Social Darwinism In Frank Norris Mcteague

Marilynne Robinson is a Pulitzer-winning novelist who has graced us with her essays found in The Death of Adam. Robinson gives the read the feeling of being much more educated than he or she really is. These essays provide readers with different ways of discussing history, religion and society. They, although difficult to comprehend at times, are flawlessly argued and, throughout, are grounded in universal human experience. When reading them, it is hard not to be persuaded, especially if reading them with an open mind.

     After Trina and McTeague plan to be wed, she wins the lottery providing a catalyst for the further decay of their character. After winning the five thousand dollars, the “passport to doom that brings on all the trouble,” she begins to hoard the money and become stingy (Rexroth 345).

Corruption in early America is a major problem for the working class. These aspects of corruption are exposed in The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. There are many different types apparent in this novel. They include political, economical, social, and moral. One example of social corruption, Social Darwinism, is otherwise known as survival of the fittest. Social Darwinism is where the stronger or tougher people in society rank higher and receive more jobs than those who are weak. In Upton Sinclair’s The Jungle, the ideas and problems of Social Darwinism are explored through the struggle to find a job, poor working conditions, and a deceitful population.

In 1859, Charles Darwin published his most famous work, On the Origin of the Species by Means of Natural Selection (Encarta 96). This book explained Darwin's theory of natural selection, a process not unlike separating the wheat from the chaff, where the least fit are eliminated, and only the fittest survive. An extension of this theory known as Social Darwinism emerged in the late 19th century. "Social Darwinists believed that people, like animals and plants, compete for survival and, by extension, success in life" (Encarta 96). Under this theory, the individuals who acquire the power and wealth are deemed the fittest, while those of lower economic and social levels are considered the least fit (Griffin

They are victimized by circumstances well beyond their control. As for the speculators, they are battling not for survival but for wealth, and their economic warfare takes on a validation of its own; it is a contest of wits. The story is slightly depressing, yet in the very unpredictability of human existence, there shines a glimmer of hope. As he is about to sink into complete despair, Sam Lewiston finds a job and makes the most of it. The good man wins out in the end, but it is not so much because of who he is or what he has done.

A political reformer of the late 1800s and early 1920s, William J. Bryan fought for a variety of different causes, including bimetallism, women’s rights, and fundamentalism (Shi and Tindell 806). It is this last point, fundamentalism, that will be the focus of this paper; specifically, reviewing Bryan and his fight against Darwinism and its teaching in schools. This paper will also go over Bryan’s beginnings and his rise to notability along with his viewpoint on social Darwinism and what lasting effects he had on it. Over his career, William J. Bryan fought for many different progressive causes, but one of his best-known crusades was the fight for bimetallism.

The aftermath of the Industrial Revolution left America’s economy and cities in a prosperous state. Immigrants flocked to the United States in search of the American Dream, and rising cities like Chicago thrived off of the meat packing and steel industries. However, the American Dream for many newcomers wasn’t all that it seemed; corrupt political bosses and machines ruled major city politics, making the working and living conditions of immigrants employed for these corporations unsubstantial. After going undercover in a meat packing plant, muckraker Upton Sinclair published The Jungle in 1906 to expose the repulsive conditions that the lower class worked in. An initial reading of this piece focuses strongly on the ideas of a capitalistic society

European nations along the west coast of Africa for 300 years have traded slaves, gold, and ivory. During the 1500-1800 Europeans in Africa would mostly buy and sell slaves. Europeans started to gain interest in the continent and shifted to imperialism, and started seizing colonies. What was the rationale behind strong European countries conquering weaker European countries. I believe the three main reasons were Social Darwinism, Economics, and Nationalism.

Social Darwinism is a theory that individuals, peoples, and groups are subject to darwinian laws of natural selection. Another way to describe social darwinism is survival of the fittest. The strongest and the smartest will survive. It is now largely discredited, it was advocated in the late 19th and early 20th century by Herbert Spencer and others. It was used to justify political conservation, imperialism, to discourage intervention and reform and racism. This theory was used to support the laissez faire capitalism and political conservatism.

The concept of Social Darwinism was a widely accepted theory in the nineteenth-century. Various intellectual, and political figures from each side of the political spectrum grasped the theory and interpreted it in various ways. In this paper, we will discuss three different nineteenth-century thinkers and their conception of Social Darwinism. The conservative, Heinrich von Treitschke, and liberal Herbert Spencer both gave arguments on the usefulness of competition between people on a global scale. The anarchist, Peter Kropotkin, refuted the belief of constant competition among members of the same species and emphasized mutual aid.

She became a stingy miser, and she hid her winnings from her husband in the bottom of her trunk. McTeague lost his practice for dentistry, and the downfall of the husband and wife soon followed. Trina became more of a hoarder, as she would not spend any money at all, and she forced her husband to give her his savings. McTeague was unemployed and disenchanted with Trina. He fell back into alcohol abuse, and his

She did not grow up rich and as stated earlier, her fate is to live a simple and laid back life. However, she deviates from her fate and creates complications for herself because of her obsession with money. Trina has $5,000 saved up and a side job, but she does not spend a cent of it, even refusing to give McTeague 5 cents to ride the train back home on a rainy day. Soon enough, McTeague is so frustrated with Trina that he begins to abuse her. He chews on her fingers, “crunching and grinding them with his immense teeth, always ingenious enough to remember which were the sorest” (Norris 244). This marks the beginning of Trina’s deterioration in health. If she had not neglected McTeague in order to save her money, he would not have become so violent towards her. She amplifies her hardships by moving into an even cheaper house--the one Maria died in--and she continues her miserly habits despite McTeague’s abuse. Her cheap attitude causes McTeague to rob and leave her. Additionally, fate punishes her for hoarding money from the Noah’s ark figurines; she loses her fingers. Even though her health is declining, she continues to work. She neglects herself so much that “[she] lost her pretty ways and her good looks. The combined effects of hard work, avarice, poor food, and her husband’s brutalities told on her swiftly” (264).

Already in the late 19th century, the American Federation of Labor had begun to represent a growing segment of the American population discontented with the status quo of corporate exploitation. At the onset of the 20th century however this message began to take particular weight, as evidenced by the tripling of the AFL’s membership and the rise of the Industrial Workers of the World. Labor unions, the Socialist Party and progressives as a whole took issue with the doctrine of Social Darwinism and moved forward as a somewhat united front with the goal of bringing meaningful change to American society.

“Chapter 2: Social Darwinism” is an article that is trying to explain the reason and thought of why the European settlers behaved the way they did. The Europeans traveled to South Africa in the 17th and 18th century. Back then they were known as the “Afrikaners”. Anglo-Boer War happened because of the damage and the suffering the Europeans caused due to their arrogance. British Jingoism became the reason why Social Darwinism and the Anglo-Boer war happened.

In The Gothic Body, by discussing Darwinist theory and the mutability of human identity, Kelly Hurley shows that biological, monstrous transformation of human beings was a “ruination of traditional constructs of human identity that accompanied the modelling of new ones at the turn of the century” (Hurley 3). In Rosemary’s Baby, the existence of an evolved, abhuman baby may suggest that the characters also undergo such Darwinian evolution. However, in the novel, this biological Darwinian transformation is actually a metaphor of social Darwinian evolution. Rosemary’s Baby illustrates a fierce competitive society, where the standard of traditional religious morality has gradually been abandoned, and social