Fletcher’s Talk Society and Class Social class do you all know everyone in the room is labeled a social class? I’m going to start by telling a story about a man who almost was unable to fulfill his goals because of the society and his class. The story starts when a man named Tristan lived poor with his mom and dad. Tristan was working eight hours a day to just earn minimum wage and also was living in a makeshift shack hand built by his dad. Tristan’s main goal was to have his family live a better life starting by living in a better house. The special part about good old Tristan is he is very addicted to casino’s and gambling because he hopes of one day win a lot no wonder he is poor. One day after work Tristan went to the casino near his …show more content…
This is shown by the government keeping the lower class poor by not helping them financially and killing them when they are sick and helping the middle class and upper class when sick if they have money. A very specific example is when one of the main character's family gets killed because they very sick and poor. The second example is in the text Twelfth Night, Twelfth Night shows society and class of the Elizabethan era hierarchy. If you guys do not remember what the Elizabethan era hierarchy is I will explain again but next time do not sleep in class. Elizabethan era hierarchy is split into four groups Man, Gender, Universe and society. A very specific example in the book is when Sir Andrew being a lower class wants to be with a wealthy noble lady who is Olivia for her money and class.This results in lower class trying to be with higher class because they want to raise their rank because they feel unequal The last example of society and class is from the book Uglies,Uglies are lower class people in the book that look upto the pretties being the higher class. A specific example is when one of the Uglies are talking to another Uglie and they talk about how the pretties are better then them. This results in the Uglies feeling unequal to
· The social class system at the time when the play is set, (rich and
If you have ever read the book 1984 by George Orwell, then an interesting topic may have crossed your mind. The way the classes of people break down can be quite similar, and very different at times. In the United States, we have classes like the lower class, the working class, and the middle class. In 1984, there were such classes as the Proles, the Outer Party, and the Inner Party. The way the classes are broken down in 1984 reminds me a little bit of my old history class. When I studied medieval times and the classes back then were broken down into the nobles, the bourgeois, and the serfs.
Social classes have been around since the beginning of time. Most people are lead to believe that rich people live in beautiful and extravagant homes, throw luxurious parties and do not give a damn about keeping it a secret. The poor people are happy to have a roof over their heads and have food on the table and will work their asses off to make a penny. The higher the class that someone is in, the better that person’s life is perceived to be and vice-versa. There is old money versus new money, which determines which side of town one lives on. Everyone knows the difference in social classes and is able to see where most people fit in. In the classic novel, The Great Gatsby, the reader is exposed to many things that show a difference in social class that sadly, still exist in today. Most people have a dream of being in a certain class; whether they ever get to experience it or not, the dream is there. The Great Gatsby, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925, shows how social class plays a theme in the story.
For millennia, there have been constant conflicts between the upper class and the lower class, characterized by the upper class’s sense of superiority towards those less economically prosperous. Mansfield, Gordimer, and Orwell describe these conflicts between the upper and lower classes to propose that completely transcending class prejudices is impossible and suggest that societal values have greater impact than individual values as they degrade both a person’s behavior and morality.
Life from the Bottom Lower classes have always been treated the worst of any other class. I, being a peasant farmer during the French Revolution, experienced this maltreatment of mankind. We are the largest group within the Third Estate. We were forced to do things that were out of our control. The peasants, such as me, did not like being under the rule of Louis XVI and his spouse Marie Antoinette.
In the Strange Cases of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson describes the class struggles between the wealthy and underprivileged individuals in the society. The upper class men in the novel are represented as very smart and wealthy, whereas the lower classmen are represented to have a lower education and live in a low standard of living. Benedict Cumberbatch said that “Upper class to me means you are either born into wealth or you’re royalty” The higher class individuals feel as if they are of royalty to the lower class and do not associate with any lower class individuals so it will not ruin or hurt their reputation. There are many examples in the novel that talks about how the upper class individuals treat the lower class poorly or just avoids them.
To violate a social norm, i will be greeting strangers in a nontraditional way. This norm acts as a mechanism of social control by getting people to give an approved reaction to meeting strangers. It allows us to be friendly without getting too personal. Normally when we greet a stranger we say something along the lines of, “Hello, how are you?”, and the other person responds by saying something like, “Good, how about you?”. Instead I will respond by giving them some unusual greetings to break this social norm.
