Cliques/Groups, Scapegoats, and Exclusion: the High Society of New York in the Age of Innocence

The two books that I chose to analyze are “A Kind of Murder” by Hugh Pentecost, and “The Fan Club” by Rona Maynard. These two book have very similar assets which all connect back to the theme, conformity. In “A Kind of Murder” the main character is faced with a choice, either to stick up for a bullied teacher, or stay silent and tease like the rest of his peers. In “Fan Club”, the students plan to embarrass a student, that is not popular and is viewed strange from the outside. However the main character is friends with her, therefore, the main character has to choose whenever to take part in the cruel act.

The humans’ nature is always following other people without thinking. People are afraid to be different from others. When some people or some groups of people trying to be unique and different like the Hippies people will think they are disgusted. This is because power of conformity is very strong in the society. In every big city or even small town influence of the conformity were shown up. In The Outsiders, conformity is everywhere in this small town which is located in the south of U.S. Tulsa, Oklahoma. In this story are all about Greasers and Socials. The conformity in this story is showed up by the symbols that are described personality and social class of the characters in the story. In this story the conformity shows up mostly by the symbol.

Social classes play a massive part in society today, just like it has throughout history. Mr. Gatsby, being an entrepreneur and bootlegger, was an upper-class individual with tons of wealth. Because he was so wealthy, he could afford a mansion and an expensive car (unheard of in the 1930’s). Respect came in droves for him because of his social class. He had parties for which some he did not even attend, he took people out to fancy restaurants, and many other things that people of that class do. Walter younger and the rest of his family were poor nonetheless. Because of their life in poverty, they are part of the lower class in the city of Chicago. Although they have a few friends, such as Bobo, they are not of the same “caliber” of the friends Jay Gatsby has the pleasure of knowing. Because of the Youngers’ poverty, they also have certain conflicts with people of their same social class. For example, Walter was “in on a great deal” with an businessman. Although it sounded like an amazing deal with amazing wealth in store for him, Walter was cheated out of the deal and was left without the ten thousand dollars his father left him.

Eric Toledano and Olivier Nakache use their film The Intouchables (2011) to manipulate their audience in relation to a contrast between a stereotypical black and white social class. The directors cast Omar Sy as Driss, who is of Senegalese descent, since he is in stark contrast to his employer Phillipe who is a white French aristocrat. This film is based on a true story and the individual who was originally Philippe’s caretaker was Abdel Sellou and was of Arabic ethnicity. Omar Sy is of Senegalese descent and therefore has darker skin than Abdel, making the racial differences between him and Phillipe more prominent and observable. This contrasting theme is present throughout the film, and is particularly evident in three scenes that crystallise the directors’ key idea of the contrast between two different social classes. The scenes include ‘the paragliding’, ‘Driss’s interview’, and the introduction of Phillipe and ‘Driss’s house scenes’. Toledano and Nakache uses film techniques such as mise-en-scène, lighting, sound track, dialogue, musical score, camera techniques and angles throughout these scenes to manipulate the audience in relation to the black and white contrasting social class

Organized crime was major thing during the 1920s. It was such a big deal Fitzgerald used real organized crime to help form ideas for his book. Organized crime is an illegal act that is committed by a criminal group or organization. During the whole novel of the great gatsby, Jay gatsby came into all of his money by being a party of organized crime. In the book, Fitzgerald refers to a man named Meyer Wolfsheim. This character was influenced by a real gangster, and in this book he symbolize the gangster character in the 1920s. If this book can say anything, it's that organized can reach anyone. During his path for inspiration, Fitzgerald used real life organized crime for his novel. He used real life murders and crime in his book. In one of the chapters Fitzgerald describes

The pressures of social class tend to give us an urgency to act a certain way. In The Great Gatsby by F.Scott Fitzgerald, He carefully sets up his novel into wonderful agencies but, in the long run, every group has its personal issues to take care of, leaving a powerful reminder of what a precarious region the world truly is. By creating awesome social instructions which include new money, old money and the poor. Fitzgerald sends sturdy messages about the elitism running throughout society. He emphasizes the department between the social instructions and the motives in the back of why they are separated. The first and most

