Summary:
In the prose of McTeague, the narrator holds a sarcastic tone towards McTeague, who is described as one whose desire for bargain in his office tools has prove to him to be cheap and idealistic. Through the author's use of diction, tone, and detail, the narrator reviews his mild disapproval of McTeague.
Greed is defined as the intense and selfish desire for food wealth, or power. In the prose of McTeague, the narrator holds a sarcastic tone towards McTeague, who is described as one whose desire for bargain in his office tools has prove to him to be cheap and idealistic. Through the author's use of diction, tone, and detail, the narrator reviews his mild disapproval of McTeague.
McTeague is described as a cheap person by the narrator's description of his bargain-oriented office tools. McTeague wants everything to be at the least cost possible: a "corner room" can be used as a "bedroom", the chairs are a "bargain at second-hand store", even the calendar was from "advertisement", meaning that it was free. To be economic is not a sin, and thus the narrator does not aggressively oppose McTeague, but he does portray McTeague's supposedly modern and new "Dental Parlors" to be of a good quality. McTeague's office seems unorganized because McTeague buys items that attract him with a cheap price tag rather than a good value, thus he will not buy something that he needs unless it's also cheap; his office thus looks like a mixture of "bedding, creosote, and ether." For a new office, McTeague has made his working environment unpleasant for the sake of over money saving.
The narrator's sarcastic attitude towards McTeague is also shown through his diction. McTeague is initially described to be fairly attractive; a "young giant", "blond hair" and "six feet three" tall. However, his impressive appearance is ironically matched up with a mental image of stupidity: he is "heavy, slow to act, sluggish." He does not even have the "vicious[ness]" of youth. McTeague's organized appearance corresponds to his dismissing towards the beauty of his office environment. But more so, because his physical appearance and his mental appearance do not match, the narrator is mocking McTeague for choosing to look cheap and silly after this mismatch.
The narrator also shows his slight mocking of McTeague by his description of McTeague's ambitions, which are idealistic but unrealistic. McTeague ambition is to own wealth-- at low cost. But the fact that he is starting his dentistry with so low input predicts that his dream are unrealistic. The narrator proves his attitude most blatantly by saying that McTeague's dreams are "far beyond his means." McTeague dreams to own a "gorgeous and attractive" office. The mere societal status of his clients, the "butcher boys, shop girls, drug clerks, and car conductors," also parallels with the expected low status of his work. The narrator mocks how McTeague's imagination of owning a high-profit, high-status business does not coincide with his low-input, low-status-clientele current situation.
The narrator reveals his sarcasm towards McTeague's cheapness is shown through his description of McTeague's ironic appearance, his poor decoration of his working environment, and his current job status comparing to his unrealistic ambitions.
This is the complete article, containing 477 words
(approx. 2 pages at 300 words per page).
