The House on First Street

The enormous house that Michael Curry calls home symbolizes the locus of power within the Mayfair family. Built by a famous Irish architect at Oncle Julien's instruction, the house has long passed from one designee of the family to the other, and is the focal point of most goings-on within the Mayfair family. Thus, its conferral upon a given member of the family is a marker of status.

Julien's Victrola

Oncle Julien's old gramophone symbolizes the power of feeling over avarice. Because it is capable of playing music, the one weakness of the Taltos, it is an integral defense against Lasher throughout the novel, and its particular capabilities speak to Rice's thesis that the power of personal relationships often functions as the only means of resisting greed. Thus, the gramophone—which Mona covets and is made more powerful by—serves to undo...