SAMPLE GRADED ESSAY

Becky Sanderson

Dr. Byron P. James

English 112

November 2, 2016

In Frank Norris novel, McTeague, Norris uses ethnic stereotypes of

immigrant characters to convey the naturalistic theme of uncertainty and

doubt about whether anything can be gained. Norris recreates a lifelike

setting of late nineteenth century San Francisco, which at the time was a

place where it was difficult for immigrants to succeed because of prejudice

against them from Americans. Norris uses San Francisco as a backdrop to

the stories of the immigrant characters of McTeague, Trina, and Zerkow, who

all strive to gain something, but do not succeed.

Norris creates the protagonist, McTeague, to be a heavy, slow to act,

[and] sluggish Irish American (Norris 6). He has a simple life, with his only

pleasures being to eat, to smoke, to sleep, and to play upon his concertina

(cite). McTeague also has the prominent drunkard ethnic stereotype of Irish-

Americans, which he gets from his father who would become an

irresponsible animal, a beast, a brute, crazy with alcohol (cite), suggest that

McTeague may have been a born criminal and tainted (Pizer 28).
McTeague is often described as being beastlike with animalistic attributes.

Since animals are inferior to humans, McTeague is portrayed as not human,

and therefore not able to gain anything significant in life, as much as he

tries. Many times McTeague tries to gain control of his wife, mostly while he

is drunk (once again reinforcing the ethnic stereotype of Irish Americans),

which becomes fatal. Since McTeague is like an animal, he has issues with

self-control. He cannot hold himself back and looses control when Trina

refuses to give him money and he murders her. While on the run from the

police, McTeague carries his canary in a cage, which symbolizes McTeague

and his inability to gain anything in life because he is like a caged bird. The

cage represents the American society holding McTeague back from gaining

anything significant because he is seen to be less than human due to his

ethnic stereotype.

McTeagues wife, Trina Sieppe, is the daughter of German-Swiss

immigrants and the dialogue of her family is written phonetically. As seen

when Trinas father says Den he eggsplode, idiot! (45). This distinct diction

suggests and emphasizes that Trinas family are different from the average

person in America. Norris use of phonetics creates humor and lightens the

tone, but also creates factions in the novel between those who have an

American dialect compared to the Sieppes. Norris does this to show that it is

difficult for people who are different then the average American to succeed

in the United States, especially if they sound different. Norris demonstrates

this idea when the Sieppes decide to open a carpet cleaning and upholstery
business, but this business fails. The immigrant family of the Sieppes tries to

gain financial security and a business, but they cannot because of their

ethnicity and accents, which makes them atypical to the average American.

While Trina does not have an accent like her parents, her immigration

history and roots prevent her from being able to gain and maintain money.

Trina strives for perfection in everything she does. She keeps a tidy house,

always looks nice, has good relations with her family and husband. However,

when she wins the lottery, she is unable to keep her composure and life

together. Many times, immigrants come to the United States for economic

prosperity, which can lead to these individuals becoming greedy, like Trina.

Instead of helping her family in need, Trina hoards the money and replaces

her friends with her gold pieces. Trina would lay herself upon the bed and

gathered the gleaming heaps of gold pieces to her with both arms, burying

her face in them with long sighs of unspeakable delight (cite). Norris uses

the stereotype of immigrants being greedy with Trina, who genuinely loves

the gold more than anything else in her life. Her greed leads to her being

unable to gain anything in the future. Instead of spending the money to

support her family to gain their wellbeing, she stockpiles it to only benefit

herself.

Zerkow is a Polish Jew immigrant who owns a store that sells and

hoards junk. He lives in a filth den in the alley (cite). Norris uses the ethnic

stereotypes of greed and filth to describe the Polish Jew immigrant,

suggesting that once again immigrants are seen to be lesser peoples

compared to Americans.

Maria Macapa is a Mexican maid who cleans the apartments that

McTeague lives in and often asks the residents for any useless junk they may

have so that Maria may sell that to Zerkow. Residents often are relieved

when Maria leaves after she asks them for things, suggesting they find her

irritating. Norris also portrays her as being a little crazy because whenever

someone asks her name she says, Had a flying squirrel an let him go

(cite). She also frequently tells a story from her childhood of her family being

served food on gold plates. Maria is portrayed as being a second-class

individual because she often begs and is seen to be mentally unstable.

