Money Is The Root Of All Evil
Modern society has become such that an individual's success is gauged by his yearly income. One no longer feels satisfaction with helping others, curing diseases or being self-sufficient, but rather when the yearly income reaches $50,000. It has been a long-held belief that, as the cliche goes, "money is the root of all evil," and in order to succeed in the world, one must be ruthless, detached, and live for the sole purpose of increasing his wealth. Mordecai Richler explores this concept - that in the quest for financial success, one must forsake his moral values - in the characters developed in his novel Solomon Gursky Was Here. These characters people a world where successes are measured by financial competence in a business setting and values has been corrupted by the universal power of money. Although the novel formally traces the life and history of Solomon Gursky, whom we eventually discover to be Sir Hyman Kaplansky, his brother Bernard Gursky is a much more fitting example of corruption as the mean of success. He is old, insensitive and egotistical - but he is rich, and that is the measure by which he is deemed succe
Indeed, Richler has made a point about the purity of society. It, in his novel, consists solely of a world of Mr. Bernard's and Bertram Smith's - those who are ruthlessly willing to conform to corrupt ideals and are able to achieve financial superiority, and those who adhere to their personal ideals in the face of success, and ultimately fail. Consequently, characters controlled by greed or abstaining from moral impurity, much as modern day society is often characterised, people the world of Solomon Gurskey. The successful must be ruthless to achieve their desires, and the orals are trampled as a result. Contrary to the corrupt characters of Mr. Bernard and LB Berger, Mordecai Richler introduces the character of Bertram Smith. Bert Smith, "had a strict upbringing...that survived into his seventies" (84-85). He was raised in the most formal of circumstances, displaying exemplary moral values. Smith was, as described by Callahan, "the righteous rodent" (157). It would thus be assumable that as a righteous and moral man, Bert Smith would receive the success that he deserved. Contrarily, Smith had been framed as a corrupt cust
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 768
Approximate Pages = 3 (250 words per page double spaced)
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