The Octopus: A Story of California

The first three chapters set the stage, both physical and psychological, for Norris’s epic. The omniscient narrator of the first chapter evokes the elegiac tone of the novel, recalling the voice of an epic poem. The expansive narrative consciousness charts the countryside and strings together the elements that will unfold throughout the story. The action plays out over an afternoon and evening, in a fallow season in which the wheat has been harvested and the growth cycle has yet to begin, leaving the ranchers listless. Their concerns over the freight tariffs take on more prominence.

Presley proves a curious perspective through which to view the novel’s events. He is an outsider with only a limited understanding of wheat farming, and he cannot find it within himself to sympathize with either Hooven or Harran, which leaves him at a disadvantage in searching for the “truth” around him. He is unable to see beyond the idealized past—lamenting that he was born too late—where he is sure the subject for his poem resides. It isn’t until the urgency of a late train shatters his concentration and pulls him into the suffering of the sheep that he is ready to begin the long process of writing his poem. His subject: the oppression and suffering caused by the Railroad.

The train announces its presence in the very first sentence of the novel, simultaneously calling Presley to awareness and dislocating him from time. The machine institutes its absolute hold over the landscape, and the chapter closes on a horrific image of the indifferent power of the train, again called into being by the distant sound of its presence. This initiates a continuing structural device in which the train haunts the characters and is intertwined with their failures and successes, highlighting how insidiously it has worked its way into the landscape.

Norris also establishes Hooven’s insistence to fight for his place on the land; Harran’s dedication to the continuing functioning of the land; Magnus’s resistance against Railroad policies; and Annixter’s inability to control himself. All these dispositions speak to the deeper motivations that will cause them to band together and, by the end of the novel, engage in the fatal shootout with Railroad agents.

The second chapter uncovers major agitating factors. Magnus and Harran, stonewalled by the Railroad’s rigid policies and lack of compassion (as manifest in S. Behrman), initiate the first meeting of what will become the League. Meanwhile, Annixter, unsettled by his feelings for Hilma, appears wholly ensnared by his rebellion against his own emotions; he lashes out at Behrman, creating an enemy who will hound him and take part in his death. The ranchers, Magnus and Harran, and Annixter are depicted as increasingly powerless against the Railroad—each of them encounters S. Behrman in the second chapter, reacts angrily against him, but cannot rouse his anger. This symbolizes their inability to effect any change in their circumstance.

In contrast to Presley’s encounter with the train at the end of the first chapter, Annixter is struck by the sound of the locomotive at the end of the second chapter. However, his reaction is markedly different. Presley was horrified at the sight of the dead sheep, before imagining the train as a grotesque monstrosity—but Annixter, who laments his disconnect from Hilma, imagines a moroseness to the train. This suggests that the train is not objectively malevolent; rather, its semblance relies on the perspective of the viewer. This subjectivity complicates the moral dichotomy of good and evil in the novel.

The third chapter reveals the ossification of events around the major players in the tragedy; Magnus initiates the formation of the League, which immediately takes on an inglorious cast as their first discussions revolve around manipulation and bribery—charges that will come back to ruin Magnus. The omniscient narration sometimes slips into a character’s direct thought. This happens particularly with Magnus’s character during the group scene with the ranchers, and this narrative technique more intimately conveys the swirling emotions that drive the characters toward increased risk-taking.