Money is a motif that drives the characters of The Thin Man. While it is a common motive in detective fiction, greed and poverty in hardboiled novels written during the Great Depression amp up the significance of the motif, as much of the audience felt financial anxiety.

Money is the reason Nick and Nora are able to live as they do, and it seems to be the only thing that separates the classes in the world of the novel. While Nora reads biographies of famous opera singers and socializes with archeologists, the Wynant family is able to move in similar circles, despite not showing the same sort of education or inclinations.

Money is the key to social status in the novel, and so when Macaulay loses it, he becomes increasingly desperate, in essence no different than the blackmailer Nunheim. The corrupting influence of money can be seen in the scramble by all the characters who want more of it: Mimi plans to blackmail her husband, Rosewater illegally marries for money and then plans to leave his wife when it’s gone, and Macaulay is driven to murder.