RICHARD CORY:
RESEARCH PROJECTS
In modern times, poor people seldom have a chance to talk to a rich person; armed guards, under the name “neighborhood watch,” keep poor people out of the neighborhoods where the socially prominent do their sauntering. Dress up in your best clothes and go to a wealthy neighborhood. Tell the first obviously wealthy person you meet that you think they are clean favored, and see if they won’t give you a nickel.
This poem is constructed of four stanzas of four lines each. Research obsessive-compulsive disorder, and write an explanation about whether or not that is what motivated Edward Arlington Robinson to write about a successful man as a failure.
English classes often take up hours of precious time that could be spent listening to the worst reader in the class read aloud with discussions about why Richard Cory killed himself when he had so much at his disposal. Take a trip to a travel agency in your town and talk to a travel agent about the many wonderful places a person with unlimited wealth can go to. After talking to a travel agent for a few hours, see if you don’t feel like shooting yourself in the head as well.
Rewrite this poem as a zany comedy, in which the inept rich person tries suicide several times and fails, owing to the fact that rich people are too reliant on their servants. End your play with Cory inviting all of the “people on the street” up to his mansion for a massive party. Have audience members vote on whether your version or Robinson’s is more fun.
Because he lived in a simpler time, Robinson naively believed that money could make people unhappy. Research your state and local government to cite the specific laws that could get him thrown into prison today for that kind of talk.
we to Thomas Hardy.