The United States of America, a country dipped in prosperity, but concealing poverty, has been analyzed by the famous writer, Mark Twain, in his book The Gilded Age: A Tale of Today. Twain eludes to the thought of the widely separated social classes. Citizens at the bottom experienced hardships of immeasurable poverty and debt in the slums of the city; however, those of a higher class sat comfortably on golden plated hills. For 35 years, the nation attempted to cover it's disparity between social status through this thought of being "gilded." During this time, many problems became apparent to this young nation, and its current system of operation. The age thought to be so beautiful was merely a mirage of what was actually happening. "The Gilded…show more content… America, being built on the backs of citizens stricken with poverty, did not always take into account those citizens. The high class lived in gold plated housing with beautiful furniture pieces, and engravings on the ceiling. They wore jewels, and satin gowns that cost more than an entire weeks’ worth of meals for a lower class family. People with a higher social status did not have to work hard to get where they were, but, those of a lower class worked for hours to bring home food for the night. Not to say, however, the high class did help to benefit within the business region. But, they could have managed to help those suffering beneath the golden shell of the “Gilded Age” society.
Overall, this period in American History is considered to be very blind. Many of societies high class citizens were so breath taken by the golden topped hills they lived on, that they could not see the real life issues. The Gilded Age could have been much more successful, and liked if the government had taken the time to consider what could have been done to resolve the issues of the age. Through corruption, discrimination, and poverty, we built a nation; but not without cost. So, maybe we were not as “golden” as we
