Essay Questions

Why is it safe to identify McTeague as an accidental Darwinian?

McTeague is not a learned man. McTeague is not an educated man. His interest and curiosity is more developed than many others, but not quite developed to the point to further penetrate to the motivation for why is always doing things “without knowing why.” He is, instead, more than willing to accept the traditional view that people are born with a predisposition toward evil or they are not. He muses to himself: “Below the fine fabric of all that was good in him ran the foul stream of hereditary evil, like a sewer.” Immorality, malevolence, bestial behavior; these are all aspects of character which exist within some people as a result of being inherited. McTeague’s viewpoint is more along the lines “the sins of the father” than genetic traits, but in the end that is exactly what his philosophy subscribes to. Without being the least aware of names like Lyell, Mendel and Darwin, McTeague’s conceptualization of human nature is actually steeped in Darwinian natural selection. His story can be read in part as an evolutionary trek to determine who is most fit to survive. Ultimately, it turns out that he is more fit to survive than Trina, but not fit to survive others.

How is Trina’s greed fundamentally differ from the greed of other characters in the story?

Trina’s idiosyncratic manifestation of greed begins within the positive safety net of being economically frugal. Over time, however, that frugality transforms into its destructive extreme: miserliness. Then it moves even beyond into the realm of psychological fetishism. One of the most unforgettable images in the novel is that of Trina stripping naked and literally rolling around on the bed surrounding by the cold coins of her lottery winnings. This is not merely symbolic behavior; by this point Trina has literally come to view wealth not in transactional terms based on what can be bought, but as possessing an inherent value. Trina’s sublimation of her sexual passion away from her husband and toward her money essentially has the effect of making the gold itself a thing of value regardless of its actual market worth. Money has moved from being the emblem of wealth which can be exchanged for goods and services to being the end goal of accumulation. She would rather forego luxury or even comfort which can be bought with the money and live a lifestyle of poverty which allows her to satisfy her fetish than take advantage of the opportunity she has at her disposal to improve her lifestyle.

What is the significance of the author subtitling his novel “A Story of San Francisco” when almost all the scenes taking place there are confined to a very limited section of the city?

Like L.A.'s Chinatown in the film Chinatown, San Francisco really acts more as a metaphor than actual location. While it is true that there is far more San Francisco in McTeague than Chinatown in Chinatown, the limited scope of activity there is a signal that the title is meant to be symbolic rather than literal, though ultimately it is literally a story about San Francisco. The metropolitan beauty spot of California that exists today was the center of the lawless frontier through much of the 1800’s. Like McTeague, it was a wild animals surviving on instinct and brute force. The author had been a resident long enough to have witnessed its evolution into something more tame, responsible and loaded with potential. Unlike San Francisco, however, McTeague is not equipped with the facilities for adaptation which will allow him to be tamed and pursue untapped potential. McTeague is part of the story of San Francisco; he is that outmoded personality of Gold Rush town which is fated to die just as Death Valley was fated to become a desert instead of a booming metropolis.