Richard Cory

"Richard Cory" is a Realism poem that exposes the theory that money cannot buy you happiness. Richard was a great man who was very healthy and appeared to have it all while others were living with nothing. They were envious of Richard and his money, which kept him at a social level they dreamed to be a part of. They were looking at Richard wishing they could be him. They believed that the grass was greener on the other side but hiding behind the money was a man that was not happy about his life. "And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,/ Went home and put a bullet through his head" (Robinson 575). Richard was fighting with something within himself and looking for some happiness, which he thought could come from having money. To others he appeared to have it all, but he was missing something. The man was well put together and was well educated and dressed cleanly with everything looking spotless. Emerson and Thoreau would see his death as a waste and that no one should every take their own life. They both experienced death and it affected them greatly they feared death and were afraid to die and to think of someone taking their own life is upsetting to them. Life is precious and you only get one life to live so you have to find what makes you happy and do that. Richard Cory was not able to find what made him happy and his decision to end his life not only effected him but the people around him that would grieve his death. Richard Cory was selfish in taking his own life and he did not consider how it would influence the people around him and what their lives would be like without them. They are now sad and more people are sad than just the one person and Richard should have reached out to someone and this is something that Emerson and Thoreau would have wished he did.

Robinson, Edwin."Richard Cory." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009.575. Print.