The Gilded Age Book Analysis
The Gilded Age Book Analysis The Gilded Age (1865-1901) is the post-Civil War era in which population and economy of the United States grew enormously and the upper class displayed their wealth extravagantly. Great contributors to the huge population explosion were the country’s western expansions as well as big industrial cities forming in the Northeast. The owners of these factories became filthy rich as they exploited the working class using unethical and in some cases illegal practices. These people became known as “robber barons”. This is a prime example of the amount of corruption that took place in this era. The corruption of this era was apparent in The Gilded Age by Mark Twain. There were many instances of political corruption in this book. One of the main culprits was how Senator Dilworthy. Dilworthy had been charmed by an attractive young lady name Laura. This woman charmed the Senator so much that he decided to take her back to Washington D.C. with him. Once in Washington, Dilworthy would use Laura to persuade the other Senators to vote in a certain way. She seemed to have a strong influence on these Senators using very unethical ways. This example of corrupted behavior was only one of the methods used in this era. However, Senator Dilworthy’s brilliant plan came to an abrupt end when Laura murdered her former lover after seeing him in Washington. Laura was now out of the picture as she was trying to avoid murder charges. This was not the end of Senator Dilworthy’s corruptive ways, however. Senator Dilworthy had a new plan in the making where he proposed a bill to use the Hawkins land in Tennessee to create a university for blacks. If this bill was passed, Washington Hawkins and Colonel Sellers expected to make a huge fortune. This was because the seventy-five thousand acre lot that they were trying to sell to the U.S. Government was failing land that they were not able to prosper off in the past. It seemed that all the Senators