Then, it is discovered that McTeague never in fact attended dental school, and he is forced to resign from his position. Without his income, the couple must survive on her meager wages (her job consists of painting little "Noah’s Ark" toy animals, which eventually leads to paint poisoning and the removal of her fingers), as well as the interest earned each month by her $5,000. Trina refuses to touch it, and refuses to move into a more comfortable home, and instead the couple moves into what McTeague calls a “rat hole,” all so she can cling to her cash.
As the narrative progresses, your feelings towards McTeague change. You begin to feel sorry for him, when his wife won’t even give him a nickel for cab fare, and he is forced to walk in the cold rain. Or when he asks her to go to the market to purchase some meat for them, she only buys the cheapest, poorest quality available - pocketing the rest of the change. Trina is a bit a nut, no doubt, for she’s willing to live in squalor yet she’ll spend hours polishing her gold pieces, even putting the change into her mouth to taste it, to even getting into bed naked and sleeping with her coins, just so she can feel them press against her body.
Eventually, McTeague leaves her, yet manages to steal $400 that she’s been hiding in the house. Once she learns her money is gone, she finds she cannot physically be without it, and so she eventually withdraws all her cash from the bank ($5,000 of it) just so she can physically have it in her possession. Her love for money is an obsession - she loves the thing itself, not what the money can buy. McTeague is forced to sell a number of his personal possessions, for example, just so she can have more money in hand.
When McTeague returns one night, she refuses to offer him any food, despite his telling her that he is starving. Claiming not to have any money, he later learns from the bank that she withdrew the $5,000 and had it in her possession during that time. Unwilling was she to even spare him a dime, his rage grows till he eventually attacks and kills her. But by this time, Trina is such a sick, miserly bitch that you are actually rooting for him to kill her. And he does it quickly and violently. Grabbing her cash, he flees to the desert.
Once out west, he attempts to make some sort of life for himself. Norris has excellent descriptions of the dry desert, and I can see a bit of influence he had upon Steinbeck when he wrote his masterpiece The Grapes of Wrath.
A tremendous, immeasurable Life pushed steadily heavenward without a sound, without a motion. At turns of the road, on the higher points, cañons disclosed themselves far away, gigantic grooves in the landscape, deep blue in the distance, opening one into another, ocean-deep, silent, huge, and suggestive of colossal primeval forces held in reserve.
Article comments
1 - Phillip
Norris did write a masterpiece: The Octopus.
It's about the railroads sqeezing the life out of farmers. But it's much more than a social commentary novel. What a cast of characters, what scenes! It's about Life (including love, which Norris had found, just before his death).
McTeague was made into a silent film by Erich von Stroheim. I've never seen it, but it's supposed to be great.
2 - bliffle
I believe that the von Stroheim movie was titled "Greed", and it is an excellent movie.
3 - Jschneider
Thanks for the comments--I was vaguely familiar with the film and will probably check it out sometime. The full version is actually available via Google Vids/You Tube.
"The Octopus" sounds interesting and I'll be sure to put that on my book wish list. Norris & Dreiser are 2 writers I plan reading more of.