Richard Cory from a Nineteenth and 20th Century Perspective Essay

Richard Cory from a Nineteenth and 20th Century Perspective - Essay ExampleThe language have evolved from a nineteenth century idyll on a mysterious and respected public of a class admired from afar, to a modern icon of privilege, greed, self aggrandizement and abuse of rank at the expense, as it is adjoinn, of the common working man. There is clearly a connection in the seek of the working classes prominent in American realism both at the turn-of-the-century and in the 1960s when Simon and Garfunkel wrote their lyrics. However, we see from the reaction of the speakers a growing sense of hopelessness and anger over time from Robinsons office who, while going without meat, and cursing the bread, still await the light. (Robinson 13-14). For Simon and Garfunkels character there seems no hope, no light as they say, And I comminate the life Im living and I curse my poverty (Simon and Garfunkel 6-7). As an extension of the realism of the nineteenth century, Robinson can be placed a t the antecedent of the naturalist movement, which sought to write about the fringes of society, the criminal, the fallen, the down-and-out, earning as one definition of their work the phrase scruffy realism (Penrose par. 18). ... 3). Simon and Garfunkel, from a more acerbic, less flattering perspective suggest Cory as a frivolous product of being born into society, a bankers only child (Simon and Garfunkel 3), hardly a human being whom, it is rumored, hosts parties and orgies on his yacht (Simon and Garfunkel 14). While Robinsons rich man is almost ethereal, the other is portrayed as a negative product of wealth and poweran advantage despised by the narrator who complains I work in his factory And I curse the life Im living (Simon and Garfunkel 27-28) From an historical perspective this difference in viewpoints projects the naivete of earlier times when the rich were placed on pedestals, and by the sixties were viewed in a less positive social light. Instead of Robinsons main character as a man possessed by disgust and self pity (Kaplan 36), Simon and Garfunkels character is a self aggrandizing, morally bankrupt product of wealth and privilege. Neither man can assuage their consciences Simon and Garfunkels although he freely gave to charity (Simon and Garfunkel 23), nor Robinsons, though he condescended to greet his lesser beings with Good-morning (Robinson 8). The overriding sense in information both the poem and Simon and Garfunkels lyrics is one of irony, though in Simon and Garfunkels the reader gets a break-dance glimpse of the man. Yet according to P. Cohen, Robinsons Cory is the perfect parable set against the perfect irony that pervades the work. P. Cohen writes Richard Coryillustrates how we, as individuals, should cherish that which we have, because the truly important things in life can be lost if our attention strays to envy.