The Brass Check

The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism by Upton Sinclair

The first part of the novel focuses on Mrs. Morel and her unhappy marriage to a drinking miner. She has many fights with her husband, some of which have painful results: on several occasions, she is locked out of the house and hit in the head with a drawer. Separated from her husband, Mrs. Morel finds comfort in her four children, especially her children. Her eldest son, William, is her favorite of hers, and she is very upset when he takes a job in London and moves away from his family. When William falls ill and dies a few years later, she is crushed, without even noticing the rest of her children until she almost loses Paul, her second child, too. From that point on, Paul becomes the focus of her life, and the two seem to live for each other.

Paul falls in love with Miriam Leivers, who lives on a farm not too far from the Morel family. They carry on a very intimate but purely platonic relationship for many years. Ms. Morel doesn't approve of Miriam, and this may be the main reason Paul doesn't marry her. He constantly fluctuates in her feelings towards her.

Paul meets Clara Dawes, a suffragette separated from her husband, through Miriam. As he approaches Clara and they begin to discuss her relationship with Miriam, she tells him that she should consider consuming their love and he goes back to Miriam to see how he feels.

Paul and Miriam sleep together and are briefly happy, but shortly after Paul decides he doesn't want to marry Miriam, and so he breaks up with her. He still feels that his soul belongs to her and, in part, reluctantly accepts. However, he realizes that he loves mother more than she does.

After breaking off his relationship with Miriam, Paul begins spending more time with Clara and they begin an extremely passionate relationship. However, he does not want to divorce her husband Baxter and therefore they can never be married. Paolo's mother falls ill and he spends most of her time taking care of her. When she finally dies, he is heartbroken and, after one last plea from Miriam, he goes away alone at the end of the novel.