How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
He made good dough, still he wouldn't give Velma enough, figuring she'd come back to him if he kept her needy. (3.62)
Wealth is put to various uses in The Adventures of Augie March. While the Renlings would have used their prosperity to lift Augie out of neediness, others use their capital to keep people down. In both cases, however, wealth brings power over others. Money talks.
Quote #2
The Commissioner died before the general bust, and wasn't very long in his grave when the suicides by skyscraper leaps began to take place in La Salle Street and downtown New York. (7.2)
This would be the great Wall Street Crash of 1929, which led to none other than the Great Depression. Augie hangs with folks who lose a lot in the crash—Einhorn, for one—but no one who was long reduced to poverty due to the bust.
Quote #3
"No rent, no heat," he said in the winter, resolving to be tough. "A landlord ought to act like one or give up his property. I'll stick by economic laws, good times, bad times, and be consistent." (7.4)
Einhorn's consistency makes him ruthless. It also gets him sued. He loses. Sorry, Scrooge.
Quote #4
"She threw a child out of the window and killed it. They used all their influence and got her free. A poor woman would have gotten the chair…" (8.55)
Mrs. Renling, nowhere near poverty herself, observes that the criminal justice system doesn't treat the rich and poor equally. Augie doesn't inquire further into her politics. They don't have any objection to giving him a "free ride," if that implies anything.
Quote #5
Open at the seams, the gloves showed how I had lost my grip on prosperity. And I was getting dirty, for a salesman, for whose appearance there are laws which are supposed to guarantee a certain firmness of personality. (9.35)
Augie is in a no-win situation. He needs money for clean, undamaged clothing, but he needs good clothes to make money. Torn and dirty garments are a sign of poverty and bad moral character. This is a false sign, but it's one people believe. Any middle-schooler will tell you that much.
Quote #6
There were flashlights swinging from car to car as cops emptied them, and then the train went off, cleared of riders, down into the semaphore lights and oily blues of the track. (9.93)
Not having money for transportation, a lot of people hitched rides on trains. You've probably heard the derogatory term "free-riders" used for people who depend on welfare programs. Well, here's the origin.
Quote #7
"They'd rather have a poor young man. A poor young man gets up more steam and pressure. They were like that themselves and they know." (11.50)
Simon explains to Augie why the Magnuses are willing trust him despite his coming from poverty. They believe he's someone who has had to struggle to survive and will be willing to work hard, with dedication and sacrifice. Hah, little do they know…
Quote #8
"This has been hard for Einhorn to take. He banked on Arthur. So did Tillie. Now it's just part of the Depression picture. Children coming back with their kids to live with the old folks in their flat." (13.127)
The Einhorns' son has not been the success they anticipated and he's had to return to them, unemployed, ill, and with a baby. Einhorn suffers for this, but largely because he accepts the American Dream narrative and judges his son in light of it.