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Richard Cory

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In the poem “Richard Cory” written by Edwin Arlington Robinson, Richard Cory is portrayed as a great man, and everyone thinks he is such a well put together person who has his life together. When he walks the streets down town, we get to hear the poorer peoples’ perspective on their idea of him. They elaborate about how everything from his actions to his looks are appealing. Throughout the poem it seems like he has the perfect life because of how the lower class of people talk about him, but in the end we discover that he commits suicide by shooting himself in the head. After reading this poem, you realize that there are many themes portrayed and each consisting of significant value.
For example, one of the main themes that we see is that you cannot assume certain aspects of a person just off of their looks. The less fortunate people, or as said in the poem, “people on the pavement” (Robinson, 851), only went …show more content…
The people of the lower class deal with different problems than that of the upper class people. For example, the poorer people explain that, “… on we worked, and waited for the light / And went without the meat, and cursed the bread” (Robinson, 851). They struggled to make ends meet and to get food while the upper class man, Richard Cory, struggles with his happiness and his life. Richard might have had everything, but he still had struggles to go along with it. His life was not flawless like the lower class of people down town thought. One of Richard’s internal problems was probably that he felt judged by all of the lower class people. They thought that he was better than all of them, but maybe he wished he was not so he could have friends and possibly be happy. Richard struggled with his unhappiness while none of the lower class knew about it because they thought he was too perfect to have struggles like they

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