Literary Analysis of Michael Lewis' "Liar's Poker"

September 23, 2019

I feel that the analogy “has the same feel of trading, just as jousting has some of the feel of war” in Lewis narrative says, in many ways, that working on Wall Street is much like playing poker. It is pointed out that during a game of Liar’s Poker a player must be quick with number and be able to read other players’ bluffs. I feel this story insinuates that while on working on Wall Street you must be quick with numbers and be able to read other people to find out their possible actions. I also feel, at the very least, it shows an importance at being able to bluff and read other people’s bluffs.

I feel Lewis uses description to help bring his story to life by describing the feelings of actions and setting the tone for what is happening. A good example for how he described the feelings of actions would be “You felt him. The area around you began to convulse like an epileptic ward. People were pretending to be frantically busy and at the same time staring intently at a sport directly above your head.” This example was used to describe when Gutfreund would sneak up behind nerve-wracked workers to scare them. I feel this is a good example, because it describes the feeling of how the area around you felt, it also sets the tone of how he would scare those workers afterwards.

Another example that I find sets a good example of how the tone is set during the events of the story would be “Although Meriwether was by far the better player of the game, in a single hand anything could happen. Luck could very well determine the outcome. Meriwether had spent his entire day avoiding dumb bets, and he wasn’t about to accept this one.” I think this is a good example because it clearly implies that Meriwether thought Gutfreund’s bet was dumb and sets a preface for Meriwether raising the stakes of the bet right after this.

He builds suspense and keep readers engaged by explaining Gutfreund’s actions, Liar’s Poker, how people thought of Meriwether & Gutfreund, and how winning or losing Liar’s Poker affected how people viewed you on the trade floor.

I think Lewis’ tone is very informative and knowing. His entire story is full of information ranging from people actions, their feelings, their motives, and their beliefs. He also knows how Liar’s Poker is played, and how it affects your status on the trading floor. I feel that his attitude towards Gutfreund, Meriwether, and the others on the trade floor is that they were all gamblers, and in the time of work on the trade floor or playing Liar’s Poker that they all were risk takers.