Greed is defined as the intense and selfish desire for food wealth, or power. In the prose of McTeague, the narrator holds a sarcastic tone towards McTeague, who is described as one whose desire for bargain in his office tools has prove to him to be cheap and idealistic. Through the author's use of diction, tone, and detail, the narrator reviews his mild disapproval of McTeague.

McTeague is described as a cheap person by the narrator's description of his bargain-oriented office tools. McTeague wants everything to be at the least cost possible: a "corner room" can be used as a "bedroom", the chairs are a "bargain at second-hand store", even the calendar was from "advertisement", meaning that it was free. To be economic is not a sin, and thus the narrator does not aggressively oppose McTeague, but he does portray McTeague's supposedly modern and new "Dental Parlors" to...