Zerkow falls in love with Marias story of the gold plates and Maria falls

in love with Zerkows accumulation of things. The motives behind their

marriage suggest the materialism of these immigrants and their greed

because they are not in love with each other, they are in love with what each

other have. When Miss Baker speaks about their marriage, she says to Trina,

Maria and old Zerkow, that red-headed Polish Jew, the rag-bottles-sacks

man, you know, theyre going to be married. Norris word choice of that

insinuates that Zerkow is inferior. Additionally, the use of you know implies

that it is well-known and general thought that Zerkow and Maria are of a

lower class because of their immigration status, which Miss Baker mentions

as a method of classification when talking about Zerkow.

 When Maria comes down with dementia and is no longer to recount the

story of the gold plates to Zerkow, he goes mad in his terrible rage and

puts his fist in [Marias] face demanding to know where she is hiding the

plates, when in reality Maria has not hidden the plates and genuinely does

not know where the plates are (cite). Zerkow kills her in a rage, and

underlines the notion of greed in immigrants and that they are unable to

gain anything because of this greed that comes from their immigrant roots.

Through the use of immigrant characters, Norris conveys the naturalist

theme of uncertainty and doubt about whether anything can be gained. The

protagonist, McTeague, is an Irish American who is animalistic and tries to

obtain control over his wife, but ends up killing her in a drunken rage. The

Sieppes are Swiss-Germans who cannot gain success in their carpet cleaning

and upholstery business because their accents make them sound comical

and different from the average American. Trina Sieppes greed leads to her to

fall in love with money after she wins in the lottery and cannot achieve

balance. Zerkow is a Polish-Jew whose greed and obsession with gold leads

him to marry Maria, and then kill her when she looses her memory about the

gold plates. Maria is portrayed as a crazy, greedy Mexican who marries

Zerkow because of his accumulation of junk and not for love. Norris portrays

immigrants are people who are seen to be lesser than Americans and

because of this, they are unable to gain success in America, unless they

assimilate into American society.

END COMMENTS:

Becky, overall this is a great start! I understand this is a first draft, so there

are some things you can improve on. There are a few sentence level errors

that I addressed through the in paper comments. You started out very strong

but trailed off towards the end of your essay. The first five paragraphs were

clear and concise. They connected back to the thesis and supported your

claim very well. The last four paragraphs could be expanded on a bit though.

They did not quite connect back to your thesis. Make sure you support your

claim of stereotypes for all of the characters you are covering. Lastly, try to

improve your transitions between paragraphs. Lack of transitions can make a

paper hard to read and choppy. These are small fixes that will greatly

enhance your grade. Once again, great job overall! Keep up the good work.

Rubric:

Categories 4 3 2 1
Introduction/Th Original Engaging Logical Not logical,
engaging, or
esis Engaging Well- Weak thesis original
developed
Fully developed thesis Gives some Severely
thesis background underdevelop
Gives some information for ed thesis
Gives background thesis, but not
 background information much Gives little to
information for for thesis no
thesis background
information
for thesis
Content Relevant, Relevant Minimal No research,
detailed research and research and details not
research and details key details, relevant
key details somewhat
Complete and relevant Development
Complete, logical is incomplete
logical, and thoughts Development
original is not Does not
thoughts complete support thesis
Supports
Supports thesis thesis Somewhat
supports thesis
Organization Sentences flow Sentences No clear Choppy
logically transition sentences
Smooth transition between that are hard
transitions sentences to follow
between Paragraphs
paragraphs logically No clear No logical
transition transition pattern to
Body between paragraphs
paragraphs are Body paragraphs
fleshed out and paragraphs Body
support main are fleshed Body paragraphs
thesis in an out and paragraphs provide little
original way support main sometimes to no details
thesis support main and do not
thesis support main
thesis
Mechanics Very few or no Some Many spelling, No attention
spelling, spelling, grammar, is given to
grammar, grammar, and/or spelling,
and/or and/or sentence level grammar,
sentence level sentence level errors and/or
errors errors sentence level
*Errors do issues
*Errors do affect the
not affect the meaning of the *Errors
meaning of content* greatly affect
the content* the meaning
of the
content*