Naturalist Writer, Norris Uses His Book Report

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Norris consistently returns to the animalistic descriptions of McTeague. Early in the story Norris compares him to the likes of a work horse. Such harmless animals focus solely on survival in that they plow the fields so that they can eat. It is this initial description of McTeague as a harmless work horse contrasted with his "abominable" (265) actions in killing Trina that tend to show that violence itself is the inevitable end result of the city's corruptive power.

Before meeting Trina, McTeague is a sexless cart-horse like man among city urbanites, but she awakens the beast inside him in terms of sexuality and obsession. McTeague's foray into sexuality is comingles with a fetishism for gold. Trina conflates sexual pleasure with the possession of money. She often refers to her gold as "beauties" and declares "I love you" as she calls out "Mine, mine, mine -- all of you mine" (252).

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Trina spreads the coins between the sheets, strips naked, and sleeps "all night upon the money, taking an ecstatic pleasure in the touch of the smooth flat pieces the length of her entire body" (255). Trina's orgasmic please at the touch of money is intended to appear perverse. The scene marks the culmination of the city's corruptive power to dehumanize its inhabitants, reducing them to nothing more than their material circumstances. The novel links the material reduction in animalistic nature to an insane relationship with the city characterized by self-inflicted imprisonment and violence.

Being that farm animals and refined city life are not often compatible, Norris's description of McTeague as being like a cart horse forshadows his fall from.....

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