Examples Of Greed In Mcteague

Greed in the Form of Inherited Racial Qualities in McTeague

In Mcteague, Frank Norris depicts the lives of working class, mostly non Anglo Saxon, residents living in a San Francisco apartment complex. Norris characterizes most of these residents by their uncontrollable avarice though strays from presenting them as the stereotypical gilded age Americans, a common literary theme at this point in the late 18th century, obsessed with the glamour provided by wealth. Instead, Norris presents their need for gold as inherit racial flaws, flaws that results in their ultimate demise. The character’s de evolution and loss of morality throughout Mcteague can be gauged by their progressive need for more and more wealth.
Norris’ depiction of the character’s
unyielding hunger for wealth is reminiscent of the naturalist movement because the characters’ savage like desire for money overcomes even their most basic human nature. In the beginning of the novel Trina is an innocent and loyal daughter, “so small, so prettily made, so good natured and straightforward”(Norris 40.) Trina’s measured de evolution only begins after she wins the lottery, and her miserly instincts begin to take root upon her nature. Trina’s relationship to the money is unhealthy and acts as a deterrent against her innocent and strait forward manner, Norris comments “She clung to this sum with a tenacity that was surprising; it had become for her a thing miraculous, a god-from-the-machine, suddenly descending upon the stage of her humble little life; she regarded it as something almost sacred and inviolable”(121). Norris’ allusion to God in reference to Trina’s devotion to the money is significant because it reveals her relationship to wealth as a subservient one. Trina’s loyalty to her family is even encumbered by her desire to hoard money. When her mother asks Trina for fifty dollars to help their family during hard times, Trina continuously postpones sending the money until she resolves to not do it at all. She doesn’t even allow herself to feel guilty about her stinginess, “In fact Trina never allowed herself to think very much of this affair”(194). This is the case for many characters throughout the novel, once they are exposed to the small fortune; they essentially lose control of themselves. This is evident within Marcus too. He is willing to concede Trina to Mac once Mac reveals his budding passions for her. Marus even seems to enjoy being a martyr for his pal, especially when he exclaims “ ‘don’t think of me; I don’t count ay more. I aint in it.’ Marcus seemed to take great pleasure in contemplating the wreck of his life. There is no don’t he enjoyed himself hugely during these days”(65). Marcus only truly begins to resent Mac once Trina stumbles upon the lottery winnings, and he lashes out “All I know is that I’ve been soldiered out of five thousand dollars” (111) and “If I had my rights,’ cried Marcus, bitterly, ‘I’d have part of that money. It’s my due-it’s only justice’ (111). Marcus is willing to sacrifice his future potential wife for Mac’s happiness, but he cannot get over the loss of the five thousand dollars.
Norris explains many of the character’s greedy nature as racial traits that they have no control over. Trina’s miserly nature is explained as a result of her German-Swiss ancestry. “Economy was her strong point. A good deal of peasant blood still ran undiluted in her veins, and she had all the instincts of a hardy and

penurious mountain race- the instinct which saves without any thought, without idea of consequence-saving for the sake of saving, hoarding without knowing why”(106).
Once Trina comes into contact with the fortune, her ancestral traits takes over and she begins to de evolve into an animal like creature whose sole purpose is to hoard and accumulate wealth. Zerkow is the first resident of the apartment complex to hear of Trina’s winnings and his reaction is one of jealousy and rage. Zerkow’s reaction is explained “as though a knife had been run through the Jew; a spasm of an almost physical pain twisted his face-his entire body. He raised his clenched fists into the air, his eyes shut, his teeth gnawing”(99). Zerkow’s Jewish ancestry fuels his envious rage, and Norris comments on Zerkow’s greed when he writes, “It was impossible to look at Zerkow and not know instantly that greed-inordinate, insatiable greed-was the dominant passion of the man”(36). Zerkow’s voracious avarice is so unappeasable that Maria’s mythical tale of a golden dining set sets him into frenzied passions. Zerkow is the only one who truly believes Maria’s story, and his deranged madness only increases as he hears the story more and more. He even marries Maria, so he can hear the story whenever he wants. Zerkow and Maria eventually have a baby, though the baby dies, seemingly a result of the mixing of Zerkow’s and Maria’s racial impurities’. Norris explains the baby as a “strange, hybrid little being, come and gone with a fortnight’s time, yet combining in its puny little body the blood of the Hebrew, and the Pole, and the Spaniard (185). Zerkow is even relieved by the baby’s death “since it had a mouth to be fed and wants to be provided for” (185). The baby’s death results in Maria finally gaining some semblance of sanity, and she entirely forgets the story of the golden plates, much to the dismay of Zerkow who feeling the increasing detachment of this potential fortune kills Maria, and he
drowns in the San Francisco bay clutching a sack of rusty dishes. Trina’s escalating stinginess results in an uncontrollable series of violent acts committed by Mcteague resulting in him leaving Trina, beating her to death, and stealing every penny she possessed. Upon killing Trina Mac sets off for his old mining town like a homing pigeon and continues to flee from the law controlled by “some unseen heel spurring him to precipitate and instant flight”(313). Marcus turns out to be the unknown hunter that Mcteague is fleeing from; Marcus hunts Mcteauge through the barren and blistering desert driven by his desire to obtain Trina’s stolen fortune. The novel’s climax occurs as Marcus confronts Mcteague in the desert and is relieved to find Trina’s fortune, “A gleam of satisfaction came into Marcus’s eyes, and under his breath he muttered: ‘Got it at last’”(331.) Mcteague kills Marcus in the desert, but not before Marcus handcuffs his dying corpse to Mcteague. Both their deaths can be contributed to their violent passion over the lottery money, and Norris credits this passion to racial flaws that override their basic human nature. Trina’s lottery winnings do not result in a better life for her and Mcteague, instead it enacts inherit racial flaws within many of the characters driving them to savage like desires that result in most of their deaths.

Norris, Frank. Mcteague. New York: Oxford, 1995. Print.