Mcteague As A Social Commentary Essay -- essays research papers

Written in 1899, Frank Norris novel, McTeague serves as a view of societal factions of his time period. Norris illustrates the stratification of society in this San Francisco connection by using the concept of Social Darwinism. He gives detailed accounts of the intragroup workings of society along with the emotions of the time. Through his characters, Norris shows the separation of classes and the greed that grew profusely during the late 19th century. He also gives a grim mental delineation of survival in his depiction of the theory of natural selection.In the branch chapter, Norris paints a picture of a town move. He describes Polk Street asone of those cross streets peculiar to Western cities, situated in the amount of money of the residence quarter, but occupied by small trades people who lived in the rooms above their shops. There were corner drug stores with huge jars of red, yellowness and green liquids in their windows, very brave and gay stationers stores, where il lustrated weeklies were tacked upon bulletin boards neaten shops with cigar stands in their vestibules sad-looking plumbers offices cheap restaurants, in whose windows one saw piles of sealed oysters weighted down by cubes of ice, and china pigs and cows knee mystical in layers of white beans.In this paragraph, the reader gets a visual image of a town during the 19th century. Cozy, quaint and rather poor, this town exists as an example of any other town at this time. Also, in setting the activities of the time period, No...