Exit Zero Analysis

Anzia Yezierska provided readers a small glimpse into the world of immigrant life during the progressive era in her novel, Arrogant Beggar. Though narrator of the story, Adele, was an American born citizen— she was immersed in a world similar to the experience of one of immigrant status. Throughout her story, we see how social class, ethnicity, and political factors play a part in daily life of early nineteenth century Americans. Her journey is a reflection of what many young immigrants experienced in their search for freedom, prosperity and “The American Dream.”

During the early nineteenth century, families of immigrants undergo assimilation to unite themselves in American customs. The ideology that they will be accepted into a society and embrace American identities has driven them to this process. A reality of upward mobility and freedom are highly desired for immigrants’ transition. One author who portrays the temptation of this “New World” America for the Jewish children arriving and having their lives greatly affected is Anzia Yezierska’s “Bread Givers” while focusing on the truth of forming an American identity. An autobiography written by Mary Antin “The Promised Land” incorporates the accuracy of family assimilation and its outcome on the identity of their children is shaped by American meritocracy

Writer Gregory Mantsios in his article “Class in America”, talks about these things, and how wide the gap is between the rich and the poor and also discusses how the rich continue to get richer, while the poor continue to get poorer. Mantsios gives his readers the profiles and backgrounds of three hard-working Americans, two of them are white males, whose family background as well as education played a role in their success, while the other person is a black woman who is just above the poverty line despite her work as a nurse’s aide. Through these profiles, Mantsios article shows exactly how sex, race and shows how your parental and educational background of a person can play a role in the things that you achieve. Mantsios also talks about one’s performance in school and the level of school completed can suggest whether or not class that person may belong in.

The axis of inequality that will be focused throughout this paper is the social class. Social class is defined as a group of individuals who are categorized according to class (i.e. poor, middle, and upper) due to their income, wealth, power, and occupation. Social class is socially constructed by the way we view how much income and wealth a person possess (Ore, 20011a, 10). In reality it is much more than that. According to the text, poverty is not only the shortage of income, but it is the rejection of opportunities and choices that leads a person to a standard way of living (Ore, 2011a, 10). Stereotyping also contributes to it being socially constructed. These stereotypes influence us by defining who is who based on their principles in each class category. This can cause some to feel worthless.

Through interviewing my roommate Linda Wang, I have gotten the opportunity of hearing a first-hand account of what it is like being a young immigrant living in the United States. At the age of eight, Linda, along with her father, mother, and aunt, emigrated to America. Linda’s family currently resides in Bayside, Queens and she is a student-athlete on the St. John’s women’s golf team. Linda was kind enough to share her immigration story with me so that I may use it as a manifestation of what life as an immigrant, and the immigration process itself, entails.

America is the land of opportunity and equality. Many people grow up believing this to be absolutely true, but Stephen Marche feels otherwise. He wrote “We Are Not All Created Equal,” arguing his point that opportunities in this country are strictly determined by the fate of ones class in society. Marche starts off making a strong case by mentioning the United States’ third place ranking for the least amount of social mobility. In further attempts to prove his point he outlines how class determines the fate of Americans place in society by comparing it’s rigid divisions to those of the aristocracy in Britain. There is a repeating idea throughout the paper that many people in the upper classes love to assume that the poor should fault themselves for their predicament due to their lack of hard work. Marche knocks that assumption out the park with statistical evidence to back up his claims. Although he made a very convincing argument with facts, he had a host of overgeneralized statements throughout the paper, which ultimately weakened his argument of class being the only determining factor of success in America.

Social class describes the different "layers" that exist in society. These "layers," or classes in society, are a division that civilization has been running on ever since the beginning of mankind. In most modern societies, our system of social class division is one of opportunity. We experience a good deal of social mobility, where people through generations or in their own lifetime can move up or down the social scale. By examining the many different perceptions of social class along with S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders, it is illustrated that social class has an impact on people while they are growing up, and will usually deny them from rising above adversity.

Here, in the United States, the “American Dream,” is a popular belief. There is a strong relationship between hard work and success. In this perfect scenario, those who put in multiple hours are on the road to success and can move up the social ladder. Thus stating, one could be thrust into the lowest of the social status, and with some hard work, one can elevate into the world of the social elite. As a demonstration to this global view of the United States, immigrants from all over the globe have made the excursion to the “land of opportunity” in beliefs of better education, employment, government, communities, religious freedom, and lives for not only themselves but the generations that come pursuing behind them. All of this survives based on a game of social stratification – a diagram on how to successfully obtain the American dream. This observation of social class is based on many mechanisms, some of which is bestowed to people at birth, and not rewarded for hard work and dedication. The class system at play in the United States has become incredibly complex – it no longer has the fundamental class values of our forefathers. Those trying to move up in the social ladder of America are often caught replication the actions of the rich and famous, but this alone cannot make them part of the higher social class. Some think that there are simple rules to follow to climb higher into another social class ladder, but there is more to being upper class than just talking the talk or having the right identity.One way to look at class is the model developed by Janny Scott and David Leonhardt's article, “Shadowy Lines That Still Divide,” in The New York Times. They assert that “one way to think of a person’s position in society is to imagine a hand of cards. Everyone is dealt four cards, one from each suit: education, income, occupation and wealth, the four commonly used criteria for gauging class” (Scott and Leonhardt 27). While being sure on these four criteria, a basic understanding of a person’s predicted class can be made. While this model works fine for providing an elementary level of perception, it must be recognized that a person could rate well on this scale and still be in a different class than those

