Richard Cory Blog

This poem, "Richard Cory" was very sad. It is really short, but in all it was about a guy who was as rich as ever. He walked down the street and people looked at him, wishing they could take his place. They all wanted to be like him; to have meat and bread like him. He was loved by all of them. He was always so genuine and clean cut too(Edwin, Robinson). He had the perfect appearance and the perfect life, from everyone else's point of view. This is where the story takes a turn, one night, Richard Cory goes home and puts a bullet through his head (Edwin, Robinson).

This story makes me think of one someone so loved would cause so much pain to himself and the people that loved him. Then I think about his material things. Emerson and Thoreau were keen on not being caught up in material items. They tended to go back to the natural things like nature, self reliance, and intuition. I think that Richard Cory was too caught up in his material items. I think he knew that people liked him because he was rich and had such a great appearance, but no one seemed to take the time to really get to know him, they just looked on the surface. Material things got in the way of his true happiness, so he ended his happiness altogether (Edwin, Robinson). Even though he was better off than all of the people in the town, he was not truly liked for being himself, and he ended his life because he knew this. Also, Emerson and Thoreau did not believe that violence was the answer. Even though in some of their stories violence was involved, they did not take kindly to it for they believed it solved nothing. In this story, the character tragically takes his life. He ended his situation by violence and by taking matters into his own hands. The views of this character shy away from those of Emerson and Thoreau. The only thing I do give the character credit for is his self reliance. He believed in himself enough to say that killing himself would make things better. This is the only thing he has in common with Emerson and Thoreau because they valued people who would take a stand on something and who could  make their own decisions.

Robinson, Edwin A. "Richard Cory." Glencoe Literature: The Reader's Choice. New York, NY: Glencoe McGraw-Hill, 2002. 575+. Print.