The Fleeting of Social Status Essay

Stated in “The Myth of Inferiority” by T. Allen Culpepper, students who have hard lives are justified to having late papers, excessive absences, rewrite opportunities, but never plagiarized work. Throughout the article many examples are stated to support why. Students deal with financial instability, cope with economic hardships, and are always competing with obligations between family, work and school.

. “The Loss of the American Dream in John Cheever’s ‘The Swimmer,’” a document written in English 441 addresses the loss of the American Dream. The American Dream is an ideal based on the idea that people who work hard can find their dreams in America (Schudson). Everyone's idea of the American Dream differs, some never find their dream, but others find their dream only to lose it (Schudson). The Norton Anthology 7th edition describes John Cheever’s life as a story of a “riches to rags life” that would shape the focus his writing to the loss of the American Dream in middle class society. Cheever raised in Massachusetts, grew up in "shabby gentility," his father left when John was 15, and then lost his wealth in the stock market crash of 1929

Everything eventually changes, yet Neddy Merrill denies himself this fact. During his water journey, however, Merrill begins to see how futile his efforts really were, “The force of the wind had stripped a maple of its red and yellow leaves and scattered them over the grass and water” (Cheever 2046). Merrill, who began his journey on a beautiful summer day, is now faced with the fall season and begins to see time in full force. For Neddy, time represents an enemy, something that he wishes to control. “Time, despite Neddy’s attempts through repetition to stop it, has not been standing still. Nature is in constant motion” (Blythe). Merrill’s journey has led him to realize how useless his repetitious lifestyle has been. He now questions his worth and wonders where his life is taking him. Merrill is a broken man and has fallen to his lowest point.

In the beginning of the year I entered this class with a very sheltered and ignorant view of current and past events. Through time and sociological evolution I have begun to see things in a different light. The development of my ability, to look at something or some kind of situation, lets me use the sociological terms in such a manner to relate them to micro and macro problems in society. This started with the assigned readings of the class; the aim was to decipher the messages the authors were presenting. The goal was then to dig deeper and use my experiences to help myself understand the concepts throughout the course. "The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be ignited." Plutarch (46-120 CE--common era) I was no longer

Social class has been always been in our society since its establishment. Back then, white,

In the short story “The Swimmer” by John Cheever, the main character Neddy, is at a friends’ house, but decides to take a new route home. Neddy wanted to swim home by going through numerous neighboring backyards. It was an 8 mile swim home for a man who never did anything for himself. All he ever did was inherit money. it is Neddy’s delusional arrogance and not his loss of wealth that leaves him lost and alone at the end of his journey. Neddy thinks arrogantly about his life and his friends as he plans his journey at the Weterhazy’s. Neddy seems delusional throughout the entire story traveling his journey to the public pool and the Hallorans. After losing his family and friends,

In Frank Perry’s 1986 film adaptation of “The Swimmer”, Cheever, Neddy, an upper middle class man who decides to swim across his neighbors’ pools home only to discover that his house no longer belongs to him and he is no longer a part of his family, is characterized as a very suave and robust man. The first scene of The Swimmer emphasizes Neddy’s vitality by the ways in which the camera encompasses Neddy’s body and that of his friends, the addition of two characters as well as additional interactions between Neddy and the women in this text. This contrasts the characterization of Neddy in the short story in the sense that Cheever’s Neddy is not presented as this sexual and aggressively masculine figure.

THESIS: Race differences in identity and social position were, and are, more important than class differences in American society.

Social class refers to the system of stratification of the different groups of people in a society. These different forms of classification are, in most instances, based on gender ethnicity and age. Social class makes everyone’s lives extremely different. For example: How long one can expect to live. In a wide range of ways, from success, to one’s health class, social class influences people’s lives (Grusky,2003).

