American Literature / Unit 12 AML 1105 short lesson, about 20 seconds
*McTeague* and *The Octopus*
Captions available
The idea
Norris's McTeague follows an unlicensed San Francisco dentist destroyed by greed, jealousy and inherited appetite, ending in Death Valley. The Octopus sets California wheat farmers against a railroad, and treats both the grain and the corporation as forces larger than any person in the book.
In practice
A dentist, a desert, and a railroad.
Where people slip
The forces, not the people, drive the plots.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
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