Anson Hunter appears to lead a charmed life-he comes from a good family, and through his connections secures a high-profile and extremely profitable job on Wall Street. He focuses all of his attention on perfecting his imagined lifestyle, intent on having the very best of anything and everything he desires. However, the futility of this quest is set in contrast with Anson's pursuit of his one-time fiancé Paula, and the hollow relationships he forms with friends and lovers.
"The Rich Boy" is written in a fashion similar to author F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, utilizing a third-person narrator outside the story, lending a stylistic distance to an already inaccessible wealthy protagonist. With "The Rich Boy" Fitzgerald again masterfully highlights the inherent emptiness that goes along with the luxurious lifestyle of wealthy elites in the 1920s.
