289:– A poet searching for a plot, as well as a surveyor of the dilemma between the ranchers and the railroad. The novel begins with him, riding his bicycle across the countryside, and ends with him as well. He lives on Los Muertos with the Derricks as a friend of the family. The character appears to parallel the author, with Presley’s search for a 'Song of the West' being comparable to Norris' 'Epic of the Wheat'. Presley later discards his grand ideas and publishes 'The Toilers', a poem about the farmer’s plight which stirs up public interest in the issue.
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319:– Long-time friend of Presley, Vanamee is a wanderer haunted by the tragic, violent death of a love interest, Angele Varian, years before. In the novel he works on different ranches and spends a great deal of time at the Mission San Juan de Guadalajara, where Angele had been murdered. The novel compares Vanamee to biblical prophets, as he has a strong spiritual aspect.
378:'The Octopus' is a powerfully visualized picture of the evils wrought by monopolies or "trusts." In this case the monopoly is a railway, its prey the wheat-growers and other producers in California. ... If it be true that it is not wisely described as an epic, it is equally true that it is a powerful and tragic piece of fiction.
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Broderson, Harran
Derrick (Magnus' son), Hooven, and Annixter are all instantly killed or mortally wounded. Shortly afterward, Annixter's young widow, Hilma, suffers a miscarriage. Presley, the poet, throws a bomb made by the Anarchist bar-owner Caraher into Behrman's home, but Behrman escapes unscathed.
295:– Owner of El Rancho de los Muertos and the father of Harran and Lyman Derrick, Magnus represents the upstanding integrity of the previous generations, as opposed to the modern, increasingly dishonest dealings of the youth, as represented by the railroad and the rancher’s League, which Magnus leads.
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Behrman, now in possession of
Derrick's farm, harvests the wheat Derrick raised and sells it to Mrs. Cedarquist's famine-relief effort. He goes to Port Costa to see the wheat from his grain elevator loaded on the India-bound Swanhilda. While relishing the sight of the wheat cascading into the ship's
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In a meeting into the
Bonneville opera house, other members of the league counsel caution. Derrick arrives and is about to speak when provocateurs distribute freshly printed copies of the local newspaper, which has a front-page story revealing Derrick's participation in the league's bribery. Derrick
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The league persuades
Derrick to participate in secretly bribing state legislators and installing Derrick's lawyer son, Lyman, on the railroad board. All goes for nought, however, as the railroads have secretly agreed to support Lyman's bid for governor. Lyman, violating his promise to the league,
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When the community comes together to drive jack rabbits from
Osterman's ranch, Behrman, Delaney and Christian—agents of the railroad—assisted by U.S. marshals, seize Annixter's ranch. Members of the league ride off to thwart the seizure of Derrick's ranch. In the gunfight that ensues, Osterman,
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of 1880, which involved a bloody conflict between ranchers and law agents defending the
Southern Pacific Railroad. The central issue was over the ownership of the ranches, which the farmers had leased from the railroad nearly ten years earlier with intentions of eventually purchasing the land.
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Dyke, a railroad engineer, dotes on his daughter, Sidney, and his mother. Dyke is fired for refusing to take a pay cut. He decides to raise hops, but is ruined when the railroad raises the tariff for shipping them. After robbing a train, he eludes capture, but is eventually caught.
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In San
Francisco, Presley attends a sumptuous dinner, courtesy of his businessman friend Cedarquist, who secures Presley passage on an India-bound ship. Cedarquist's wife, moved by Presley's poem 'The Toilers,' raises money to send a shipload of wheat for famine relief to India.
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313:– Owner and operator of the Quien Sabe Rancho, Annixter is a young, headstrong confirmed bachelor who, over the course of the novel, matures into a soft-hearted, selfless man, largely due to his developing interest in Hilma Tree. Part of the inner circle of the League.
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Norris decided upon the project in March 1899, and by early April had left for
California to research the project. Over the following months, he visited the locations of the incident and worked on nearby farms, gaining firsthand knowledge of the wheat farmer’s life.
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Mrs. Hooven and her daughters, 19-year-old Minna and 6-year-old Hilda, move to San
Francisco, where they become separated and destitute. Minna is lured into prostitution and Mrs. Hooven dies of starvation. Presley, determined to help them, arrives too late.
185:, he began searching for an idea for his next project. Within a few weeks he had formulated his idea for a trilogy of novels on the topic of wheat, his 'Epic of the Wheat', from its growth in California (which would be the basis of
373:"The Octopus" is a novel of crude and almost barbaric force; showing in many parts the deep impress of Zola both in method and manner, but disclosing also great vigour of imagination, dramatic feeling and a deep sense of reality.