As people socialize, they create interactions whose products are influential to act back upon the people to determine or constrain actions. Moreover, social interactions may be likened to a theatre whereby people are the actors as the rest of the people are the audience. These other people actively observe the role-playing and respond by reacting to the performances. However, people’s behaviors tend to change when they are alone as they get rid of the roles they play in front of others.
In his essay “Land of Opportunity” James W. Loewen details the ignorance that most American students have towards class structure. He bemoans the fact that most textbooks completely ignore the issue of class, and when it does it is usually only mentions middle class in order to make the point that America is a “middle class country. This is particularly grievous to Loewen because he believes, “Social class is probably the single most important variable in society. From womb to tomb, it correlates with almost all other social characteristics of people that we can measure.” Loewen simply believes that social class usually determine the paths that a person will take in life. (Loewen 203)
Social class was the foundation of everyday life during the Middle Ages. Social class played a significant role in the lives of medieval people. The aristocracy class and the immoral lower class were often viewed by society as practically different races. In The Canterbury Tales, Geoffrey Chaucer shows the wide variance among the classes in every aspect of their daily lives. The zeitgeist of the Middle Ages can be seen through his illustration of differences between classes in moral behavior, economic power, the autonomy and education of women during the Middle Ages.
Charlotte Brontë’s novel, Jane Eyre, is set in a Victorian England, where social class is a huge factor in life. Brontë is very critical of Victorian England’s strict hierarchy. the main character, Jane, is a governess. Her social position is very complicated in which she has to be sophisticated, educated, intelligent, and soft spoken but she is then talked down to as she is of a lower class. The job of a governess is to teach children, whether it be art, writing or reading english literature. Victorian society is very corrupt and in the novel Brontë truly captures and illustrates the challenges that Jane has to face as a governess. The novel also emphasizes the social gap between individuals and how big it really is. In Victorian society, the rich get the most out of life and life for the poor gets harder. No individual should judge or belittle another due to the very minor factor of social status, but it seems to be very important in Jane’s society. The message that Brontë expresses in the novel is that social class is a meaningless catalyst in the progression of relationships, creating giant gaps between individuals.
Social class is an underlying factor to which all characters run their lives. It is always a priority and influenced most, if not every part of their lives. Most of the characters in the novel respect the rules of class and are always trying to climb the social ladder. Or if they are atop this ladder, they make it a mission that they remain there. Mrs. Bennet tried very hard to have her daughters marry the most socially advanced men and in the end the daughters chose socially respectable men. Elizabeth at first preached against marriage for money, but strangely mocked herself by marrying the richest of them all.
The class system allows an individual to move up in rank despite their economic, social, or family history. This is also the system that is mostly found in the United States of America (Larkin, 2015). The class system focuses on the economic prosperity of people. The other two systems, slavery and caste, don’t get the chance to move up on the stratification levels. The individuals are ranked in society by their family and what they’re born into. In today’s generation we can see college students that were born in poverty come up from nothing and make something of them self. They were able to achieve a college degree and obtain a higher level of social status. Not only will this help the individual but the family as well, they have the opportunity to move up in the stratification chain. A real life example of the kids upholding a higher status is the Kardashian family. The sister’s father, Robert Kardashian, was a famous criminal justice lawyer but it wasn’t until the middle child, Kim Kardashian, started dating a famous singer Ray Jay. Ever since then they exploded in Hollywood and obtained their very own television show, known as Keeping Up With the Kardashians. Because of the relationship the family’s social status changed forever. Now that I have gone through the similarities and differences, I have concluded that each system makes an impact in
Class distinction is one of Jane Austen’s themes in the novel, and the differentiation related to it is evidently depicted. Reading the novel from the first chapter, I realize that the author clearly illustrates that class is what matters most in many of the incidences displayed by the characters. Unless an individual is of a given class, the idea that he or she has money is not valued, since only birth in a certain background is what is of value. When a person openly values money over class, such a person is frowned upon. In general terms, the Novel shows a social world extremely stratified and full of pretension and class struggle.
Social psychologists, such as Hazel, Kitayama, Triandis, and Brewer to name a few, have been working on the subject of culture and social self since the early ninety’s. Through individual studies, they have found relationships between the origin of ones’ culture and their sense of self. In order to analyze their work, some definitions will have to be discussed in order to make for a better understanding of the relationship between culture and the social self.