An Analysis Of Mc Teague From The Perspective Of Naturalism

Frank Norris is one of the most representative naturalists of the late19th century inAmerica. He has written7novels, numerous short stories and essays during his lifetime.His works are characterized by using scientific experimental methods to make a rationalanalysis to the protagonists, revealing their cruel, corruptive, violent and degradedpsyche. Moreover, his super skill in criticizing current social affairs is also acknowledgedby the critics in the world. Mc Teague, as his masterpiece, was published in1899, but itreceived scathing criticism in his days for involving the degenerate and bloody plot. In1920s, the researches on Norris and his works arose gradually. Mc Teague began toarouse the critics’ general attention all over the world. Some Chinese scholar expoundsthe relations between the capitalist mode of production and the man’s psychology of thedays from the point of Freud’s psychoanalysis. There are also other learners researchingthe work from the different facets. Mc Teague is a thought-provoking classic novel andits great charm rests chiefly on the concern for the marginal people’s miserable livingsand reflection of the social reality. The indictment of unfair power lurking in the novelshows the perspectiveness and value of Norris’ works. Due to the rich naturalisticfeatures latent in the novel, the thesis attempts to make an analysis of the novel from theperspective of naturalism on the basis of previous study, with the hope to make somecontributions to the research of Frank Norris in China.The thesis consists of an introduction, the main body and a conclusion. Its maincontents are as follows:The first part is introduction, which briefly introduces Frank Norris and his writingcareer, the current research status of Mc Teague, as well as the theory of naturalism.The second part is the main body, which is made up of three chapters:Chapter One mainly carries on an analysis of naturalistic characters, revealing thehero governed by the environment and the doomed destiny to the tragic end and theheroine’s twisted disposition resulted from the genetic elements and social environment.The people are busy running about the life which includes some instability factor. Thereis a potential threat in Mc Teague’s life, and Trina and Marcus make it come true. Theformer’s stinginess and the latter’s jealousy destroy Mc Teague and also bring about theirruin. But it isn’t difficult to find that their meanness and envy result from self-protection awareness in case of some menace underlying in the society. It is the corrupted socialenvironment that leads to their degeneration. As to the heroine, she inherits the stingy andhard-working characteristics of people from the countryside. She is unconsciously stingy,for she never thinks about the intentions. This stingy characteristic buries a hintforeshadowing for her abnormal desire for money later.Chapter Two discusses chiefly the naturalistic plot. It is the sexual instinct thatinduces the characters of the novel to get married, and also brings about all the trouble inthe next days. Trina awakes the desires inside of Mc Teague successfully. She changesMc Teague completely including his life and value. But the change not only fails to beupgraded to the cognitive and emotional level to improve his human nature, but reduceshim to a primitive bestial animal. Similar to Mc Teague, the intense and impulsive innerdesire rouses Trina’s individual consciousness and she feels her real self firstly in McTeague’s strong hug. Trina loses her mind under the violence. Therefore, Mc Teague andTrina’s “love” appears to the courtship in the animal world absolutely, having no featuresof lofty aesthetic feeling as well as the moral of the kindest affection of humankind. Thepart will be analyzed from two aspects: the couple’s marriage and conflicts.Chapter Three focuses on the analysis of theme: the greed under the influence of city.Norris mainly discusses the relation between the human beings and environment by theuse of symbolic technique. He illustrates some significance with natural things as thecarrier of symbol, in which the “gilded cage” and “the gold tooth” are two typical ones.The canary bird in a gilded cage always accompanies Mc Teague from the beginning tothe ending of the novel. This gilded cage is the dwelling of a canary whose emotionalchanges always responds to the rise and down of the life of Mc Teague. The symbolicmeaning of canary is that the people are similar to the bird in the gilded cage, and thegilded cage is equal to the micro-prison locking all the people. Hardly can the peopleescape from its ideological control when they live in the world full of endless materialdesires. Facing the nature and society, people tend to be under the control. The behaviorof the protagonists is the product of commercial society, which suggests that humanbeings have to face the destiny of failure.The last part is conclusion, which makes a summary of the analysis above and givesa deeper insight into Norris’s concern for human beings existence in his days. Through the analysis of the character, the plot and the theme of Mc Teague, the thesis comes to aconclusion that people should not be governed by his or her weakness but manage togovern and defeat it.