The Cop and the Anthem

“The Cop and the Anthem” demonstrates the effects of social class on one’s life, suggesting that it often causes unfair judgment, mistreatment, and lack of opportunity. Soapy isn’t a violent, greedy, or cruel person. He doesn’t even aspire to join a higher social class, knowing full well he’s not welcomed among New York City’s elite. He merely wants basic human necessities—warmth and food—and sees returning to prison as the easiest (and perhaps only) way to obtain them: “Soapy’s hopes for the winter were not very high. He was not thinking of sailing away on a ship. He was not thinking of southern skies, or of the Bay of Naples. Three months in the prison on Blackwell’s Island was what he wanted” (36).

These tempered expectations themselves speak to Soapy’s experiences of poverty and incarceration: That the best he can imagine for himself is imprisonment does not speak well of society. Yet the people and institutions Soapy encounters do not respect even these modest goals. At the second restaurant Soapy visits, the waitstaff refuses to call the police for no apparent reason beyond the fact that Soapy requests it: “‘No cop for you,’ said the waiter” (38).