Work & Academics

Economic History of the U.S. To 1900

Frank Norris’s, The Octopus, is a novel which, on its simplest level, is the story which in Norris’s own words, “deals with the war between the wheat grower and the railroad trust.” There is much more depth to this novel, however. Norris’s novel also addresses issues dealing with capitalist “forces” along with the notion of justice. Ideas of one’s free will—choices versus determinism—are also present as strong undercurrents in the book. The Octopus also deals with issues concerning the strength of the individual—or what one can alternatively look at as a call for collective action. These alternate levels of The Octopus will be the foci of this paper.

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Economic History of the U.S. To 1900

Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels is illustrative of the fogginess that often accompanies warfare. The novel covers the very brief period of June 30^th, 1863 through July 3^rd, 1863. It is a story of the Battle of Gettysburg, three years into the Civil War. The Killer Angels is also a story that at times questions what the Civil War was about.

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