The movie Wall Street (1987) and the play Junk by Ayad Akhtar tell similar Wall Street stories each depicting people willing to break the law in order to make money. In both works money and greed are what fuel and end up getting both Bud Fox and Bob Merkin indicted. Throughout both works many innocent people are hurt because of the carelessness of a select few who will stop at nothing to earn a couple bucks. The main theme in both Junk and Wall Street is greed. The main character in Wall Street Bud Fox and the main character in Junk Bob Merkin are in complete opposite positions. Bud Fox is just staring his career on Wall Street while Bob Merkin is no rookie but pushes his luck by having Boris Pronski write him a check for 6.5 million dollars. …show more content…
In Ayad Akhtar's play junk Bob Merkin stops at nothing to try and acquire Everson Steel. He try's to buy them in a leveraged buyout in hopes of owning his first company on the Dow. Many things are done in doing this that wouldn't exactly be within the law. Bob Merkin is at the top of the food chain and everyone else is below him from start to finish throughout the play. This is quite the opposite in Wall Street because the Main character Bud Fox is just starting out on Wall Street and will do anything to get a foot in the door. In Wall Street we see a character that I would consider to be the Bob Merkin of the story in Gordon Gekko. While Mr. Gekko is certainly very wealthy he's not on Bob Merkin's level yet. Both men share to qualities of being money hungry and never satisfied with how much they have. Both men certainly have too much money to spend in a lifetime but no that's not enough. Merkin has people below him but throughout Junk it's almost as if they are good friends of some sort. Boris Pronski is the man working with Merkin throughout the novel. Both men have been working together cheating the system for numerous year. While on the other hand Bud Fox is the apprentice of Gordon Gekko. Bud starts out an innocent trader working for a small firm until Mr. Gekko comes around. Gordon Gekko corrupts Bud Fox and turns him into a bad guy. The excess greed throughout both works lead to several innocent people getting hurt and in some cases loosing their lives.
In Junk Tom Everson the third generation CEO of Everson steel takes his own life because Bob Merkins stealing his company. People are hurt in both story's because of greed. In Wall Street Gordon Gekko as well as Bud Fox get indicted. In both stories the head guy goes down. Although one example of greed getting in the way of family can be seen in Wall Street when Bud Fox and Gordon Gekko try and buy Bluestar airlines which is the company Bud's father has worked at for over twenty five years. Gekko meets with the board and promises that he will do his best to turn the company around and Bud's his right hand man on this one. After Bud sees what Gekko's true intentions are not only is he upset but so is his father who was assured that they company would be bought to be turned around. Easily the biggest example of people being hurt in both pieces of work is when they both get arrested. When Bud Fox meets Mr. Gekko at the end he mentions some time was so its implied that he received some jail time. The sentences of Bud Fox and Bob Merkin are the best example of innocent people getting hurt. I'm not talking about the two of them. I'm talking about their family's. They have to watch their sons go to prison and live with out them for a couple
years. Money and greed are very evident in the play Junk and the movie Wall Street. They both end the same way with the greedy ones in prison. People that aren't even involved in their business are being hurt. If Mr. Merkin and Mr. Gekko had done all of their business legally and kept making the amounts of money they were making no one would call them greedy. They would call them successful.
Morgan was one of the more selfish of the barons. He once said, “I owe nothing to the public, and often practiced fraud and distortion. His methods of monopolizing the banking industry were so obvious, that they were in fact called, “Morganization.” He once sold 5,000 defective rifles to General Fremont, and was never even filed suit against. Morgan still has an impact today since many companies produce faulty products or perform inadequate services that can sometimes even result in injury or even death, and are often written off as “human error” or bundles of cash pushed towards the victims to keep them
Robber Barons in America What is a robber baron? Webster’s New Dictionary defines him as an American capitalist of the late 19th century who became wealthy through exploitation (as of natural resources, governmental influence, or low wage scales) or a person who satisfies himself by depriving another. In America, we have a lot of these kinds of people. For this report, I am going to tell you about the ones that I found most interesting to me.
Theodore Roosevelt claims that “probably the greatest harm done by vast wealth is the harm that we of moderate means do ourselves when we let the vices of envy and hatred enter deep into our own natures.” The former President of the United States emphasizes that greed is an obstacle to the good working of modern societies. The novels, The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and Bodega Dreams by Ernesto Quiñonez portray that the greatest harm is made up of vast wealth. In the Great Gatsby, the protagonist, Jay Gatsby has made his wealth and gained his made-up sense of celebrity through bootlegging. In Bodega Dreams, the main character, Willie Bodega also sells illegal drugs. The Great Gatsby and Bodega Dreams are similar because both Gatsby and Bodega earn their money by selling illegal items, they are madly in love with somebody and want them to tell that they never love their husband, and both protagonists are murdered in cold blood.
