Consider the idea of social class as exemplified in "Richard Cory." In what ways does this poem appear to be an American poem?"Richard Cory" by...

This poem, "Richard Cory," was written by Edward Arlington Robinson after the 1893 Depression when the average person in America could not afford meat and had a diet consisting mainly of bread. Thus, during this period and during the period of the 1920's Great Depression, there was a very sharp divide between the "haves" and the "have nots." 

When the wealthy Richard Cory goes downtown, although the people admire him, they do not speak to him, for he is in a place apart from them, an enviable place because in the United States there was once  the "American Dream" that promised anyone he/she could rise out of poverty.  With the depression, this dream now seems unattainable and Richard Cory appears distantly "imperial" and a gentleman from "sole to crown" to the disenfranchised of the 1893 American depression who do not understand that one who has food and comfort can be desperate enough to commit suicide.