of railroad work, the Big Four received government subsidies of money, but more importantly, land. In turn, the farmers and their land were left out in the cold. The railroad company, in their selfish desire for power and wealth, continually cheated the farmers, first promising to sell them railroad land at a relatively low price, and then after the farmers greatly improved the land, unreasonably raised the price. In addition, rates of transportation for the products of the farmers were raised also, in turn ruining the farmers in the long-run. With a lot of emotions running, Norris paints a vivid picture about the railroad,
             the galloping monster, the terror of steel and steam, with
             its single eye, cyclopean, red, shooting from horizon to
             horizon; but saw it now as the symbol of vast power, huge
             terrible, flinging the echo of its thunder over all the reaches
             of the valley, leaving blood and destruction in its path;
             the leviathan, with tentacles of steel clutching into the soil,
             the soulless Force, the iron-hearted Power, the monster,
             the Colossus, the Octopus. (Norris, 51)
             Through out the novel, one can see how the railroad tampered with other individuals. Dyke was fired from his job at the railroad after he refused to work for the rates of a man doing half the work he was doing. Then after Dyke mortgaged his land to the railroad, they raised the rates on the crop he was producing, which in turn, drove him to poverty and eventually crime which led to prison. This is another example of how the railroads exploited and unethically treated the common man in California.
             The incidents that occurred in The Octopus, were closely related to the struggles that were occurring through out the San Joaquin Valley, especially in the Mussel Slough area. When people bought the land from the railroads, the farmers occupying the land in question were kicked off the land and left with no where to go...