# Dyke — The Octopus character guide

> Dyke in The Octopus by Frank Norris.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mr. Dyke, Abruptly Dyke

**First appearance:** 0005-book-i

## Snapshot

A blacklisted railroad engineer who buys a hop ranch with borrowed money, he is a proud man walking straight into the railroad's trap.

## Who they are

Dyke is a former railroad engineer, blacklisted for reasons the novel unfolds, who pours his savings and his hopes into a hop ranch and a new life for his mother and daughter. He is proud, blunt, and quick to act, a man whose competence on the rails does not protect him from the railroad's rates and schemes. His struggle to make the ranch pay becomes one of the novel's sharpest illustrations of how the octopus strangles even those who try to leave its service.

## Relationships

### [Presley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_octopus_se/characters/presley)

_friendship_

Dyke is a former railroad engineer turned hop farmer who becomes a tragic figure and friend to Presley after being ruined by the railroad's rate hikes.

### [Presley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_octopus_se/characters/presley)

_friendship_

Dyke is a former railroad engineer turned hop farmer who becomes a tragic figure and friend to Presley after being ruined by the railroad's rate hikes.

### [Presley](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_octopus_se/characters/presley)

_friendship_

Dyke is a former railroad engineer turned hop farmer who becomes a tragic figure and friend to Presley after being ruined by the railroad's rate hikes.

## In the story

### [Chapter VI](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_octopus_se/chapters/vi)

Discusses the railroad's rates with Presley, noting that hops are fairly taxed but wheat growers are exploited, and expresses optimism about his hop venture.

### [Book II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_octopus_se/chapters/book-ii)

Driven to despair by the railroad's exorbitant freight rates, leading to his radicalization.

### [II](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_octopus_se/chapters/ii)

Ruined by the railroad's doubled freight rates, he drinks heavily with Caraher and descends into bitter hatred.

### [Chapter V: The Chase](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_octopus_se/chapters/v)

Fugitive from the law, desperate and ragged, seeks help from Annixter to escape the pursuing posse.

### [Conclusion](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_octopus_se/chapters/conclusion)

Hounded from his employment and made a criminal by the Railroad; his hop-fields are ruined.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_octopus_se/characters/dyke
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_octopus_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_octopus_se/characters