The Rum Diary Post 2 Ch. 6-10

One section of this story perked my ears a bit. It was when Kemp and the Head Chief of the newspaper have a meeting and talk about what to write about in their newspaper. The Chief says to write about the good things of Puerto Rico and Kemp wants to write about the truth like about the sugar plantations and such. It was when the Chief mentioned that it was the American dream. All speculations aside… this is not the American dream. It isn’t right to hide what’s going on in reality and putting on a façade for the rest of humanity. That’s not the way things should work. The American dream is about working hard for your money, working hard for your dreams, and getting a payoff in the equal lands of America fair and square. Not by cheap tricks, smoke and mirrors, and a fake cover for what’s really going on. Most importantly the newspapers are supposed to write about the faults of America so the rest of us can fix it. But this cant happen because the newspaper is funded by sponsors who want to hear what’s good about Puerto Rico and will cut their budget if they write anything otherwise. This leaves the people of Puerto Rico without a voice and the corporations with all the power in the land. The chief even went as far as to say, “nobody cares who lost. Nobody cares. The only thing people ever want to read is about who won. Who won the bowl, who won the races, who won the jackpot at the slot machine. You’re not sleeping your wide awake… This is the America Dream”. Brian tell me, what do you think about this moment in the book? What do you think about the corporations in the story and how they are treating the people. What do you predict will happen to the people of Puerto Rico and what do you think Kemp will do about it?