Trina and "McTeague"

"In Search of Local Color" sets two upper-class men in a slum neighborhood so that they might contrast with the people there, revealing them as representatives from a sort of detached paradise. McTeague does the opposite; it sets a lower-class man up as a middle-class dentist, though he is only able to pretend to be sufficient at his profession. In social affairs, McTeague is more of a lumbering giant, liable to break things, make a mess, get confused, and get progressively more aggressive to attain his purposes.

If "Local Color" displays characters as museum pieces, McTeague displays a set of caricatures; the people that make up McTeague's apartment building (plus Trina's family) are very iconic, if not picturesque, characters. You have Marcus, the man who pretends to know more than he does and almost succeeds at it; Maria, the Mexican (American?) cleaning woman who has a dubious claim to prior riches, in the form of gold tableware; the elderly folks upstairs that coexist with each other but only formally meet in Chapter 7; Trina, the doll-like, sex-less young girl, soon to be corrupted; her parents, The Sieppes, Swedish cartoon characters and iffy parents; and finally McTeague, tall, bumbling, filled with a strength he can't control and isn't even aware of. Outside of this cast, there are the people in the outside world, who come in waves throughout the day, beginning with the poorest who get up early, then the middle-class who bustle to work, then the rich who amble to manage things, and a reversal of people going out on the town to try to fulfill something.

I feel as though the characters are both heavily symbolic, and yet hold their own individual weights in the story. For instance, Trina is introduced as an exquisite little doll, with "an adorable little line of freckles" across her nose and "a charming poise, innocent, confiding, almost infantile." She isn't a child, but she can scarcely be called a young woman, as the "woman hasn't awakened" until McTeague uses his strength to kiss and woo her. So what is she? Sexless, label-less, pretty, female ...baby? Is McTeague attracted to her innocence or her loveliness? Is the reason she 'becomes a woman' when McTeague kisses her because she realizes for the first time the idea of physical wanting, and being wanted? Is that what defines a child from an adult? Lots of interesting paths to take here; but so far I'm suspicious.