The Octopus by Frank Norris
"The Octopus" by Frank Norris is a novel set against the backdrop of the San Joaquin Valley in California, where tension between wheat ranchers and the Pacific & Southwestern Railroad (P&SW) leads to economic conflict. The story revolves around Presley, an Eastern poet who becomes entangled in the struggles of local ranchers, particularly the wealthy Magnus Derrick family, as they face potential financial ruin at the hands of the P&SW. Early in the narrative, Presley interacts with various characters, including ranch workers and frustrated ranchers, all of whom are impacted by the railroad's aggressive tactics and desire to maintain control over land that ranchers have improved through their labor.
As the ranchers organize and confront the railroad's increasing demands, the novel explores themes of economic determinism, corruption, and moral compromise. Norris vividly depicts the harsh realities of life in the Valley, including the social and personal turmoil experienced by the characters. The climax of the story culminates in violent conflict, reflecting the deep-rooted struggles between personal ambition and systemic exploitation. Throughout, the narrative emphasizes how forces beyond individual control shape destinies, illustrating the interplay between human aspirations and the broader economic landscape. The novel ultimately serves as a critique of capitalist structures and the ethical dilemmas they pose.
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The Octopus by Frank Norris
First published: 1901
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Naturalism
Time of plot: Late nineteenth century
Locale: San Joaquin Valley, California
Principal characters
Presley , a poetMagnus Derrick , owner of Los Muertos RanchoHarran andLyman , his sonsAnnixter , owner of Quien Sabe RanchoHilma Tree , his wife, a milkmaidVanamee , a shepherd and ploughmanDyke , a railroad engineer and hop farmerS. Behrman , a railroad agentCaraher , a saloon-keeper and anarchistCedarquist , a manufacturerGenslinger , an editor of the local newspaperHooven , a ranch worker
The Story:
Trouble had been brewing in the San Joaquin Valley of Central California. The Pacific & Southwestern (P&SW) Railroad and the wheat ranchers who leased the railroad’s adjacent lands are heading for an economic collision. Presley, an Eastern poet visiting the ranch owned by the powerful and prosperous Magnus Derrick family, is caught amid the fierce bickering. As he cycles toward the town of Bonneville, he meets Hooven, a ranch worker who is agitated by the possibility of being fired. Riding on, Presley meets Dyke, who tells of being dismissed and blacklisted by the P&SW. Feeling uninvolved—even superior to these troubles—Presley continues his journey and encounters Annixter, an abrasive rancher who had been angered by the high-handed railroad “octopus,” especially by the agent S. Behrman, who wants to gain control of the thriving wheat fields. The P&SW had, early on, leased its vacant, unproductive adjacent lands to the ranchers with options for them to buy. With rancher investment and toil, the once worthless lands had become golden. The P&SW is now looking for ways to keep the ranchers from winning the deal. Rebellion and warfare are in the air.
As Presley cycles about the properties, he meets Vanamee, a mystically inclined shepherd, and soon thereafter the poet witnesses the slaughter of a flock of sheep that had wandered innocently onto the railroad tracks. S. Behrman blames the accident on a broken Annixter fence. Presley is drawn into the intrigue and violence seething in the volatile community. Genslinger, a newspaper editor sympathetic to the P&SW, warns the ranchers against fighting the powerful railroad, because Shelgrim, its influential president, wields vast political clout. Annixter explodes against such a timid course and urges a unified rancher front, fighting fire with fire: The ranchers, too, need to enter the dark arena of bribery and corruption to survive.
Even though Presley is too deeply concerned with composing an epic poem of the West to immerse himself in these difficulties, Vanamee is too obsessed with the memory of his lost love, Angele, who had died eighteen years earlier. He seeks “The Answer,” a mystical, spiritual response from ineffable forces he senses pulsating around him and within the mysterious wheat, undulating, it seems, with a psychic power. In the meantime, Annixter has ridden the same local journey as had Presley. He, too, meets Hooven and hears of the man’s personal troubles. He saw freight cars routed from efficient delivery points to more profitable short-haul trips. He learns of Dyke’s misfortune. Nervous and desperate, he makes the P&SW an offer for the purchase of the property he now leases. The offer is rejected. He and the others are securely in the tentacles of the octopus. Annixter, nevertheless, finishes building a new barn and inaugurates it with a dance attended by most Valley families.
That night, with everyone gathered together, they learn that the railroad intends to charge $27 for the ranchers’ option on each acre, not the $2.50 expected. Enraged, the ranchers demand that the aloof, scrupulously honest Magnus Derrick join them in a course of bribery and crooked political machinations. His wife cries out in opposition, but Derrick, reluctantly carried along by mob frenzy, abdicates his principled life and pledges support, even leadership.
Lyman Derrick becomes the ranchers’ choice for commissioner. His secret passion is, unbeknownst to the politicking group, to be governor. At a San Francisco meeting, he introduces his Valley constituents to Cedarquist, a manufacturer-tycoon who lectures them on the hard and cruel realities inherent in economic determinism and free-market trade, contrasting such with the superficiality of art in the function of society. Presley wonders about his own role and purpose as an artist. After the conversation ends, the group learns that the legal system has decided in favor of the railroad. Lyman has sold them out.