The Social status of Lee Fiora might also be affected by the differences in childhood between her and the wealthy children at Ault school, which is, however, dependant on the social class of the family as well. In the novel, many examples could be found that this had an effect on Lee’s common knowledge or understanding of the world which differed from her peers at boarding school. In the book Lee herself tells the readers that when she listens to other people's stories, she would not know the names of the places, hotels: “When I’d asked her where it was taken, she’d said Sun Valley, and when I’d looked up Sun Valley in my atlas, I’d learned it was in Idaho”. The past perfect tense creates a feeling that similar dialogues were re-occurring often. “Sun Valley” might be considered a representative of the culture of wealthy people that Lee is distant from.

The idea of social inequality dates back since the time of our founding fathers. The mistreatment and unlawful equality and opportunity that these foreigners received became embedded into our history—this endless list includes, just to name a few, the Irish, Chinese, Jews, and most notably the African Americans (Blacks), who became slaves to the American people. Here in the United States, the current social class system is known as the class system, where families are distributed and placed into three different existing class—the upper class (wealthy), middle class (working), and lower class (poor). Since then, improvisations have been worked on into the class system, establishing now roughly six social classes: upper class, new money, middle class, working class, working poor, and poverty level. Social stratification is a widely common topic of debate because there have since been many arguments and debates on this controversial situation of social inequality and how it relates to social class and social mobility. According to Economist Robert Reich, he states that "The probability that a poor child in America will become a poor adult is higher now than it was 30 years ago..." (Reich, par. 5), meaning the given amount of equality, opportunity, and support that these struggle families obtain have gone mainly unnoticed by the government that it has gotten worst. The constant uproar of social inequality and injustice that these middle and lower working class families stem

Social structures are constraints that affect the lives of both the affluent and the indigent members of society.  Each society has its own set of social arrangements for example; class, gender and ethnicity are all constraints that each society has to deal with in one way or another.  One of the most fundamental of the social structures would be class.  Class structure is found in all societies and is the key source of economical inequality.  Members of different class groups start their lives with unequal opportunities.  This means that when someone is born into a poor household   they will undoubtedly remain in the same economical situation they began in.  Gender is another important

The book, Privilege, Power, and Difference brought awareness to where I stand as a Latina female in the United States. Growing up, I did not like to focus on the differences I experienced or saw others experience. These differences made me feel angry, scared, nervous, confused, and hopeless. Instead of focusing on the unfairness I was a part of I decided to look at it as a challenge, I would prove to myself that I could do whatever I set my mind to. I took every opportunity handed to me and tried to make the best of it, to make myself proud and my family proud. At least that is what I thought at the time, but now that I have had time to reflect on my desire to succeed I know that part of that desire comes from proving to the dominant culture that minorities can succeed.

As he continues from pool to pool, each house is described by the various occupants, who most are drinking or having a party and welcome him, keeping his mind on the idea of being an explorer/hero. The first inclination of a turning lies in the coming storm, "the stand of cumulus cloud - that city - had risen and darkened, and while he sat there he heard the percussiveness of thunder again" (Norton, p. 1864). As he starts again to make his way towards home, he begins to be a bit foggy, wondering what time it has gotten to be. It is almost as if his mind is clouding over, the imagery of darkness descending, "it was growing dark; it was that moment when the pinheaded birds seem to organize their song into some acute and knowledgeable recognition of the storm's approach" (Norton, p. 1865).

Socialisation is a learning process where people learn and adapt to the appropriate and accepted values, attitudes and behaviours of their society. Nevertheless, separate groups exist within societies for reasons including ethnicity, class and culture and these can bring their own set of ‘norms’. Bond and Bond in Sociology and Social Care (2009 pg28) states “From the cradle to the grave we are being socialised”. Primary socialisation occurs from infancy to early adulthood. Secondary socialisation follows into the later stages of maturity. Anticipatory socialisation is where we learn to anticipate the actions and activities deemed appropriate by society. Resocialisation occurs when we learn new behaviours in response to new situations and