In the case of the first poem, it was more of the perspective of a high class woman. The narrator who saw the women cleaning in the airport did not like the scene due to the fact that she believes that there are better jobs and options out there. As a woman coming from a higher class, she may think one way. However, we do not know whether or not the lady actually cleaning feels the same way. In line 16, Oliver mentions, “Yes, a person wants to stand in a happy place”, in a poem. But first we must watch her as she stares down at her labor, which is dull enough.” This quote goes to show that the narrator dislikes the fact that she is doing such a low job. The narrator considers that peoples too showy and live only on the external, and the woman
... The greed portrayed by these characters has no explanation, at least that Fitzgerald offers, and thus should not exist; proving that these characters are simply greedy and deserve all that comes to them. And thus these two authors differ in the reasons why the greed occurs and, effectively, the difference in the short, 1-day gap from October 24 into October 25, 1929. And so greed exists in the modern period, saturating its two of its most famous novels and a theme of two of its most famous authors, portraying all evil as caused by greed, illustrating the true cynicism of the era. Works Cited Stenbeck, J. a.
The decades after the Civil War rapidly changed the face of the United States. The rapid industrialization of the nation changed us from generally agrarian to the top industrial power in the world. Business tycoons thrived during this time, forging great business empires with the use of trusts and pools. Farmers moved to the cities and into the factories, living off wages and changing the face of the workforce. This rapid industrialization created wide gaps in society, and the government, which had originally taken a hands off approach to business, was forced to step in.
As we lose ourselves and our values, worth, and identity as people in the corporate culture, the objectives of monetary profit, status within a company, and machine-like work ethics replace our ethical judgement and our values as people. Perhaps there is nothing we can do about it; after all Skilling and Fastow did not realize what they were doing is immoral and illegal until they were sentenced or even released from their sentence. We are all too absorbed in this capitalistic corporate world we live in. Just like the ancient Chinese philosopher Fu Xuan said, “He who is close to the ink will be stained black,” (Fu, “Prince Shao Fu Xuan”), We have been too used to the immorality and unethical practices of corporate culture that we’re not only numb to the wrongdoings of others within this capitalist society, but we also replace our values as people and our ambitions to do good with objectives of the corporate world. Prebbles posed us the question that after centuries of capitalism’s existence in our society, will our ambitions to do good prevail against our monetary desires and the corporate norm of only profit-driven decisions?
Jordan Belfort is famous for his crooked way of earning his millions as a stockbroker on Wall Street. Even Belfort started at the bottom, on his first day in Wall Street he was told he was “lower than pond scum”(Belfort 1). After writing a book about his happenings on Wall Street, we’ve seen the
Martin Shkreli, the CEO of the company that raised the price of the H.I.V medicine, was arrested because of wrongdoings involving his former hedge fund and a pharmaceutical company he previously headed. He has been charged with conspiracy to commit security fraud, wire fraud, and using his previous company to cover personal debts. U.S. Attorney Robert Capers says, “As alleged in the indictment, Shkreli essentially ran his companies like a Ponzi scheme, where he used each subsequent company to pay off the defrauded investors in the prior company” (Shkreli). Shkreli was willing to break the law in order to obtain more money than he already has. Shkreli doesn’t care that he is committing crimes because the American dream has taken control him and he can’t stop until he reaches it. Because of his desire for a more prosperous life, Shkreli made some bad choices and now might end up losing everything that he has worked for. Likewise, in The Great Gatsby, Gatsby himself conducts shady businesses. Gatsby is willing to corrupt himself to in order to obtain the American dream; Gatsby says, “Oh, no,....this isn’t the man.....This is just a friend. I told you we’d talk about that some other time” (Fitzgerald 75). This display Gatsby’s need for more money, with shady people such as Wolfshiem, even though he is already a very wealthy man. He wants to keep making money ultimately to impress Daisy so he can win her over; this is the reason
