Frank Norris "Vandover and the Brute"

As regards Vandovers degradation – his life had changed absolutely. His personality had changed. He seemed to have a very bright future in front of him considering all his talents for painting and music.
His fall-down can be partly explained by the three tragic events in his life, which are Ida's suicide, the accident on the sea and his father's death. Despite that he actually could pull himself together and start a new life. He really had a chance to stand strong, but his emotional state was too weak at that time. He was too exhausted and tired to fight. Therefore he choose the easiest way – getting drunk and gambling. Considering his moral weakness he already was the victim of the dark life. Vandover didn't want to think, nor solve his problems. Therefore he choose something that could partly distract his attention from his problems, but he apparently choose the wrong way.
However, Vandover himself realized his state. He himself felt the brute inside of him.' The brute in him might destroy all his finer qualities, but even the brute had to feed ' Vandover knew the brute was there inside of him, but he couldn't fight with it , at least not at the beginning. The feeling which overwhelmed Vandover were terrible. He as if was watching at himself from aside, and it gave him shivers. He was going through the painful period in his life. ' At certain intervals his mania came upon him, the strange hallucination of something four-footed, the persistent fancy that the brute in him had now grown so large, so insatiable, that it had taken everything, even to his very self, his own identity-that he had literally become the brute.
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