Money
McTeague is stated to be a novel of San Francisco, but its intense focus on the negative consequences of greed and mindless acquisition of wealth is universal and hardly limited to even the city famous for its Golden Gate. Money is literally a symbol in the novel; the greed and drive to accumulate money by the characters is not driven with a purpose toward fulfillment in fact, but in theory. Money is valuable not for what it buys, but for what it means. The tragedy is that none of the characters really seem to have a legitimate concrete idea of what it means. Following the lead set for by Marx, money has transactional value, but the commodity on the other end of the transaction becomes fetishized into what it should or could mean rather than anything it actually does mean.
Trina's Hoarding
At first, Trina is merely a hoarder in the positive sense of holding back on instant gratification so that you won’t be all wet when that rainy day comes and you realize you’ve saved nothing. Slowly it moves into the darker world of hoarding: doing it obsessively “without knowing why.” The path is inexorable: without knowing why, Trina is on a slow train headed for Scrooge-like miserliness. Like Scrooge, Trina has save enough money to live better than she does, but has become ever more obsessive about not doing that very thing. It is a concrete act of pathology, but beneath that is a more symbolic dimension to her behavior. Exercising complete control over her money is her way of finally having control over life; an aspect of domesticity rarely enjoyed by woman in her circumstances.
The Gilded Cage
The story takes place during a period of increasing prosperity for a select few known as the Gilded Age. Gilt is merely the appearance of gold; not real gold. It is a façade meant to impress, but ultimately of little value otherwise. The importance of the canary trapped in a cage is therefore situated not on the bird being deprived his freedom as normally, but in his prison having the appearance of something precious. That very thing which created the now bustling cit of San Francisco: the gold that sparked the rush. McTeague is likewise trapped by his pursuit of a lifestyle that looks enticing, but hardly suits his character or temperament.
Death Valley
McTeague comes to a gruesome end in a desperate and ill-conceived attempt to make it across the most barren stretch of property in America. He’s got $5,000 in a bag, a head-start on a trek that only the craziest posse would attempt to follow and just a hundred miles or so standing between him and freedom. Unfortunately, that $5,000 can’t buy the two things he needs most in the world and that are in very short supply in Death Valley: water and a way to cut through the handcuffs permanently securing him to the corpse of the man he just killed: Marcus. The irony of being the wealthiest man in Death Valley with no way to buy the things he needs lends the symbolism tragic dimension that allows for the reader to feel some sympathy for him if only out of a sense of familiarity with his situation.
Gold
Not to be confused with mere money. The same amount of money in paper form or even copper or nickel pale in comparison to the spell cast when the value is presented in the form of gold. Nobody ever talks about a particular and peculiar manifestation of madness as “silver fever.” Gold fever is part of the DNA of San Francisco and its value is perhaps more keenly realized in in places like there and the Klondike and other famous sites of “gold rushes” than in most place. Gold is the dominant hue of the novel: the canary cage, the gold tooth dentist sign, Maria’s obsession with silverware paradoxically made of pure gold and, most memorably, Trina’s naked body in sleeping in a bed of gold coins. Gold becomes a symbol for the very existence of San Francisco and, by extension, the growing influence of California. In addition, Trina fetishes the “fever” into a sexual component which by definition makes it a suitable replacement for an unfulfilling relationship. Gold as a stand-in for accumulation of wealth and its ability to transform a nation, turn a vagabond into a rich man overnight, lend a business greater status than its competition ultimately becomes the novel’s most richly mined symbol.
