I felt that Twain was mocking the capitalistic society in which that people will only treat you well simply because they want something from you (your money). The 1,000,000 Pound Bank-Note story reminded me of a time last summer when I was looking to buy a new TV for my apartment. My roommates & I had just moved in and we had no TV. So I figured I would invest my money into buying a nice TV. I went to a TV/audio store which had employees trying really hard at selling the merchandise to the customers. As I was roaming around the store, I noticed the employees would approach the customers as soon as they walked into the store. However, my case was different in which I got no service. It was probably due to the fact that I look like a kid and was wearing a t-shirt and basketball shorts with flip-flops. Getting no service was like for Henry receiving disrespected service when looking for a suit. “He took me into a back room, and overhauled a pile of rejected suits, and selected the rattiest one for me” (384). I was really close to leaving the store because I would ask for help but they would just tell me to wait one moment and end up helping a new customer who walked in. I became irritated and did something out of my nature, I simply yelled out something to the degree of, “Hey! Want a sale? Cause I’m looking to buy right now!” All of a sudden, a flock of employees came rushing towards me and I received great help. Similar to when Henry showed the salesman the note and started using that to obtain all his needs and desires.
Also, I felt the story had slight cliché morals to it. One being that it is important to display an appropriate appearance depending on the situation in order to gain a need/advantage/respect and the other is that“My friend, you shouldn’t judge a stranger always by the clothes he wears” (384).
I have felt that way while shopping many times. Something similar would also happen when I used to go out to eat with my friends in high school, we were clearly young and therefore assumed to be bad tippers. We received poor service at places I had previously had good service when with my family. Sometimes it got to the point where no one would even come to take our order for a ridiculous amount of time, thus perpetuating the cycle, because we would not want to tip well by the end of it.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly I think that in this story it ends up working the opposite way as well, when people begin to recognize him even when he is wearing rags they still treat him with enthusiasm and respect. They know him to be rich, when ironically those rags are a better representation of his actual wealth.