McTeague: A Story of San Francisco

Published in 1899 and written by author Frank Norris, McTeague: A Story of San Francisco is a novel in the tradition of Naturalism, a literary movement that explores how people are at the mercy of forces, internal and external, that dictate their behavior and destiny. In McTeague, despite their attempts to fight these forces, even fundamentally good people are brought to their destruction by their nature, their environment, and their social class. As their tenuous hold on civilization dissolves, characters devolve into their basic animal states. The novel centers around McTeague, a slow, sluggish dentist in San Francisco who in both body and mind skirts the boundary between animal and human. After painting a picture of the mundane lives of McTeague and his friends, Norris introduces a catalyst that leads to the emergence of characters’ innermost instincts and examines what happens when these instincts collide. Norris also uses the California landscape to reflect the futility of humans’ endeavors to rise above their natures. The result is a grim vision of a world that is not only indifferent to humans but also hostile. Though McTeague himself slips into vulgarity and violence, his lack of free will prevents him from being wholly unsympathetic.