Frank Morris

(1870-1902)

Frank Norris, novelist and critic, was one of the progressive writers of his time whose works dealt with social problems and won the attention of the reading public. His critical articles on literature and style did much to turn young writers towards realism.

Born in Chicago in the family of a rich jeweller, Norris was able to get a good education. When Frank was still a boy, his father moved to California where he became a successful businessman.

At the age of seventeen Norris went to Paris and studied literature and the arts for about two years. In 1890 he entered the University of California, and later went to study at Harvard University. There he began to write his first novel, "McTeague", which was considered to be one of the few naturalistic novels in America. The novel was written under the influence of Zola in the style of the French naturalistic writers. It was a portrayal of slum life in San Francisco. Unable to find a pubat the time, Norris applied for newspaper work. At the outbreak of the Boer War he was sent to South Africa as a war-corfor the San FrancisChronicle. On his return to San Francisco he became as-sistant editor for the paper The Wave, but all his spare time he devoted to his career as a noAt heart a literary critas much as a writer, Norris kept a keen eye on everything fresh and original in the creawork of other young writ-ers. When Crane's first novel "Maggie" appeared, he wrote a review in favour of the book and its gifted author. He was also the first critic to note young Dreiser's talent. Having read the manuscript of Drei-ser's novel "Sister Carrie", he recommended it for publication.

His work as a journalist at The Wave took him to various corners of California. He witnessed an actual fight between the farmers and agents of the South-Pacific Railroad Company in the struggle of the farmers to defend their rights to the land they had cultivated. The fight made a deep impression on the young writer. He knew that his thoughts on the farmers' movement would not be printed by the newspapers, so he saved this material for a book which he later wrote, "The Epic on the Wheat".

The Spanish-American War found Norris in Cuba as a correspondent for an American magazine. He wrote many articles against the war, which were not accepted by the editor because he characterized the war as a bloody stain on the L'SA and stressed the fact that the American soldiers were not at all enthusiastic about fighting for the imperialists. In Cuba he fell ill with yellow fever and had to return home. He went to live in New York where he began writing his novel "The Epic on the Wheat". But an operation for appendicitis stopped his creative work. He died in New York in 1902.

NORRIS'S WORKS AND HIS VIEWS ON LITERATURE

In his first novel, "McTeague" (1899), Norris wanted to show the corrupting influence of gold upon human nature, and how it breeds greed and avarice in human beings. The story is set in a poor district in San Francisco. Norris tried to depict the exact surroundings in great detail with an observant rather than with a philosophical eye, that is to say, he described life more from the outside.

McTeague is a dentist without a diploma. He is not a bad fellow, generous by nature; but he is a narrow-minded philistine and, when aroused, becomes a beast.

Soon after his engagement to Trina, a young and pretty neighbour, she wins five thousand dollars in a lottery. This money brings unhappi-ness to the couple. McTeague's friend, Schouler ['skaule], is envious of their good fortune and regrets that he had not proposed to Trina him-self. He knows that McTeague has no official licence to work as a dentist and informs the police. McTeague loses his practice. Trina, now his wife who had been very good-natured, turns into a mean woman. She grudges her husband the money she has won and refuses to give any of it to him. In a fit of fury he tries to take the money by force, and without meaning to do so kills Trina. He is compelled to run away from San Francisco and hides from the police in the Californian desert, the Death Valley, where he suffers cruelly from thirst. Schouler pursues him into the Death Valley, captures him and chains him to his own body. McTeague strugto free himself and in a brutal fight kills Schouler. Finally McTeague dies of thirst. He perishes chained to the dead body of his enemy.

Norris gives dramatic unity to the whole story through the symbol of gold: there is a golden canary cage in McTeague's room; Trina's twenty-dollar gold pieces; McTeague's birthday present from Trina: an