McTeague · Chapter
Chapter XX explained
McTeague returns to the Big Dipper mine, where he worked before becoming a dentist, and secures a job as a chuck-tender on the night shift.
What happens
McTeague returns to the Big Dipper mine, where he worked before becoming a dentist, and secures a job as a chuck-tender on the night shift. He adapts quickly to the mining life, finding a brutal satisfaction in the work. However, a growing paranoia drives him to flee the camp two days before the sheriff and deputies arrive to arrest him.
Free preview opens on this chapter — companions, themes, and character notes appear beside the text.
Narrative arc
Story tension across the book — this chapter sits in Falling action.
- Setup
- Escalation
- Breaking point
- Aftermath
- Closing
This chapter marks the dramatic climax because it represents the emotional and psychological peak of Trina’s a…
Full beat labels and climax notes unlock in the reader.
Follow the arc while readingThemes in this chapter
- Determinism and Heredity
McTeague's return to mining and his instinctual behavior suggest an inescapable hereditary pull toward a brutish, primal existence, as if his past and nature determine his fate.
- Nature vs. Civilization
The chapter contrasts the civilized world of dentistry with the raw, colossal power of the mountains and mining, which McTeague embraces as a 'returning prodigal,' reflecting his innate brutality.
- Isolation and Loneliness
McTeague's solitary flight and his paranoid prowling at night underscore his isolation from society and his growing alienation, even among the miners.
Characters to notice
- McTeague
Returns to the Big Dipper mine, assumes the alias 'Burlington,' and works as a chuck-tender. He feels a primal connection to the mountains and mining life, but his paranoia grows, leading him to flee with his money and canary.
Key passages
“Straight as a homing pigeon, and following a blind and unreasoned instinct, McTeague had returned to the Big Dipper mine.”
McTeague returned to the Big Dipper mine as if guided by an innate, unthinking instinct, like a pigeon flying home.
Highlights the theme of determinism and McTeague's animal-like return to his origins.
“It was the same work he had so often performed in his Parlors, only magnified, made monstrous, distorted, and grotesqued, the caricature of dentistry.”
His mining work was a grotesque, oversized parody of his former dental practice.
Emphasizes the contrast between civilization and the brutal, natural world.
