Disrespect In Mcteague

The passage from Frank Norris’ “McTeague” concludes that the narrator’s attitude toward McTeague is disrespect. The story is about a dentist with a small shop and few acquaintances. He has received money from his mother;s passing that has allowed him to open the shop. First, through detail, the narrator expresses his attitude of disrespect for McTeague. He is a “six foot three inch giant with robes of muscle.” The narrator describes his looks and creates an image for the reader. He is described like an animal though. He has hands that are “enormous, red, and covered with a fell of stiff yellow hair.” All of these descriptions are the details that convey to the reader that McTeague is like an animal. Furthermore, there is detail on the parlor that McTeague has opened. It “exhaled a mingled odor of bedding, creosote, and ether.” These smells indicate that McTeague does not clean

McTeague is suggested to be like a “draught horse, immensely strong, stupid, docile, obedient.” To say someone is docile also compares them to an animal, like a cat that allows itself to be messed with or an obedient dog that follows commands. The narrator continues to make McTeague lower in class by using diction that would be best fit for an animal. By using these words, the narrator implies that McTeague is dim and unable to think and reason like an a average person, but he is closer to an animal. Also, to call someone “stupid” is disrespectful, as well as “slow to act, sluggish.” The narrator points these things out only because it is what he feels. The words shine through all the other adjectives for McTeague because they have a strong connotation. The narrator is disrespectful toward McTeague because he does not think he has the intelligence to have a real dentistry. He is like an animal and he does not have an education and would be incapable of getting it because he has the mind of an