Following the death of McTeague’s, the main character’s, mother, McTeague started a dentistry in San Francisco. Some time later, McTeague accumulated a pitiful clientele consisting of “butcher boys, shop girls, drug clerks, and car conductors” (7), and achieved what he thought of as success. At that point, a narrator retold the story of McTeague following his mother's death from his or her perspective. The characterization in the passage reflects the narrator’s attitude of pity toward McTeague. The narrator is unsure whether or not McTeague is certain what he wants to do in his life and pities him because he thinks McTeague is confused. In the discussion of McTeague’s occupation, the narrator alters his diction. When discussing dentistry-related phrases, such as “Dental Parlors” (5) and “Doctor” (10), the narrator always uses quotation marks. The quotation marks show that whenever dentistry is mentioned, the narrator mentions it in a tone of sarcasm. The narrator disbeliefs the notion that McTeague is in any way a dentist. The …show more content…
Nothing in the air of the Parlors agrees with one another, and the air itself is unable to simply take the smell of just one of those things, but adopts them all. The Parlors layout shows even more confusion as it doubles as McTeague’s bedroom. Mementos of the fact that McTeague lives there, such as the bag of bird seed, rifle advertisement calendar, and engraving, do not agree with his dentistry books. McTeague, in a similar fashion, is an eclectic mixture of things that do not necessarily complement or agree with one another. Being mentioned as a “charlatan” (4), “giant” (11), and practicing dentist, McTeague is just as confused as the Dental Parlors and is not truly any one of them. The narrator pities him because he sees McTeague as trying a bunch of things without being able to choose or become any of
Brief, Peter. 1,300 Critical Evaluations of Selected Novels and Plays: “McTeague.” Vol. 3, McT-ROB. Salem Press, 1978.
Mcteague is a man who pursues his dreams no matter his current state of business or anything like that. He is perfectly content with his state in life that none of that even matters. That is what the author slowly but surely realizes after close inspection of Mcteague's life. The author is
Shown here “…cheerless, and dusky chamber, which had been untenanted so long…” (Hawthorne). This quote illustrates the outside of the mansion left to rot away as well as the guests stay. Furthermore, in this sorrowful tone, the author shows a very
During this time I recognised because of my acquired experience that being a good and successful dentist depends on good dentist-patient interactions and reciprocative understanding between both sides, as well as the interaction between the staff is important to achieve the most efficient and effective management of treatments. In my opinion a successful dentist needs to be a highly skilled physician and at the same time he also has to be psychologist, a business manager, but also a good communicator, which I believe the most important attitude. I also did an internship at a dental labour for three weeks, where I was allowed to try myself in the environment behind the scenes of an appointment with a dentist. The experiences, which I got during my internship, showed me the large amount of work that is needed to produce, for example, a bridge or a crown.