Uncomfortable Moment

         McTeague starts out innocently enough. Norris uses words that indicate a city that never changes or diverges from its schedule. McTeague himself never changes the way he does things or the day on which he does those things.

It was Sunday, and according to his custom on that day, McTeague took his dinner at two in the afternoon at the car conductors’ coffee joint on Polk Street. He had a thick, gray soup; heavy, underdone mean, very hot, on a cold plate; two kinds of vegetables; and a sort of suet pudding, full of strong butter and sugar. On his way back to the office, one block above, he stopped at Joe Frenna’s saloon and bought a pitcher of steam beer. It was his habit to leave the pitcher there on his way to dinner. (1)

Within the first paragraph, Norris shows how McTeague spends his Sundays going to the same places, eating the same foods, and doing everything exactly the same as every other Sunday. However, this repetition leads to McTeague not knowing how to handle himself when something changes. This is especially true when that something includes a beautiful young woman under anesthesia. When McTeague first puts Trina under anesthesia, he feels strange animalistic urges begin to grow in him and he has to try to fight them. However, his inner struggle is one of the most uncomfortable scenes that I have ever read. I was not sure that I was really reading the words that were on the page. When he kisses her, I felt sick to my stomach. And then, he asks her to marry him. Who does that kind of thing? What was Norris trying to do? Because I really have no idea what he is trying to insinuate. I will continue reading this novel because I think I have a good paper topic for this next paper, but I am very reluctant to finish it because I know that it will only get more uncomfortable for me and I am not okay with that.