They don't want to fight people; they want to do business with them" (Dos Passos 21). However, he soon learns about America, specifically what it means to be poor in America. He tells Emile and Marco, "It's the same all over the world, the police beating us up, rich people cheating us out of their starvation wages, and who's fault?" (Dos Passos 37). Out of all the book's characters, it seems as if Congo has the least drive and ambition, and yet he is one of few that gain the most in the novel, strictly by his own hard work and determination.
He seems to become more embittered about being poor as the book progresses, in fact, he says he wants to be an American citizen but will refuse to fight in the war because it is just a way to stop revolution of the working man around the world (Dos Passos 227). However, Congo does come to understand capitalism in America. He becomes a very successful bootlegger during Prohibition, a millionaire in fact. He succeeds while so many others in the novel fail, and this is part of his education about America. Coming from a foreign country, he has the ability to look at America with unclouded eyes, and he can see what works for people and what does not. He truly becomes reborn in America, taking on the name Armand Duval, and that is because of his success. Jimmy sums up Congo's success when he says, "The difference between you and me is that you're going up the social scale, Armand, and I'm going down'" (Dos Passos 383). This is true, and it is a theme of the novel, as well. Congo's success has made him a great man, who has not forgotten his roots or his friends. That cannot be said for all the characters in this dark novel, so Congo, one of the least promising characters early on, has learned his lessons about America very well, and has put them to very good use.
5. One character says, "I ain't a Jew no more. This isn't Russia." How does this statement illustrate the speaker's idea of America?
The speaker's...
In contrast with the mutual funds, 'Mutual funds trade hundreds of stocks in many unrelated industries, with very little of the total portfolio in any single stock. By contrast, when a company expands into a new area, its portfolio consists of two stocks, typically 90% in the core operation and 10% in the new businesses' (Tirole, 2005). The diversification in majority of the cases is responsible for lower return
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