This excerpt best emphasizes the way that Americans felt abandoned by the wealthy elite and government: "<span>Say, don't you remember, they called me Al— It was Al all the time. Why don't you remember, I'm your pal— Buddy, can you spare a dime?"
Forgetting someone from the past is completely forgetting what has been. The excerpt uses the metaphor of having a friend from the past that a person forgot already because the person has seen better opportunities or is higher up in the rank. Much the same as how the elite and the government treat those people who are part of the masses. </span>
In "<em>The Stranger</em>", by Albert Camus, Meursault describes shooting the Arab after he's already dead as follows:
"I knew I’d shattered the balance of the day, thespacious calm of this beach on which I had been happy. But I fired four shots more into the inert body, on which they left no visible trace. And each successive shot was another loud, fateful rap on the door of my undoing."
He describes it as <em>knocking loudly on the door of his downfall</em>.
Answer:
"They showed what it meant to be Greek, and what it meant to be human."
