"Richard Cory"- Edwin Arlington Robinson

"Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson is a poem about a gentleman.  This old gentleman was prim and proper. He also had some very good looks.  He dressed well, and spoke upbeat and precise(Robinson 575).  The people of the town looked up to him in every way.  They wanted to be just like him.  They wanted to dress well.  They wanted to speak well. They wanted to walk the way that he walked. They wanted to be tall and skinny like Richard Cory.  Richard Cory was a man of values.  But, one of the most important factors within this poem, is the fact that Richard Cory is a man of money.  This person was well endowed from the day he set foot on this every so brilliant earth.  The people surrounding him wanted to have money(Robinson 575).  People, even you and me, was what we cannot have.  There is something thrilling about the thought of obtaining the unobtainable. The reason for all of this explaining is that Edwin Arlington Robinson used a technique of writing that relates to the philosophies of Henry David Thoreau and mainly Ralph Waldo Emerson.  This story relates to their philosophy and ideas about individualism.  Richard Cory was a man that most likely was not at peace with himself.  This man had everything at his fingertips.  He has wealth, success, and people that looked up to him.  Still, Richard Cory was unhappy with his life.  Emerson's philosophy of Self Reliance explains that in order to have peace in your life, you need to focus in on yourself(Brugman).  I think that Richard Cory had anything he every wanted so he really did not focus on the things that he truly wanted because he and people around him, thought that he could obtain anything he wanted.

"So on we worked, and waited for the light,
And went without the meat, and cursed the bread;
And Richard Cory, one calm summer night,	15
Went home and put a bullet through his head.(Robinson 575)

Above we see that Cory was thinking mainly of what people thought of him and not what he thought of himself.  Maybe people's thoughts affected the way he thought of himself and he felt he could not live up to the standards that people thought of him.  If he applied the philosophy of Self Reliance to his life, maybe he would be more at peace with himself.

Brugman, Patricia. "Individual and Society in 'Self-Reliance'." McClinton-Temple, Jennifer ed.

Robinson, Edwin Arlington. "Richard Cory." Glencoe American Literature. comp. Wilhelm, Jeffery. McGraw Hill. Columbus, OH. 2009. 575. Print.(Werlock)