Cosmopolis

         In the short novel Cosmopolis, the author does address issues of privilege through the characters and the events that take place. Through the main character we see the main picture of privilege because from the beginning he is clearly a wealthy, high-class man. When he briefly mentions his process of getting to the point of owning a large business and becoming wealthy, we find out that he started from a lower status and worked his way up. However, the fact that he wasn't born wealthy doesn't seem to change anything he does, as far as charity and helping those who are in a "lower" position, as he once was. In my opinion, this is one way that the author reveals the issue of privilege. The main character appears greedy and always in pursuit of more, whether it's money, women, or expensive works of art. The many women that he has sex with, all who are not his wife, show that he believes he has a lot of power in his hands, and this stems from the fact that he is wealthy. This brings up another issue which is that from his point of view, everything he does is okay, and I believe this comes from his idea of "I am wealthy, therefore I am privileged," even if this is not a conscious thought. So I think the novel overall does effectively bring up issues of privilege, although the author doesn't necessarily give solutions or results to these issues, except that the main character may have been killed at the end, although that is unclear. I think overall it says that there will always be these issues of privilege and different classes, and that the higher class will always use their privilege in ways that are not always right or fair.