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Gender Stereotypes
Themes and Colors
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in McTeague, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Another key feature of naturalism is its emphasis on lower-class characters and their struggle to survive amid harsh, unforgiving social and economic circumstances. McTeague is a working-class man from a working class background. Though he may practice dentistry, he is unlicensed (he did not attend dental school and has no formal education) and does not make much money. Instead, he occupies a precarious position in which he feels he must always strive for financial stability and respectability. His struggle for economic security is exacerbated when he loses his dental practice, highlighting the fragility of his status and the limited opportunities for social mobility available to the working class at the turn of the 20th century. After his dental practices closes, McTeague cannot find a replacement job. Instead, he uses what little money he has to drown his sorrows in alcohol.
Meanwhile, Marcus Schouler, McTeague’s former friend, exemplifies the competitive nature of class struggle. Initially, Marcus relinquishes his claim to Trina, believing he is acting out of friendship. However, his jealousy grows after Trina wins the lottery. Marcus’s actions, which include reporting McTeague for practicing without a license, are driven by his desire to improve his own social standing. This betrayal highlights the cutthroat competition among people striving for upward mobility, with characters often sacrificing personal relationships for economic gain. Through these characters and their experiences, Norris paints a bleak picture of the American Dream, suggesting that the pursuit of social mobility is by nature fraught with cutthroat competition, suffering, and peril,
Related Themes from Other Texts
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Class Struggle ThemeTracker
The ThemeTracker below shows where, and to what degree, the theme of Class Struggle appears in each chapter of McTeague. Click or tap on any chapter to read its Summary & Analysis.
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Class Struggle Quotes in McTeague
Below you will find the important quotes in McTeague related to the theme of Class Struggle.
Chapter 1
Quotes
McTeague’s mind was as his body, heavy, slow to act, sluggish. Yet there was nothing vicious about the man. Altogether he suggested the draught horse, immensely strong, stupid, docile, obedient.
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But for one thing, McTeague would have been perfectly contented. Just outside his window was his signboard—a modest affair—that read: “Doctor McTeague. Dental Parlors. Gas Given”; but that was all. It was his ambition, his dream, to have projecting from that corner window a huge gilded tooth, a molar with enormous prongs, something gorgeous and attractive. He would have it some day, on that he was resolved; but as yet such a thing was far beyond his means.
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Chapter 6
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When McTeague had all at once caught her in his huge arms, something had leaped to life in her—something that had hitherto lain dormant, something strong and overpowering. It frightened her now as she thought of it, this second self that had wakened within her, and that shouted and clamored for recognition. And yet, was it to be feared? Was it something to be ashamed of? Was it not, after all, natural, clean, spontaneous? Trina knew that she was a pure girl; knew that this sudden commotion within her carried with it no suggestion of vice.
Chapter 7
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“You fool, you fool, Marcus Schouler! If you’d kept Trina you’d have had that money. You might have had it yourself. You’ve thrown away your chance in life—to give up the girl, yes—but this," he stamped his foot with rage—"to throw five thousand dollars out of the window—to stuff it into the pockets of someone else, when it might have been yours, when you might have had Trina AND the money—and all for what? Because we were pals. Oh, ‘pals’ is all right—but five thousand dollars—to have played it right into his hands—God DAMN the luck!”
Chapter 13
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“Well, I ain’t going to quit for just a piece of paper,” declared the dentist. The phrase stuck to him. All day long he went about their rooms or continued at his work in the “Parlors,” growling behind his thick mustache: “I ain’t going to quit for just a piece of paper. No, I ain’t going to quit for just a piece of paper. Sure not.”
