GREAT EXPECTATIONS WEALTH AND POVERTY Victorian class was mainly made up of two classes- the rich (upper class) and the poor (working class). There were poor working class families who lived in extreme poverty as illustrated in the book as Joe Gargery, and there were wealthy families who enjoyed lives of luxury like Miss Havisham. Pip tries his hardest to be seen above the line of poverty and finds it hard to be accepted and to make his past forgotten. Wealth and poverty is dealt with and targeted throughout the book and plays a massive part in moulding the characters personality and behaviour towards others. Firstly, wealth divides people a lot throughout the book.
Firstly in The Great Gatsby the characters are defined by wealth and by the type of wealth which they have. Fitzgerald makes this even clearer by having the characters in different geographic areas. Daisy and Tom Buchanan live in East Egg where all the families with old money lived. On the other hand Gatsby and Nick Carraway live on West Egg where the new money families lived. The Valley of Ashes is the nickname for the lower and more ignored place in all of the area because of its low status.
The rich are penalized for their contribution to the economy through high tax. Our benefit system has spawned a class of intelligent people who exploit the system! In my view this general state has risen from economic and educational divides. I find that the way that different classes of people react to each other, and how they have different mind-sets a bit weird. I mean “who really cares if you dad is worth £1.5 billion or you live in downtown London?” Unfortunately there are people who will judge you based just on your money which saddens me as many of the happiest and nicest people I know are not vastly rich but balanced all rounded individuals.
However, this “American Dream” led to more of a downfall of morals and a false sense of happiness. It created a new kind of person: a selfish, snobby, materialistic kind of person. Fitzgerald uses Tom Buchannan as a general representation of males in the 1920s. Generally, wealthy males were born into families with money, and didn’t work for it, and were brought up to have a certain air about them. Fitzgerald writes, “Now he [Tom] was a sturdy, straw haired man of thirty with a rather hard mouth and a supercilious manner.
This gap has led to the decreasing of education’s quality, and the inequality in residents’ income. Income inequality has put the United States in bad shape. Because of this unfairness, the rich are getting richer whereas the rest are struggling to survive. According to Robert Frank, a New York Times writer, excessive spending by the wealthy has “made it even more expensive for middle-class families to achieve basic financial goals” (Frank; 582). The squeezed society’s neglecting of investment has put both the rich and the poor in a society with low quality infrastructure.
Death of a Salesman Coursework : To what extent is Willy Loman a victim of his Social/Economic influence/pressures ? In the book the Death of a Salesman, Miller addresses the painful state of a family in post-war America and also addresses more important issues such as the blind faith in the American dream. He exposes how many Americans could not achieve the degree of social conformity and the ideal that a prosperous , suburban middle-class family championed at the time. During this period, America experienced a rapid cultural change, with many people moving from rural areas to the cities,’’the people had to go somewhere’’(Linda) and the rapid increase in industry and manufacturing leading to high rise apartment blocks. Furthermore during this time Americans had a surplus of goods and services from which to choose, and the money with which to purchase them.
Marx observed the organization of society relating it to it’s high and low class and the struggle that lay in between each of them. The higher class people seem to be more powerful and richer than the lower class. They always have a problem with the lower class as they do not hold them up to their standards. High class people treat lower class people with disrespect and as a servant. They take advantage of their negative side, in this case their earnings below average and use them to satisfy themselves.
Class differentiation in the Dominican Republic may lead to lack of opportunities towards the lower class while high class enjoy the luxuries of a more lavish lifestyle. As I roamed the city looking for pictures of class differentiation I noticed that low class men and women had much less opportunities. Stereotypes towards the low class unable them to be successful and have a lavish lifestyle like the ones high-class people have. For example, if a businessman is looking to start a business and hire people, this man will have his mind preset and will think poorly of low class workers. “Low-class workers are all lazy and are late to work,” he would say.
7) DIYA RANA It says how only a select few are privileged enough to get the decencies of life ; the people of East egg were those privileged few. Nick lived in the West egg but not because he was a nouveau riche but just because, he preferred the quiet and the green over the hustle bustle of the city .This quote suggests that the nouveau riche or the people of West egg would never have such decencies and manners and etiquettes like the ones who are born rich, because they are not earned or learned but inherited. ! After nick had met Gatsby he was intrigued by him and liked him in general , he did not know much
Reality, the relationship of Pip and Estella also points to a salient theme in the works of Dickens: Class Stratification. The theme of social class is central to Great Expectations as it acts as extends into the other themes such as the Appearance theme. Pip's angst over being "common," as Estella has labeled him, is his driving force to become a gentleman and entertain the "great expectations" of having bettered himself sufficiently so that he will become worthy of Estella. But, of course the class