McTeauge

So far McTeague has proven himself to be a very strange individual. There is a very clear sense that there is something that isn't quite right about him. In this week's reading in particular he has strange, almost inhuman responses to several shocking revelations.  One that stood out clearly for me is when Trina expresses to him that she is scared of him. The description of his response provided by the narrator states "An immense joy seized upon him--- the joy of possession. Trina was his very own now. She lay in the hollow of his arm, helpless and very pretty" (141). This happiness that he feels in response to Trina's submission to him is really bizarre, particularly the way he goes out of his way to express how pretty she looks in this form of submission. Part of me wonders going forward if this feeling that he is this dominant beast of a man compared to her dainty submission is going to play a role when her money from the lottery is eventually needed (which isn't too hard of an assumption to make as readers).
Speaking of the lottery money, the parallel that the book is setting up between Maria and Trina (Gold vs Lottery) is going to help give us a picture of what might have caused Maria to lose all her gold (in the event that you believed that she had it at all.) Already, just based on how Maria has talked about the gold to the Polish man at the pawn shop, Trina is emulating similar behaviors. Rather than spending the money she has, she hordes it (so far as we know.) I think that ultimately this behavior is going to lead to disaster. In class we've briefly touched on the concept of the gold standard, and how it plays into the novel, particularly in regards to the value of paper currency. I think there are three ways that Trina could lose her gold at this juncture. She could end up spending it all, which is a distinct possibility because so far she has been very secretive about the state of her economic affairs, but I suspect that if that were the case there would be signs that would indicate these expenditures (that I haven't noticed, in the event that there already have been outside of the sign for McTeague's parlor). Another possibility is that it could be stolen, but as of yet there has been no indication of that in the novel. The final possibility, that so far I feel that signs are pointing to is a great depression sized plummet in the value of the dollar, resulting in her lottery money being less valuable than regular paper. While at this point it is unclear to me how this economic collapse could occur, I do think that there is a good chance that anxieties over the worth of paper money will be realized at some point later in the novel.

What do you all feel about this?