Gold (Symbol)
Gold is a recurring symbol in "Beverly Hills, Chicago," that is used to characterize the Beverly residents as emanating wealth. Their gardens, their movements, and even their troubles glow with the soft yellow outline of gold. Their gardens, a place presumably of growth, is described as a "golden garden," as if they grow gold; this image plays on the idea that the rich get richer and that their wealth is self-perpetuating. When the speaker concedes that the rich have troubles, too, they qualify it by saying that their trouble "is trouble with a gold-flecked beautiful banner." A banner generally celebrates something good rather than marking something bad, like troubles. In this way, gold is used as a symbol to represent the lives of the affluent residents of Beverly.
"It is only natural" (Motif)
The phrase "it is only natural" becomes a motif in the poem that serves to reveal the speaker's true feelings as a counterpoint to a series of insincere denials. For example, when the speaker says, "Nobody is furious. Nobody hates these people," it is fairly obvious that somebody is furious, and somebody hates them. Perhaps not the speaker, but then the phrase "it is only natural" precedes their admission that they do, in fact, think about how much better off the people in Beverly are compared to the people in their working-class neighborhood.
