The Cold Millions

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Prologue-Part 1

Part 2

Part 3, Chapters 19-24

Part 3, Chapter 25-Interlude 8

Part 4-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

War and Peace

The novel War and Peace, written by Russian author Leo Tolstoy and published serially from 1865 to 1869, recurs across The Cold Millions as a symbol for Rye Dolan’s agency in the grand scheme of history. Centered around the fates of five noble families during the Napoleonic Wars, War and Peace is considered one of the most significant works of modern literature.

War and Peace first appears among the possessions of Rye’s brother, Gig. A passionate reader, Gig only possesses copies of Volumes 1 and 3 of the novel. He aspires to complete his collection, which Rye often thinks about in the presence of books, such as when he visits Lem Brand’s library. Rye only begins to read War and Peace himself after he gifts a library copy to Gig which Gig rejects out of misplaced pride. He quickly begins to enjoy the novel, filling as much spare time as he can find with its pages. Though he is not always able to understand its meaning, he appreciates its descriptions and events.

Eventually, he begins to project the novel against his own life to the point that he uses Tolstoy’s language to describe himself and Gig. When Early Reston asks Rye about his allegiances, for instance, Rye points to Tolstoy’s passage about being temporary but living with the horror of knowing that other temporary people die possessing nothing. The novel ultimately provides Rye with a sense of perspective about the events surrounding him. He is aware that he is living through a significant moment in history, but cannot process his powerlessness in it or the impact of his actions. It is only when he reads War and Peace that he realizes the normalcy of this awareness and the need to resign to history. Jess Walter quotes Tolstoy in the epigraph to the novel’s epilogue, noting that one must live through a life that does not stop.

Clothing

Clothes are a significant status symbol within the novel. Rye often considers his lot in life based on the clothes he is wearing. For instance, when Rye leaves the prison, his lawyer Fred Moore tells him not to remove the bloodied clothes he had been wearing upon his release because Elizabeth Gurley Flynn would like to use them to make her case about Rye’s mistreatment. This leads Rye to think that he is being used as an exhibition for the union’s fight against the city.

Later, when Rye walks into the affluent side of Downtown Spokane, he is compelled to buy a pair of gloves when he sees a door attendant wearing them. At a clothing store, he asks what he can afford with the $20 he received from Lem Brand to work as an informant. He buys two pairs of $20 gloves, one for his brother and the other, he claims to the salesperson, for himself. He later passes one of the boxes to Lem, declaring the regret he feels working for him. Naturally, Lem dismisses it, having no need for the gloves. In doing so, the gloves show how even half of the $20 salary he had offered Rye means nothing to him, relative to the vast wealth he possesses. When Rye gives the other pair of gloves to Gig, Gig eventually rejects it, symbolizing his refusal of his brother’s care.

Rye revisits the clothing store after he gets a full-time job working at the machine shop. His employer encourages him to buy something to wear to Gurley’s verdict reading, so Rye asks the salesperson for a suit. Although Rye can afford the suit, he is constantly reminded of his outsider status in an upper-class world. As he is fitted for a suit, the salesperson insists on giving him discounts, implying that he knows he cannot afford it at the standard retail price. When Rye sees himself wearing the suit for the first time, he is embarrassed by the feeling of wanting “to be the gentleman in the glass” (271). Other people ask him questions about the suit that he does not understand. Finally, when Gig sees him outside the courthouse, he describes the suit as “baggy.” It is only when Gig sees him, however, that he realizes that Rye just wants to feel like he belongs somewhere, recalling how he has always been treated as an outsider.

Money

Money plays a key role in The Cold Millions, symbolizing allegiance to the sides in the public dispute between Spokane’s upper and working classes. The first time the symbolic nature of money becomes clear in the novel comes when Lem Brand attempts to hire Rye as an informant, enticing him with a $20 bill. From the moment he gives up Early’s name and takes the money, Rye is racked with guilt, trying to find someone to confide in as a form of absolution.

The $20 bill reappears when Rye accidentally enters the affluent side of Downtown Spokane. Rye pulls it out from the bottom of his boot and contemplates the contradiction of wealth. As long as he possesses the bill, Rye feels that he has transcended his lot in life, but not spending it also means that it has no practical value. When Rye goes to the clothing store and learns that his $20 bill will not cover even the most expensive pair of gloves on sale, he realizes that the contradiction does not matter to the rich. It only matters to him as a working-class man.

Rye is later tasked by Lem with passing along $5,000 to Early Reston. However, because Gig foils Early’s plans to take the money, Rye maintains possession of the cash. Rye spends some of the money for personal reasons, like buying Mrs. Ricci’s orchard, hiring Fred Moore to oversee the deal, and commissioning a tombstone for Gig. However, he realizes that he has no need for wealth, which leads him to give some of the money to Willard, Lem’s bodyguard who becomes a quiet ally to Rye. Ursula echoes Rye’s realization. She is the only person to refuse Rye’s money because she, too, does not need it, thanks to her hotel and her theater career. Placing the rest of the sum in a Salvation Army bucket, he affirms his allegiance to the principles behind the union, literally redistributing the wealth he has come upon in an act of solidarity.