The Rainmaker

“It’s his opinion that all students enter law school with a certain amount of idealism and desire to serve the public, but after three years of brutal competition we care for nothing but the right job with the right firm where we can make partner in seven years and earn big bucks. He’s right about this.” 

From the very beginning, the author introduces the role that money will play in the novel. Furthermore, the above quote addresses two elements of the overall theme of the American judicial system as portrayed in the novel: greed and role that the education system has in exacerbating the issue of avarice within the law profession.

“I’m the last thing this profession needs—another hungry young vulture roaming the streets, scavenging for litigation, trying to make something happen so I can squeeze a few bucks out of broke clients.” 

This quote one addresses problems inherent in the legal profession. It is argued that there are simply too many lawyers, so that the competition for clients borders on the grotesque, such as “ambulance chasing.” The reality of this type of situation sheds a revealing light on what being a lawyer can be like, far different from the glamorous image of a person in a costly suit arguing before a jury.

“A professor told us last year that bankruptcy was the growth area of the future, what with uncertain economic times and all, job cutbacks, corporate downsizing, he had it all figured out.” 

Though this quote speaks of a future period, it actually describes the economic situation of many of the characters in the novel, e.g. Rudy, Jackie, the Blacks, Great Benefit. The sentence, therefore, also acts to foreshadow not only Rudy’s declaration of bankruptcy, but also that of Great Benefit.