The Importance Of Social Class In Arthur Mervyn

The social class in America is everywhere but it is often quite hard to recognize only because it is against the American principle for the social class system to exist. Whether we know it or not, we tend to participate in the class system.. By doing so, this leads us to separate ourselves based on our social class system, including class discrimination and social mobility

Women who had no claim to wealth or beauty received the harshest of realities in America’s Victorian era. Author Charlotte Bronte – from America’s Victorian era – examines and follows the life of a girl born into these conditions in her gothic novel Jane Eyre (of which the main character’s name

Have you ever referred to someone as “high class,” “middle class,” or “low class?” The article “Class In America” is a very educated read and describes the way people are characterized by their “class.” I think that this article informs all types of readers and allows people to see how people are grouped based on themselves. “Class in America” is written to show and prove to society that people do not talk about “class” anymore, because of the way the world looks at it today. Gregory Mantosis is the author of the article, and he uses many facts and data to prove his points.

The best class to be in was the gentry because they were the richest of the rich. The people that made up the gentry included plantation owners (the Tidewater), merchants/business owners, ministers, royal officials, successful lawyers and wealthy artisans, such as goldsmiths. The gentry owned most of the land, were very powerful, were the most likely to hold office, and the men had the right to vote.

Since the beginning of civilization, unfortunately, there has always been some type of ranking when it came to social status. Usually, there was a small group of wealthy elites who ran everything, and then there was the large group of people who were not rich. One would think that the rich would take care of the poor, but often times the rich kept to themselves and let the poor suffer. This can be seen all over history from the time of the Egyptians to the feudal system of the middle ages, to even more current times.This holds true when diving into the 1800 and 1900’s. One would see that like there were very few social elites and a plethora of people who were not wealthy by a stretch. There were times when the rich would participate in activities that would make it seem like they were helping the poor when in actuality they were not doing the slightest. An example of this can be seen in Andrew Carnegie's “The Gospel of Wealth.” In “The Gospel of Wealth” Carnegie explains what one should do to help society and the poor, but what it is is a way for the wealthy to feel better about themselves.

The following class, which was by far the largest, was the middle class. (Population and Social Rank) This included owners of small stores and businesses, small farmers, and craftsmen. (1727: Colonial America) They were mostly educated, and lived successful lives. They also had very high moral standards and some were deeply religious. (Population and Social Rank) Most middle class men could vote, but few held public office, as the gentry used their wealth and influence for political control. Middle class women ran self-sufficient households, and made their own clothes, candles, cheese and soap. Few were educated. (1727: Colonial America)

Class is another theme of the text. Those in higher economic classes seemed to cling to the "Darwinism Axioms (165)" of the 19th century that encourage only survival of the "fittest" and other elitist ideas that supported the not-so-proper/nice things that were done in the name of innovation. There was also an elitist class bias when it came to the Native Americans. If the Native Americans did not utilize their land the way the

In Henry James's “Daisy Miller,” the main character Frederick Winterbourne masks Daisy Miller’s personality with his own imagination. Told from a limited narration point of view, this novel solely emphasizes Mr. Winterbourne’s perception of the world around him, focusing most on Ms. Daisy’s character. Mr. Winterbourne aims to unravel Ms. Miller’s character make-up throughout chapter one, using only his and his aunt’s preconceived notions of women in American society. By being too introspective and imaginative, Mr. Winterbourne is unable to see Ms. Miller as anything more but a conquest, and therefore he is unable to empathize with her as another human being.

Additionally, the social statuses played a large part in everyday situations in the 1800’s. In the North, factory owners were the wealthiest, so they were highest on the social pyramid. Artisans were second on the social pyramid. They were needed by factory owners because of their amazing skills. Factory workers were in the middle of the pyramid. Workers were paid minimum wage to work long hours, and the factory owners treated them like machines. Factory workers were not allowed to

The gentry and planter class, though small in percentage, influenced the South financially, politically, and socially. Usually self-made men who built up their fortune, these men made up the smallest percentage of the Southern population, but had more slaves and land. Their presence gave people, especially yeomen, the hope that they would too have power in the gentry’s class one day. Some say that this ideology is false and that id led many poor farmers to rot in poverty because it may have been, as Edward Pessen puts it, that not all of them built their money, but married into rich families or used their own family’s finances (77-79). And Pessen proves to be

Daisy Miller examines European high society throughout the 1870s. The societal norms are placed firmly in the beliefs of the class system, social status, and education: all of which are needed in order to successfully assimilate into the world of the upper class. Henry James makes it clear that these norms make up the lives of the high society through his characterization of the “uncultivated” Daisy Miller. Daisy’s character is questionable throughout the novella, and the word “uncultivated” has been necessary to coming to that conclusion.

The social class below this one was the middle class. The middle class were the tradesmen, shop owners, doctors and lawyers in the town. These people had some political power, but only within your close communities (“Lifestyles During the Civil War”). The next lower tier of the social divisions was the lower class. These people were unschooled and untrained.

In Charlotte Bronte’s novel, Jane Eyre, Bronte seemingly condemns the existing social hierarchy. Not only are the characters who are most concerned with the allure of fortune and rank portrayed as either deceitful or unethical, but even characters who’ve accepted their means of poverty and demonstrate honest moral natures are mocked. Rather than use the normal class structures, the book suggests that a person of impoverished means can be viewed as socially respectable with the condition that they maintain a sincere desire to better both oneself and their means of living.

James’ novella centers around a young governess who is in charge of watching her employer’s kids at an estate in Bly. The governess’ social standing and desire to keep her job reveal the instability of jobs for women in this era. Her employer, the uncle of Miles and Flora, is a typical wealthy

For my honors project, I analyzed the dynamics of the social interactions of two characters facing intense personal challenges in the two novels, Beloved by Toni Morrison, and The House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton. In Beloved, I explored the consequences of slavery after the Civil War, on the social development of the daughter of a former slave. Despite an extraordinarily difficult childhood, Denver broke free of the psychological chains that bound her, transforming herself to embrace a productive adulthood. Conversely, in The House of Mirth, I examined the consequences of a different form of slavery during the Gilded Age, on a young woman seeking membership among New York City’s upper class. Lily was unable to keep up with the conspicuous consumption