Similarities Between Richard Cory And The Outsiders

In the poem “Richard Cory,” a seemingly happy, rich man went home and committed suicide without any townspeople suspecting him. But, how does this relate to the S. E. Hinton novel, The Outsiders? The book The Outsiders conveys many messages to readers about how high school life was. One main conflict involves a “Social” named Robert Sheldon, more commonly known as Bob, who seemed rich and loved but suffered through parental neglect and didn’t get a chance to solve his problems before he was killed. In both stories the character seems to have a good life and is happy, however both have problems that they struggle with alone and eventually lead to their untimely death. Richard Cory and Robert Sheldon both had wealthy, happy lives in the points

Randy reveals that Bob’s parents always said yes to him would not discipline for anything he did wrong. He felt neglected and wanted them to say no to him so he would go out and do things that would cause most parents to discipline their children. On page ninety-eight of The Outsiders Randy shares, “He kept trying to make someone say 'No' and they never did. They never did. That was what he wanted. For somebody to tell him 'No.' To have somebody lay down the law, set the limits, give him something solid to stand on.” Similarly, Richard Cory had unseen problems. In lines fifteen and sixteen of the poem it states “And Richard Cory, one calm summer night, went home and put a bullet through his head.” This apparent suicide causes the reader to infer that even though in the eyes of the townspeople his life seemed perfect, there were problems in his life that were not

Bob Sheldon’s problem of parental neglect lead to his untimely death because of the astounding things he would do to get his parents to say no lead him to the park. He would get drunk so his parents would get mad at him, but they often blamed it on themselves. He joined Randy, doing many illegal things, to make his parents disapointed in order for them to possibly get more strict. He was doing something illegal with Randy by attempting to drown Ponyboy and fight Johnny when he got stabbed by Johnny. In The Outsiders page ninety-eight Randy says to Ponyboy, “If his old man had just belted him- just once, he might still be alive.” Equally, Richard Cory’s problems lead to his death in ways not presented in the poem, however, a large portion of people do not commit suicide unless they have problems that become too much for them to deal with. Richard Cory also had been educated and had a large amount of wealth so an untold problem would seem to be the only probable reason for him to commit