Bounderby V. Trump

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be filthy, stinking rich? Who am I kidding, of course you have. Everyone has the same screwed up perception of what its takes to be a rich and powerful entrepreneur. Most people think that if you are nice and caring and do what is right in the business world, you will eventually climb your way up to the top of the economic totem pole and be financially secure from then on. Sorry to crush most people's dreams, but being a rich and powerful businessman entails many other, much less appealing qualities. In Charles Dickens's Hard Times, Dickens is able to construct a character who is the epitome of what it really takes to be a successful businessman in the always changing world.

Josiah Bounderby is one of those selfish bastards we all pretend like we hate but secretly envy their successful lives. Kind of like a modern businessman that has morphed himself into a household name, Donald "The Donald" Trump. Trump, like Bounderby, is a bombastic, yet thunderous merchant given to lecturing others, and boasting about being a self-made man.

Both Trump and Bounderby are extremely large, loud, men who express themselves very bluntly and they share many other qualities, one being the inflated sense of pride instilled in both of them. Bounderby's inflated sense of pride is illustrated by his oft-repeated declaration, "I am Josiah Bounderby of Coketown." This statement generally includes the story of Bounderby's childhood poverty and suffering, a story designed to impress its listeners with a sense of the young Josiah Bounderby's determination and self-discipline. Trumps inflated sense of pride is shown by his unnecessary need to plaster his name all over everything he touches. Trump Tower, Trump World Tower, Trump Entertainment Resorts, Trump Taj Mahal, Trump Plaza, Trump Marina, Trump National Golf Club, and the list goes on and on and on. Not only does he stamp his name onto all of these different properties. All these actions are just pathetic attempts to sell themselves as good, decent people who once were like the general public.

The humorous thing about these exclamations is that neither of these men were your typical "rags-to-riches" story. Both of these men, despite what they would like you to believe, had fairly good childhoods and were well off before they went into business for themselves. For instance, in the novel Hard Times, Dickens explodes the myth of the self-made man when Bounderby's mother, Mrs. Pegler, reveals that her son had a decent,