The passage most strongly suggests that 2. Dentistry required minimal care and precision. This inference can be drawn from the description of McTeague's methods, such as extracting teeth with his thumb and finger rather than using forceps, as well as the portrayal of his character as heavy and sluggish. The overall impression is that his approach to dentistry lacks the finesse and precision typically associated with the profession, indicating that the field may not have demanded the same level of skill or care as it might today.
So he... had opened his "Dental Parlors" on Polk Street, an "accommodation street" of small shops in the residence quarter of the town.
Here he had slowly collected a clientèle of butcher boys, shop girls, drug clerks, and car conductors. He made but few acquaintances. Polk Street called him the "Doctor" and spoke of his enormous strength. For McTeague was a young giant, carrying his huge shock of blond hair six feet three inches from the ground; moving his immense limbs, heavy with ropes of muscle, slowly, ponderously. His hands were enormous, red, and covered with a fell of stiff yellow hair; they were hard as wooden mallets, strong as vises, the hands of the old-time car-boy. Often he dispensed with forceps and extracted a refractory tooth with his thumb and finger. His head was square-cut, angular; the jaw salient, like that of the
McTeague's mind was as his body, heavy, slow to act, sluggish, yet there was nothing vicious about the man. Altogether he suggested the
draught horse, immensely strong, stupid, docile, obedient.
When he opened his "Dental Parlors," he felt that his life was a success, that he could hope for nothing better.
(from McTeague by Frank Norris)
draught (draft) horse a horse used for hauling heavy loads
What does this passage most strongly suggest about the field of dentistry in McTeague's time?
1. Dentistry was a manageable livelihood.
• 2. Dentistry required minimal care and precision.
• 3. Dentistry was an unpopular form of employment.
• 4. Dentistry required independence and resourcefulness.
1 answer