Dyke tries to escape the arm of the railroad by going into hop farming, but he is ruined when the P&SW quickly raises his shipping costs well beyond his profit margin. Distraught, he goes to the saloon of Caraher, a known revolutionary, and after hearing many incendiary tirades against capitalism, holds up a P&SW agency and steals a locomotive. He is chased by a posse and finally trapped. He tries to murder S. Behrman, leader of the pursuers, but his gun unaccountably misfires. In part influenced by the Caraher ambience and rhetoric, Presley at last produces a poem called “The Toilers,” in which he identifies himself as a man of the people. The work becomes a huge success among radicals, with Presley hailed as a vibrant revolutionary voice. Magnus Derrick is ruined economically and morally as well, his condition exacerbated by the knowledge of his son’s duplicity. Senile and weak, he deteriorates into a shell of a person. Vanamee, meanwhile, awash in romance, finds “The Answer” to his visions in the daughter of his lost Angele, very much alive.
A gory rabbit drive foreshadows the apocalyptic moment of human violence. Armed agents of the railroad and armed ranchers face off. While neither side looks for bloodshed, fate prevails. A slight movement—an accidental brushing of a horse—leads both sides to fire. Annixter is killed instantly, leaving lovely Hilma Tree a widow. Hooven, whose family lives on the streets, is also killed. Harran Derrick, the honest son of the rancher-leader, is also slain. Presley, now totally involved, is so emotionally wrought by the events that he journeys to confront Shelgrim, president of the P&SW and the ogre behind the pernicious octopus that had caused such massive suffering. Shelgrim, however, proves to be a compassionate, learned man who lectures the poet sternly on the forces of determinism, forces beyond the power of any one person. Presley is perplexed, his purpose unfulfilled, his mission a failure. He goes to a dinner at Cedarquist’s and enjoys a table of lavishly expensive foods and imported wines. At the same time of this feast, the widow and child of Hooven, starving, stalk the streets of the city in search of food. At the moment the banquet ends, Mrs. Hooven is pronounced dead.
S. Behrman longs to be Master of the Wheat, whose force is not only economic but also mystical and transcendental. In his passionate desire to control all aspects of its production, transportation, and shipment abroad, Behrman inspects a boat being loaded with overseas-bound grain. He trips into an open hatch and is first tortured and finally suffocated to death by the continuous, furious avalanche of wheat swirling and tumbling rapidly into the hold. The wheat had been the most vital force in the drama of life: It had beggared, destroyed, killed, inspired, and given life. The seemingly human conflict had actually been one of forces, not of people.
Bibliography
Davison, Richard A., ed. The Merrill Studies in “The Octopus.” Columbus, Ohio: C. E. Merrill, 1969. A collection of essays on the novel. Included are contemporary reviews and Norris’s personal letters relevant to the book’s composition.
Graham, Don. The Fiction of Frank Norris: The Aesthetic Context. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1978. A study of the aesthetic sources and relationships energizing Norris’s fiction. An insightful examination of The Octopus emphasizes the influence of the arts on the novel.
Hochman, Barbara. The Art of Frank Norris: Storyteller. Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1988. A study of the recurrent motifs in Norris’s fiction, emphasizing his literary methods. Analyzes use of word and symbol in The Octopus.
Hussman, Lawrence E. Harbingers of a Century: The Novels of Frank Norris. New York: Peter Lang, 1999. A reevaluation of Norris’s novels, in which Hussman demonstrates how these books “rehearsed” many of the themes that would subsequently appear in twentieth century American fiction. Chapter 5 examines The Octopus, focusing on the theme of learning to love.
McElrath, Joseph R., Jr. “Beyond San Francisco: Frank Norris’s Invention of Northern California.” In San Francisco in Fiction: Essays in a Regional Literature, edited by David Fine and Paul Skenazy. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1995. A discussion of Norris’s depiction of San Francisco and other Northern California locations in The Octopus and other works.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Frank Norris Revisited. New York: Twayne, 1992. Introductory overview features a chapter on the “novelist in the making,” followed by subsequent chapters that discuss each of Norris’s novels. Includes a chronology, notes, and an annotated bibliography.
McElrath, Joseph R., Jr., and Jessie S. Crisler. Frank Norris: A Life. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006. Comprehensive biography providing an admiring portrait of Norris. McElrath and Crisler maintain that Norris remains relevant to and deserves to be read by twenty-first century audiences.
Pizer, Donald. The Novels of Frank Norris. 1966. Reprint. New York: Haskell House, 1973. A comprehensive and systematic examination of Norris’s novels, with particular attention paid to the author’s intellectual background and philosophical influences. Analysis and interpretations stress the idea of evolutionary theism and its appearance in various guises in his fictions.
West, Lon. Deconstructing Frank Norris’s Fiction: The Male-Female Dialectic. New York: Peter Lang, 1998. West contradicts many previous critics by arguing that Norris was less of a naturalist and more of a Romantic. He focuses on Norris’s representation of the “natural man” and of refined women characters in his fiction, finding connections between Norris’s characters and Carl Jung’s archetypes of the “great and terrible mother” and the “punishing superego-like father.”