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depicts the conflict between wheat farmers in the southern San
Joaquin Valley and the fictional Pacific and Southwestern railroad (P&SW). The main nearby town is the fictional Bonneville.
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Although originally priced at $ 2.50 to $ 5 per acre, the railroad eventually opened the land for sale at prices adjusted for land improvements, leading to the conflict depicted in the book.
307:– Son of Magnus, Lyman is a lawyer in San Francisco up north. Lyman is contracted by the League to represent the farmers on the state Railroad Commission, which decides on transport rates.
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301:– Son of Magnus, Harran aids his father on the ranch. It is Harran who persuades Magnus to head the League. Along with his father he is part of the inner circle of the ranchers' League.
325:– In addition to being a banker, real estate agent, and a political boss, S. Behrman is vilified by his representation of the railroad. As such, he is despised by the ranchers.
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163:. It describes the wheat industry in California, and the conflicts between wheat growers and a railway company. Norris was inspired to write the novel by the
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hold, he trips and falls in, where the wheat buries him. Later, Presley, on board the same ship, watches the California coast receding from view.
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on August 19, 1882, is the likely origin of the depiction of the Southern Pacific Railroad monopoly as an octopus.
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at Yale's Beinecke Library. (The Bancroft Library collection includes draft fragments 7, 190 and 213 from
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He returned to New York that fall, and between January and December 1900 wrote the manuscript for
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in which the magnate, after cornering the market in wheat, falls into a grain elevator and dies.
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Berte, Leigh Ann Litwiller (2005). "Mapping The Octopus: Frank Norris' Naturalist Geography,"
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Frye, Steven (2007). "Presley's Pretense: Irony and Epic Convention in Frank Norris'
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The Intellectual Currents in The Octopus: A Study of the Naturalism of Frank Norris
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Lye, Coleen (2003). "American Naturalism and Asiatic Racial Form: Frank Norris's
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Frank Norris's Theory of Romanticism and Its Application in The Octopus
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No Duty to Retreat: Violence and Values in American History and Society
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Meyer, George Wilbur (1943). "A New Interpretation of The Octopus,"
221:, which was published the following April with substantial success.
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Eby, Clare Virginia (1994). "The Octopus: Big Business as Art,"
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576:(1962). "The Concept of Nature in Frank Norris' The Octopus,"
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Following the release and subsequent success of Norris' 1899
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The Saturday Review of Politics, Literature, Science and Art
552:. (Ph.D. Diss.), University of California, Berkeley.
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declines to reduce tariffs for Tulare County wheat.
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496:. No. 3858. 5 October 1901. pp. 447–448.
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236:'s "The Curse of California", which appeared in
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266:Dyke is tried and sentenced to life in prison.
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545:. (M.A. Thesis) University of Washington.
430:. Oxford University Press. p. 219.
520:, Vol. XXXVII, No. 3, pp. 202–224.
453:, Project Gutenberg, 2008, revised 2011
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550:The Making of McTeague and The Octopus
513:. (M.A. Thesis) Ohio State University.
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410:Starr, Kevin. (1986). Introduction.
538:, Vol. 39, No. 3, pp. 213–221.
391:inspired D.W. Griffith's 1909 film
328:Other important characters include
189:), to its distribution in Chicago (
20:The Octopus: A Story of California
619:The Octopus: A Story of California
604:The Octopus: A Story of California
592:The Octopus: A Story of California
580:, Vol. XIV, No. 1, pp. 73–80.
541:Houston, Margaret Dorothy (1939).
150:The Octopus: A Story of California
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563:, Vol. 84, No. 1, pp. 73–99.
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559:and Moran of the 'Lady Letty',"
509:Altenbernd, August Lynn (1949).
414:. New York: Viking Penguin, Inc.
527:Vol. 26, No. 3, pp. 33–51.
424:Brown, Richard Maxwell (1991).
655:The New York Times Book Review
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548:Lundy, Robert Donald (1956).
570:, Vol. IV, pp. 351–359.
474:(2392): 280. 31 August 1901.
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683:California Legacy Project
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836:Novels set in California
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205:itself was based on the
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532:The Octopus
488:The Octopus
451:The Octopus
412:The Octopus
389:The Octopus
263:is ruined.
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219:The Octopus
203:The Octopus
187:The Octopus
830:Categories
350:Cedarquist
330:Hilma Tree
323:S. Behrman
282:Characters
737:Works by
399:Footnotes
368:Reception
338:Broderson
113:Paperback
76:Publisher
781:McTeague
641:LibriVox
342:Osterman
311:Annixter
238:The Wasp
197:The Wolf
182:McTeague
109:Hardback
47:Language
805:The Pit
673:" from
669:" and "
354:Delaney
317:Vanamee
287:Presley
192:The Pit
175:Origins
139:The Pit
107:Print (
61:trilogy
50:English
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