening pages provide a foundation for McCourt, himself, and for his perception, enabling the reader to follow his stream-of-consciousness sentences throughout the book. He gives a flash preview of the book’s content on the first page, giving the reader an idea of what he is getting into. McCourt then abruptly interrupts himself (which becomes common throughout the book) as though he has forgotten to mention some pertinent fact, and then proceeds to introduce his parents. Although he is now writing from his parents’ point of view, the reader is quite aware that this is still McCourt’s interpretation of their story.
Social Darwinism is a late 19th century term used to describe the application of British naturalist Charles Darwin’s theory of natural selection to social and political conditions. Late 19th century sociologist Herbert Spencer tried to capture the essence of social Darwinism with his phrase “survival of the fittest”. This essentially meant that the strong would rise to the top while the weak simply died out. Social Darwinists eschew social responsibility and compassion, instead believing that some people are more fit to survive than others. Many social Darwinists advocated that the government should maintain a laissez-faire, or hands off, approach when it came to regulating economic competition and alleviating social inequalities. Social Darwinism was used to justify the consolidation of the majority of wealth by a minority of Americans. The term allowed people to rationalize capitalism, imperialism, racism, and even eugenics. The wealthy believed in social Darwinism because it allowed them to justify their oppressive business tactics and low wages for their labor force. Politicians believed in it because it allowed them to justify imperialism, or expansion of the nation. Affluent Anglo-Saxons believed in social Darwinism, believing themselves to be the superior race, and used it to justify ...
The book shows how different characters are striving for their version of the American Dream and have natural obstacles in their way that they have to overcome to achieve their dreams. Three main characters that have American Dreams, but do not achieve them do to obstacles are Lennie, Curley’s wife, and Candy. All three of these characters worked super hard and did their best, but sometimes the best dreams lead to
The concept of Social Darwinism was a widely accepted theory in the nineteenth-century. Various intellectual, and political figures from each side of the political spectrum grasped the theory and interpreted it in various ways. In this paper, we will discuss three different nineteenth-century thinkers and their conception of Social Darwinism. The conservative, Heinrich von Treitschke, and liberal Herbert Spencer both gave arguments on the usefulness of competition between people on a global scale. The anarchist, Peter Kropotkin, refuted the belief of constant competition among members of the same species and emphasized mutual aid.
In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck Natural order is shown. The novel organizes living things in specific relationship with each other, and in doing so it has included the rule of survival of the fittest, which usually is accepted about how life operates in the wild. But the novel applies this rule to the characters in terms of each character 's social and economic lives. Each character and their relationships with other characters determines who is fit and who isn 't in that specific relationship. Although the concept itself is unfair to the social and economic lives, it is inevitable that a perfect human has more survival chances than the one considered to have some fault. The novel portrays that natural order is unfair, but it
... society, regardless of economic class, conform to idea of chasing the American Dream. In contrast, Shaw and McKay’s social disorganization theory says that crime and deviance are rooted in the urban slums. This theory believes that the middle-class live by a strong set of conventional values, and these values are rejected by the lower class.
“The Lottery” is a story which shows the complexity and capability of human behavior. Something immoral, like stoning a person to death once a year, is a normal occurrence. The main character, Tessie Hutchinson, is the victim of the lottery. Tessie is a character with a number of seemingly good characteristics, yet her surrounding culture rejects these characteristics. The majority of the people in the village has opposite attitudes and beliefs in comparison to Tessie’s. These attitudes and beliefs reflect her personal desires which quickly struggle against the culture’s expectations. Tessie is unlike the other villagers; she is initially indifferent to the lottery indicating her desires are unrelated to the lottery. Upon winning the lottery, Tessie changes and her personal desires to survive and reject the lottery emerge in her selfishness and outspoken personality. These struggles against the village’s expectations are shown through the culture’s emphasis on tradition and small town ties.
Immediately in the first few pages, Pattyn, the narrator, openly asks disturbing questions to the reader such as, “Do you ever dangle your toes over the precipice, dare the cliff to crumble” (Hopkins 2). These first impressions of the protagonist allow the reader to infer that Pattyn has a damaged mentality. The reader is continuously presented with harsh narrations of her being constantly disciplined by her drunken father to care for her siblings by playing a motherly role. Pattyn’s life is continuously crushed by reality and burdened by her strict household. It is not until later in the novel- when Pattyn is forced to live with her Aunt J for the summer as a punishment- that she begins to discover happiness and self worth. She illustrates that, “Ever since [she] had been with Aunt J, [she] had learned things” (Hopkins 266). While with her Aunt, Pattyn was introduced to a whole new world of love and happiness; she has newfound relationships with her Aunt and a young boy named Ethan. For once, Pattyn feels wanted and valued. She goes from completely questioning her reason to live to having a genuine sense of self driven happiness. She was at an all time low in life and was able to find reason to live a fulfilling life. Hopkins, since the beginning of the novel, effortlessly captures the reader’s interest and presents them with an exceptional story centered on Pattyn’s overall character
In the novel Dubliners, James Joyce uses fictional stories to portray the society of Ireland during the early 1900’s. This was a time in Ireland when the attitudes of the Irish were negative and the society was regressing, and Joyce used these characteristics to illustrate the faults of the Irish people. He is able to accomplish this through the use of many different literary themes, which are used to show the humanity of the Irish people. The theme of journeys of escape is evident in many stories and is closely related to the humanities theme of autonomy and responsibility. Through their everyday experiences, the characters have to deal with many situations that deal with their responsibilities to society and feelings of self sufficiency. These themes are especially evident in the stories "An Encounter" and "The Dead" as the characters in each desire for escape from their current lives and situations. The story "An Encounter" is about two school children who take a day off from class to escape their boring everyday lives and journey outside Dublin. "The Dead," the Dubliners longest story, consists of many different interactions between characters at a party. In these two stories the characters attempt to escape their responsibilities in life and journey away from the life that is holding them back.
Joyce, James. “Dubliners”. Ed. Margot Norris.1st ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2006. Print
Joyce describes the spiritual poverty of the people of Dublin in the industrial age, with powerful images of mechanized humans and animated machines. In "After the Race" and "Counterparts" he delineates characters with appropriate portraits of human automation. Machines seize human attributes and vitality in opposition to the vacuous citizens of Ireland's capitalist city. Joyce's use of metaphorical language brings to life the despair of his country.