McTeague’s canary is one of his most cherished items and the only personal item he still retains at the novel’s end. How McTeague acquired the canary is not revealed. However, until 1986 miners often used canaries to detect poisonous gasses like carbon monoxide. A miner would bring a caged canary into the mines with him, and if the canary died, the miner knew the air was toxic and that he should leave the mine.

That the canary lives in what Norris frequently describes as a “little gilt prison” illustrates how characters are imprisoned in their quest for material possessions associated with the city. However, like gilt, which is not solid gold, the possessions they desire are superficial and without real value. The superficiality of the things they value is often evident in the quotation marks that surround them. It is also evident in characters’ behavior. For example, Marcus seeks to impress others by ordering sophisticated drinks and by speaking vociferously on politics, and Maria Macapa sells junk to Zerkow so she can afford to dress like the ladies on Polk Street. McTeague’s imprisonment in a metaphoric gilt cage is made more tragic by the fact that McTeague clearly does not belong in this urban society.