Money has become a materialistic part of American life. In a passage from Money and Class in America, Lewis Lapham expresses his views on how America has assimilated to the value of wealth. Through literary devices such as diction, rhetoric, and euphemisms, Lapham defines the ridiculous form of money that the American Society can't live without. He also describes how America has hit "the bottom line," and how money is America's dream.
Lapham's diction persuades readers to believe in the corruption of money. He writes, "With the distinction of the aristocratic name or consolation of a flourishing garden," to emphasize the depleted position America has put itself in. The author implicitly implies that America has soiled their name and reputation with their greed and hunger for money. The American people have become almost barbaric in a sense when it comes to the meaning of money. .
Money is a part of the "American dream." The author's rhetoric, such as, "The ancient Greeks would have regarded it as a form of insanity," shows how deflected the American people are while pursing happiness through money. He implies that people pursue money for security, yet they mostly do it to fit into a better social class. People are so wrapped up in their forms, they feel they must please other people before they please themselves by being the best at everything. .
The author uses many euphemisms to stray from insulting readers with his views, yet he stills applies them to everyone. He writes words such as "deflected," and phrases such as, "That we our lost to know how it holds it's majesty at bay," to emphasize that not only one person is deflected, but everyone is deflected, including himself. Everyone tries to live up to the standard forms society places on the lives of the status quo. .
Lapham's views on society relate exactly to the American society. While people have pursued the "American dream" of money for security in life, they have brought society's civil reputation down.