In McTeague, McTeague’s being is reflected by the narrator’s dismissive tone towards him. Through the use of demeaning language, McTeague is characterized by the use of figurative languages such as similes and metaphors. Instead of extolling him, the narrator ridicules McTeague’s naïve view on the American Dream through syntax and diction.
With the money McTeague has received from his mother’s death, he decides to own a dentist parlor. The narrator somehow does not approve of him being a dentist by describing him as a “young giant.” The narrator even quells McTeague’s image by comparing him to a “draught horse.” McTeague is a simple-minded man stuck in a “giant’s” body with a simple goal he may never accomplish. By metaphorically comparing McTeague to a “draught horse, immensely strong, stupid, docile, obedient,” and yet “there was nothing vicious about the man” McTeague is an innocuous horse with a physique meant to carry heavy loads. The narrator evinces the reader that McTeague is not a person to give orders but who receives and obey the orders that he was given. Although McTeague can physically pull out people’s teeth, he was not mentally built to become a doctor. Since McTeague’s hands were built like mallets, he was meant to work on metal not teeth. The narrator scrutinizes McTeague’s little experience with his accomplishment as a dentist.
McTeague lacks astute goals and accomplishments. The narrator’s uses juxtaposition to describe McTeague’s dentist parlor to illustrate the dichotomy between what he wants and what he is. McTeague’s “back numbers of The American System of Dentistry” and “a stand of shelves…filled with the seven volumes of Allen’s Practical Dentist” second-handed belongings in his office are surfeit and crowded. The “back” issues show that McTeague is behind and not updated on his profession, and the “practical” dentist will never take chances. Not only does the narrator describes McTeague’s office crowded but also “exhaled a mingled...