# I explained — McTeague

> Chapter companion for McTeague by Frank Norris.

## What happens

McTeague's Sunday routine is established: a heavy meal, beer, sleep, and concertina playing. His friend Marcus Schouler visits, recounting a picnic where his cousin Trina fell and knocked out a tooth. McTeague's background as a miner's son and his rise to dentistry are detailed, along with his simple, brutish nature.

## Themes in this chapter

### Social Class and Decline

McTeague's humble origins as a miner's son and his modest success as a dentist contrast with the opulent mansion he and Marcus visit, highlighting class divisions.

### Determinism and Heredity

McTeague's brutish nature and his father's alcoholism suggest a hereditary pattern of behavior, as McTeague recalls his father's periodic drunken rages.

## Character check-ins

### McTeague

The dentist, a slow, strong man, spends his Sunday in his usual routine of eating, drinking, sleeping, and playing concertina. His past as a miner's son and his rise to dentistry are recounted.

### Marcus Schouler

McTeague's friend and neighbor, an excitable and loud man who works at a dog hospital. He visits McTeague on Sunday, recounting a picnic and his cousin Trina's accident.

### Trina Sieppe

Marcus's cousin, mentioned as having fallen from a swing at a picnic and knocking out a front tooth. She is expected to visit McTeague for dental treatment.

### Old Grannis

A gentle, simple-minded old man who runs a dog hospital and employs Marcus as an assistant. He lives in one of the back rooms of McTeague's flat.

### Joe Frenna

Owner of the corner grocery where McTeague and Marcus drink beer and discuss politics.

## Key lines

> McTeague looked forward to these Sunday afternoons as a period of relaxation and enjoyment. He invariably spent them in the same fashion. These were his only pleasures—to eat, to smoke, to sleep, and to play upon his concertina.

McTeague's Sundays were a predictable ritual of eating, smoking, sleeping, and playing his concertina, which he considered his sole enjoyments.

_Highlights McTeague's simple, routine life and limited pleasures._

> For thirteen days of each fortnight his father was a steady, hardworking shift-boss of the mine. Every other Sunday he became an irresponsible animal, a beast, a brute, crazy with alcohol.

McTeague's father was a reliable mine boss for most of the fortnight, but every other Sunday he would become a drunken, violent brute.

_Foreshadows McTeague's own potential for brutality and the theme of hereditary alcoholism._

## Links

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