Both Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies and Pretty Modern acknowledge the term class, and the established social hierarchy and physical sufferings that comes from it, in many cultures. According to Schultz and Lavenda, class is defined as “a ranked group within a hierarchically stratified society whose membership is defined primarily in terms of wealth, occupation, or other economic criteria” (312). Ultimately, my goal is to demonstrate that while both ethnographies explore class, they do it in equally important, but different ways. Seth Holmes’ Fresh Fruit, Broken Bodies is an account of the Triqui people and other Mexican migrant’s sufferings in U.S. farm labor camps. Alexander Edmonds’ Pretty Modern is an account of the booming plastic surgery market in Brazil, and the risks women take in order to modify themselves. Class is a rather fixed concept; it’s not easy to move between classes in most societies. While both ethnographies tell the tale of people trying to attain more wealth and a better occupation, the former does it in a way where class is perceived to be immovable, while the latter seems to heavily rely on the notion that you can climb the social ladder.

Before introducing any major events, or analysis, it’s important to note that this autobiographical work was only made possible with the aid of written documentation, and tales passed on from the family and the community. This is imperative because a great portion of the piece focuses on events that Edwidge didn’t experience first-hand, so she heavily stresses on the details being re-surfaced through friends and family to complete a holistic emigration story. Family history and the involvement of cherishing family moments is often an overlooked form of communication, but without this, this and many other important minority stories would have never been complied in a way where we can now discuss them in a culturally-reflective academic setting, like this course.

Loewen first main point is some high school history textbooks portray labor history and unions as things of the past. The next point he makes is that some high school history textbooks neglect examination of social class and depicts as a middle class nation full of opportunities for class mobility despite the drop of middle class people and the widening gap between classes. Another main point Loewen focuses on is that social class effects sectors of a person’s life like their health, environment, education, and financial opportunities. To appeal to his points, he primarily uses ethos and pathos when he is trying to appeal to his audience. For instance, Loewen uses ethos to express his knowledge about the subject by sharing his research results about textbooks and providing other peoples’ studies to fortify his points about social class’s effect on people.

The authors remained limited in the questions posed as does the field in its current state. Although older contributors, such as Lovoll, to the field adopted newer sub-focuses such as the study of migrant women, Scandinavian-Americanists remain virtually unchallenged in their studies. In Betty A. Bergland’s and Lori Ann Lahlum’s book, Norwegian American Women: Migration, Communities, and Identities, Lovoll wrote an included essay that discussed Norwegian women and their role in immigration to the United States. The embracement of new topics still does very little to reinvigorate the discussion between Scandinavian-

interviews of people who have or know people who have experienced historical events of the past. For this essay, I chose to take an oral history of the civil rights movement and the great migration. Preserving the memories of the individuals that lived during these historical events allows for many things in addressing the silence of African American experiences within U.S. History. First, memories and recollections taken from oral histories may differ from the perspectives of those who have appear on historical records or may be completely absent from any other documentations. Also, because cameras and video cameras were not as easily accessible as they are today, the majority of history is documented from peoples’ memories through letters, diaries, and oral history interviews. In addition, taking an oral history allows me to ask specific questions towards what I am are interested in documenting about the civil rights movement and the great migration. Lastly, oral histories are somewhat viewed as a “revisionist” to the study of both the civil rights movement and the great migration because it takes firsthand accounts of those participating on campaigns and protests and also of those were watching from afar and allows readers to understand each individual part of what made the movement as a whole.

The class inequality has been an issue for quite some time; the levels of this are the elite, middle, and lower class tiers. But even within these three major tiers, there are sub tiers, but mostly within the United States, society tends to rate women within the Middle to Lower class. This is true within the professional world of women, seeing as how they are considered on the weaker, lower class tier, Collins refers to an “outsider-within status” (1986), which “ exists with one is located on the boundary between two groups statuses—one with potential power and the other with little power” (2001). African American women have been affected by this “outsider-within status”, more than their Caucasian counterparts because even though “technically they have membership in a high status group, as black women, they are a part of a group

I appreciate that you mention how exit style can also be used constructively. From what I've read, voice style seems to be the preferred method of handling intimate conflict, or wanting to handle it, which is understandable as most conflicts can be resolved when we are open and willing to talk to one another. After reading yours and Kate's post I can also see the benefits of using other conflict styles depending on the situation, such as using exit if an emotional break is necessary, like you mention.