"Richard Cory" by Edwin Arlington Robinson

WHENEVER Richard Cory went down town,

We people on the pavement looked at him:

He was a gentleman from sole to crown,

Clean favored, and imperially slim.



And he was always quietly arrayed,


And he was always human when he talked;

But still he fluttered pulses when he said,

"Good-morning," and he glittered when he walked.



And he was rich—yes, richer than a king,

And admirably schooled in every grace:


In fine, we thought that he was everything

To make us wish that we were in his place.



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,


Went home and put a bullet through his head.

Richard Cory, in this poem, represents the everyday celebrity. Not just the everyday celebrity, but the everyday celebrity that everyone else wants to be. Many people look up to those celebrities and there are many people who do almost everything and anything to be like them.

Being a celebrity does have its perks, but the reality is, it has many cons too. That's something that the average person doesn't realize. There's a lot of pressure when everyone is watching everything you do...and PRIVACY! The precious right to privacy is something that is hard to keep when you're in the spotlight and very few celebs can keep their personal lives on the down low.

To make this short, I'm not surprised if there are many celebs out there that want to be "normal" people again and what the "normal" people don't realize that even their idols don't have it all together (no offense to the celebrities out there). The bottom line is, there's a lot of weight that comes when you are famous and for some people, like Richard Cory, they feel that weight is too much to bare.

The main thing I want you to take away from this is that everything has flaws and you should be content with who you are as a person. I'm not trying to discourage anybody from chasing their dreams of being rich and famous or anything like that. The point I'm trying to make is that if you're trying to get into something like that, that you at first become aware of the responsibility and pressures that come with the job. Nobody wants to end up like Richard Cory, right?

~Nia A.D.L.

*Like this post? Dislike it? Comment! Any feedback is appreciated.*