The Wolf of Wall Street is based on the life and also the author, Jordan Belfort. Jordan becomes discontent with his everyday life and realizes his talent for selling. As he continuously gains more money, he begins using more drugs. Way more drugs. Jordan starts his own brokerage firm named Stratton-Oakmont. Jordan hires a staff of, well, criminals to help him sell cheap stocks. They would sell all of these cheap stocks to their customers, then Belfort would buy large amounts of these stocks, running up the price, and then dump it. Finally, Jordan begins running into a lot of legal trouble as the FBI is on to the ways his brokerage firm works. Although Belfort has the FBI watching him very closely, he continues to spend huge sums of money on things such as boats, cars, houses, strippers/hookers, and last, but certainly not least, drugs. As Jordan’s already massive drug problem continues to escalate, he has to keep a very large portion of his money in a European account to hide it from the Feds. Belfort ends up going to prison for 22 months for fraud of his
Jordan Belfort is the notorious 1990’s stockbroker who saw himself earning fifty million dollars a year operating a penny stock boiler room from his Stratton Oakmont, Inc. brokerage firm. Corrupted by drugs, money, and sexuality he went from being an innocent twenty – two year old on the fringe of a new life to manipulating the system in his infamous “pump and dump” scheme. As a stock swindler, he would motivate his young brokers through insane presentations to rile them up as they defrauded investors with duplicitous stock sales. Toward the end of this debauchery tale he was convicted for securities fraud and money laundering for which he was sentenced to twenty – two months in prison as well as recompensing two – hundred million in restitution to any swindled stock buyers of his brokerage firm (A&E Networks Television). Though his lavish spending and berserk party lifestyle was consumed by excessive greed, he displayed both positive and negative aspects of business communications.
Mackay, Tim. "The Ethics Of The Wolf Of Wall Street." Charter 85.2 (2014): 67.Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
The Wolf of Wall Street produced and directed by Martin Scorsese tells a story of Jordan Belfort, a stockbroker living a luxurious life on Wall Street. Due to greed and corruption, Jordan falls into a life of crime and abusive activities. Belfort made millions of dollars by selling customers “penny stocks” and manipulating the market through his company, Stratton Oakmont, before being convicted of any criminal activity (Solomon, 2013). Jordan reveals behaviours and impulses all humans have, however, on an extreme level. This movie illustrates “why ethics is another tool whose importance cannot be overstated” (Delaney, 2014). Without ethics and morality, individuals can never truly live an honest and happy life.
Wall Street is a movie that exposes corruption and disguises all values, beliefs, and other ethical philosophy. Throughout the movie, Wall Street shows how ethics adapts to a person’s personality by power and wealth alongside honesty and truth. Bud Fox, a young stockbroker is looking for a way to make a name for himself. He is determined to get as many clients as he can to become successful. He later meets a ruthless man named Mr. Gekko where learns how to reach to the top by illegal actions such as insider trading. Bud Fox was an honest living man who had good ethics but was later showed what true power is became money hungry. The power of greed is fascinating the code that everyone lives by is inevitable once money comes into play. There are five types of interpersonal power; reward power, coercive power, legitimate power, referent power, and expert power. These types of power will be used to correspond relationships throughout the movie. In Wall Street we realize how Gordon Gekko uses Bud Fox for his benefit. In this paper I will show the types of powers that are used by Gordon Gekko and how they are used. One clear type of power that Gordon Gekko uses in his relationship with Bud Fox is the Referent power base. This power stands out because it is clear that Bud wants to become a top notch in the industry. Bud is striving to be successful when he exposes what he’s able to do at the meeting with Gordon Gekko he instantly become closer to his goals. There were scenes where Gordon had legitimate power. His knowledge and information was what made him rich. Bud Fox had to listen to what Gordon was telling him in order to become successful. This was an example of Gekko having legitimate power over Bud Fox. Expert power which is an ...
Jordan Belfort is the notorious 1990’s stockbroker who saw himself earning fifty million dollars a year operating a penny stock boiler room from his Stratton Oakmont, Inc. brokerage firm. Corrupted by drugs, money, and sex, he went from being an innocent twenty – two year old on the fringe of a new life to manipulating the system in his infamous “pump and dump” scheme. As a stock swindler, he would motivate his young brokers through insane presentations to rile them up as they defrauded investors with duplicitous stock sales. Toward the end of this debauchery tale he was convicted for securities fraud and money laundering for which he was sentenced to twenty – two months in prison as well as recompensing two – hundred million in restitution to any swindled stock buyers of his brokerage firm. Though his lavish spending and berserk party lifestyle was consumed by excessive greed, he displayed both positive and negative aspects of business communications.