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Mining and Rape in Frank Norris's McTeague.

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From: ATQ (The American Transcendental Quarterly)
Date: 20000601
Author:Cavalier, Philip Acree

Early in Frank Norris's novel McTeague, Maria Macapa brings the items she has pilfered from the apartments she cleans on San Francisco's Polk Street to Zerkow, the junk dealer, to sell. "[A]bsorbed at once in the affair," Zerkow becomes excited by the potential treasures contained in Maria's bag. In a passage characterized by violent haggling and sexually suggestive language the narrator catalogues the contents of Maria's pillowcase:

   Then a long wrangle began. Every bit of junk in Maria's pillowcase was 
   discussed and weighed and disputed. They clamored into each other's ...

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