According to Frederick Douglass, “Where justice is denied, where poverty is enforced, where ignorance prevails, and where any one class is made to feel that society is an organized conspiracy to oppress, rob and degrade them, neither persons nor property will be safe.” Douglass spoke of the danger and issues of organization and separation by class, yet it is the scenario depicted in The Outsiders. The Outsiders is a coming-of-age novel written by S. E. Hinton in the 1960s. In The Outsiders, the teenagers of a city are being ripped apart by a violent feud based solely on social class. The first group, known as the Socs, are the wealthy and popular. The second group is the Greasers, who are poor and viewed as the scum of the city. The

The New York Conspiracy Trials happened in New York during the year 1741. Before this year, countless other slave revolts occurred that made the New Yorkers anxious and nervous for an uprising. During the particularly cold winter of 1741, many whites were afraid that slave revolts would happen again. On top of that, New York had helped Britain against Spain. Countless of these worried folks thought that the slaves (along with some poor whites) and the Spanish were going to work together to overthrow New York. The conspiracy trials proved that all New Yorkers understood the hierarchies of status, race, and gender, even when they imagined overturning some of them.

Class structure in the 1920s was synonymous to prejudice. The 1920s was known as a period of wild excess and great parties with excitement arising from the ashes of the wars in America’s history. It was a period in history where rapid materialism and narcissistic ideals grew uncontrollably, and it was the days where Jay Gatsby, illegally, rose to success. Having social classes was the same as segregation, except it was through economic standings, the two both instil injustice within social standards. Class structure was used to describe the difference between the new money and old money. The Great Gatsby by Francis Scott Fitzgerald, written during the 1920s, emphasizes the division between the social classes and the reasons behind why they

The pressure of conformity affects individual expression and varies in degrees in which it impacts an individual’s life. Regardless of time period, conformity is able to force individualists to abide by the social standards inculcated into society and deemphasize the importance behind individualism. In the 1920s, New York City adopted a structure parallel to conformity in its figurative hierarchy after the grief and devastation of World War I. With fear of the unknown, a reestablishment of tradition and routine followed, including an adaptation to the use of silences. The individuals with class and power used silence as a vehicle to conform and unify but, free-willed individuals gave another purpose to silence. It became a tool to express

Newland declares to the table that women have the right to be “as free as [men] are” (Age of Innocence 38). As the women talk further about Ellen, Newland states that he is sick of the “hypocrisy that would bury a woman” for preferring to be with her husband, contrary to what others believe (Age of Innocence 37). Newland sees a small connection between the women’s opinions and his own relationship with Ellen. He begins to see he must make a choice between Ellen and May, unbeknownst to him that his choice will be what is “socially acceptable” to old New York (“Edith Wharton” 2). Newland then decided that May should have the same “freedom of experience” he has (Age of Innocence 42).

“I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth” (2). So speaks Nick in the beginning of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. This exemplifies how people born into different social classes are not born with the same character and ethics. Since people from different classes think so differently, this may cause conflicts between them and might prevent them from having substantial relationships with each other.

Not following society’s expectations has consequences such as being an outcast or being different from everyone. Being different is sometimes where bullying comes into play. Society is known to crush individuality. (Litt, Sheldon) The idea is to live life by your own rules and do as you please.

“The Breakfast Club” characterizes this phenomena by depicting the “jock, the brain, the basketcase, the princess, and the juvenile delinquent”. In the movie each character is representative of the social class to which they belong. The “jock” signifies the sports star that can do no wrong, but the movie character bullies another boy and when caught all he received was detention. Although on the other hand the delinquent who is a dope smoking, foul mouthed punk, received the same punishment for talking back to a teacher. Administrators and teachers are very quick to meet out severe punishment to those students that they have deemed worthless, while good kids get a slap on the wrist. The movie’s jock is placed in Saturday detention, instead of being suspended, so that he may wrestle in an upcoming tournament; a case in which Hollywood makes an accurate depiction. This is the “holding of power” that Wehlage and Rutter spoke about in their study, High School and Beyond. Students who receive better treatment seem to do better in school when subjected to “an orderly environment, a committed and caring faculty, and an emphasis on academic pursuits”(Nieto,100).

Léopold Sédar Senghor was a famous poet most widely known for his work in the 1940s and 1950s. He wanted to inspire pride in the culture of Africa and wrote extensively about the interactions and conflicts between Africa and the West. One of his more famous poems, To New York, was written in 1956 and portrays the racial differences in the United States, specifically New York. The 50s were a critical time in the civil rights movement in the United States. In this section, from the poem To New York, Léopold Sédar Senghor talks about a sense of renewal. By bringing in the old Africa, it would make New York more pure and restore the unity