Though it shocked contemporary readers with its violence and "sordid" details, McTeague remains a landmark of American literature. It was later adapted by Erich von Stroheim into the 1924 silent film Greed , widely considered one of the greatest—and most ambitious—motion pictures ever made.
The lottery win is not a blessing but a curse, proving that in a Naturalist universe, blind luck often dictates a person’s ruin. McTeague
is consumed by a sense of entitlement over the money he feels he "gave away" by introducing McTeague to Trina. Though it shocked contemporary readers with its violence
descends into pathological greed, hoarding her gold coins while her husband starves. is consumed by a sense of entitlement over
The characters are products of their environment. The suffocating atmosphere of Polk Street and the desolate void of Death Valley mirror the characters' internal decay.