FRANK NORRIS' THE OCTOPUS - Digital Library

PERSPECTIVES ON THE HISTORIO-SOCIOLOGICAL NOVEL: FRANK NORRIS' THE OCTOPUS

APPROVED:

f,.

|M

niw imiii

Major Professor

rector of tfie Depatftmefatot History raduate School

PERSPECTIVES ON THE HISTORIC)-SOCIOLOGICAL NOVEL: FRANK NORRIS * THE OCTOPUS

THESIS .

Presented to the Graduate Council of the North Texas State University in Partial

Fulfillment of the Requirements

For the Degree of

MASTER OF ARTS By

Timothy Thomas O'Shea, B.A. Denton, Texas May, 1969

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Chapter "

Page

I. INTRODUCTION

1

II. NATURALISM, NORRIS, AND MUCKRAKING

4

III. FACT OR FICTION: THE MUSSEL SLOUGH INCIDENT . 36

IV. THE POLITICAL POWER OF THE SOUTHERN PACIFIC . 55

V. CONCLUSION

85

BIBLIOGRAPHY , .

87

'CHAPTER I

'

INTRODUCTION

The union of sooial history and literature in the historio-aooiologioal novel creates "a transparency through which we may catoh glimpses of other art, of politics, of philosophy, of science."1 Frank Norris' novel The Octopus is an attempt to capture this special quality. One of Norris" goals in life was to write an epic trilogy dramatizing American life. His idea was "to write three novels around the one subject of Wheat. First, a story of California (the producer), second, a story of Chicago (the distributor), third a story of Europe (the consumer). . . .1,2 The first novel, The Octopus, was Norris' favorite principally because he felt "he was at his best when writing of California."3 For suitable material with which to inaugurate his story of wheat, Norris chose the bizarre events surrounding the battle at Mussel Slough in 1880, The skirmish at Mussel Slough was the climax of events that had occurred during the l870's between

*Grant C. Knight, The Strenuous Age in American Literature, (Chapel Hill, North Carolina, 19!?4;, p. vITi.

2Norris to William Dean Howells, March, 1899, as cited in Mildred Howells, editor, Life in Letters of William Dean Howells, Vol. II of 2 vols. (GarderTlTrtyT Mew York7~l92d), pp7~KT2=It3j:--

^Franklin Walker, Frank Norris A Biography (New York,

1963), P. 240/

*

S--ZJL

the wheat farmers of California's San Joaquin Valley and the

Southern Pacific Railroad. Having chosen his material,

Norris enthusiastically declared,

I mean to study the whole question as faithfully as I can and then write a hair-lifting story. There's the chance for the big, epic, dramatic thing in this, and I mean to do it thoroughly--get at it from every point of view, the social, agricultural, and political-just say the last word on the R.R. question in California.4 Wedged as it was between the fin de giec.le and the Progressive Era, The Octopus appeared during a transition period in American history, a period noted for the emergence of realism and naturalism and the rising tide of social justice. The Octopus is clearly a naturalistic novel. This is true in spite of often uncertain and diffuse efforts to explain naturalism and how or whether Norris1 book met the test. Hopefully, a survey and analysis of some of the attempts to explain naturalism and its relationship to Norris and The Octopus can refine the diverse interpretations of naturalism as well as re-evaluate them. Much of Norris* collegiate life as we'll as his professional career brought him into contact with muckraking. In 1898 the roving muckrake publisher S. S. McClure offered Norris a job in New York. Although Norris' tenure was brief, he nevertheless conceived his idea for the wheat trilogy ; while at McClure's. Scholars have yet to agree on the

^Norris to Harry Wright, April 5, 1899, as cited in Walker, Norris, p. 244.

 ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download