Transients In Arcadia Summary

In all aspects of life, Humans spend an incredible amount of time wondering if their class is high enough and acceptable. We tend to care so much about what others think of us, that we expect so much more from ourselves than what is possible. Which, in short represents that we are not living for ourselves. The lives we were given to enjoy as a whole and embrace. Rather we are living someone else’s life, which locks us in a dark prison of expectations and the key to freedom gets thrown away. Living a life where you care so much about what others think of you is as if we are nothing but sheep being herded to the final slaughterhouse! In “Rocking Horse Winner”, the author D.H. Lawrence paints a portrait of how the mother Hester can never truly be satisfied with what she poseses since she is always worried about the status and ranking of her class. The most important concern to her is looking respectable, presentable, and nice. In addition, in the story “A Goodman Is Hard To Find”, the author Flannery O’Connor paints the same portrait representing how the Grandmother always has to look presentable, and how she always has to look like a lady. Both of these characters in both stories have the same problem in common. They both are haunted by the fact that they

Since Lynn was a busy town of commerce and trade, the middle-class inhabitants were wealthy. The status of Margery?s father, John, several times mayor of Lynn, helped to instill Margery with self-respect. She was very much influenced by the people of Lynn?s concern with status and wealth: ?She had a very great envy of her neighbors that they should be as well arrayed as she.? In her Book, she even goes so far as to say that her marriage to businessman John Kempe did no justice to her ?worthy kindred? and was a socially-imbalanced relationship, although they both belonged to the same social class. This haughtiness and sense of pride are distinguishing features of Margery throughout her life.

Social status often establishes one 's credibility and integrity within a society. The power that social status has, encourages people to heavily focus on it. With this focus on social status ever pressing, one’s identity often gets intertwined with and reliant on their place in the hierarchy of society. People become fixated on one idea they have of a person in a certain social class, that anybody who breaks out of specific stereotypes may often cause anger amongst others. In the short story “Greenleaf” by Flannery O’Connor, the main character, Mrs. May, is obsessive about the way others perceive her and her place in society. Mr. May’s identity is so strictly tied to her desire to get to a higher social class and her notions how society

She is dressed very wealthy, has expensive jewelry, drinks alcohol, and has a bob cut. These were the qualities of the new woman compared to the previous traditional woman’s beliefs and ways of life. James Braddock’s luxury lifestyle, including his family, home, and wealth, represents the 1920’s atmosphere of growth and the booming time that was soon to vanish from the Great Depression.

The upper class doesn’t have real ambition and they try to use money in its place. Tom and Daisy’s palace is the most apparent example

Interestingly, Carnegie drew a distinction between how one gains wealth, and the effect this may have on how he spends his money. There are those who inherit wealth; they are the most likely to spend frivolously. To the contrary, those who earn money through hard work, develop a greater appreciation for money. He further encouraged those with great wealth to “set an example of modest, unostentatious living, shunning display or extravagance” (Carnegie, 1901). Facets of today’s society can be seen praising pretension, and encouraging flashiness or frivolity. As cultural values change, the

Already hearing the Mr.Beaufort raising his voice at Mrs.Struthers asking where the Countess was, Ellen Olenska knocked on the door with compunction. Mrs.Struthers answered the door and was already slightly intoxicated. Mrs.Struthers pushed her in and Ellen was immediately engulfed by the grandeur of Mrs.Struthers’ party. Massive chandeliers hung low from the ceiling, live music surrounded the house, and luxurious food was being enjoyed by Mrs.Struther’s party guests: the Duke and Mr.Beaufort. They offered her a seat and she declined, but Mr.Beaufort was importunate, and so she sat. After Mrs.Struthers’ servants gave Ellen her elegant food and a drink, they immediately plunged into conversation about the social codes and customs of this “close-minded”

In Life in the Iron Mills, Rebecca Harding Davis tells the story of Hugh Wolfe, a lower-class man whose love of beauty and desire to move up in the world ultimately leads to his mental decline and demise. Wolfe lives in a town of smothering grey smog and works in an iron mill reminiscent of Hell, places that induce hopelessness and despair by appearance. In contrast to his surroundings, Wolfe possesses a fierce love of beauty and a talent of sculpting with korl, both of which are frequently associated with higher socioeconomic classes. Initially, it appears that Davis means to reinforce the common associations of beauty with the upper class and unseemliness with the lower class. In the story, beauty can be associated with the upper class characters through their polished appearances and admiration of art, inciting a positive association in response to beautiful imagery; unseemliness, on the other hand, can be associated with the lower class and negative feelings because the mill is reminiscent of hell and the characters are generally unattractive. However, when looked at with a closer lens, it appears the story cannot be taken at face value and the typical feelings surrounding beauty and ugliness do not apply in the story. Appearances can be deceiving: within Life in the Iron Mills, ugliness represents opportunity whereas the beauty serves as a distraction. By juxtaposing unsightly and attractive, Davis shows that mobility is possible only through unattractive, hard work

We sse this today with the way certain celeberties such as Kanye West dress and how they seemingly are able to wear any "hat" they wish. We look at the rich to be role models simply because of their money and refuse to look at the heart of a person. She hit on the fact that those with little money do all they can to look like something they are not. She talked about the struggle of haveing womens club in the poor neighborhoods as many wouldn't leave a home adress or even attend becase everyone knew they finacial situation but they were going to differnt parts of town to those that didn't to seem like they were a person who were very well off in life. The piece hit om the fact that these chidren were often asked to stop their develepment and work to help the family and for some parenst it was an expectation that the children would care for them. LAstly she talked about war and how it preys on the untutered and poor to fight a battle they knew nothing about. One huge theme of the pieces were that we cannot keep using history and old customs to justify our shortcomings in

In “The Company Man” by Ellen Goodman, The author attacks a typical hardworking middle classmen. This piece portrays diction, imagery and tone in order to exemplify the intended theme the author wants to convey. With these attributes, the theme that those who tend to be blinded by the illusion of wealth and tend to forget those who are important in their lives are destined to die lonely and disregarded by those closest to them.

Her face, above a spotted dress of dark blue crepe-de-chine, contained no facet or gleam of beauty, but there was an immediately perceptible vitality about her as if the nerves of her body were continually smouldering” (Fitzgerald, 28). While being in contrast with Jordan, a white wearing, statuesque, professional golf player who is a very attractive individual and wealthy which automatically puts her in the high class. This example provides us with the knowledge of how the structure of class is formed. Myrtle is associated with being an outcast, while Jordan is popular and favoured. Therefore, Myrtle did not have the opportunity to the American Dream and now is treated differently, especially by Tom

On a trip to the Upper East Side, Maria Ganz, a Jewish girl who had been growing up in a Jewish tenement community, saw the stark differences between the two sides of Manhattan; “the contrast she saw- between uptown wealth and … the tenement districts- led her to see things in new ways” (Ewen 21). The social environment of America was drastically different than what these immigrant women were used to; in America there were distinct social classes that were completely defined by how much money one had, or didn’t have; while in Europe they “had of course dealt in money, but also dealt in barter or kind” (Ewen 23) while in America “everything was measure in money terms” (Ewen 23). This is not to say that middle class immigrant women did not have their own form of luxury; while their day to day lives were still reminiscent of nineteenth century life, many women indulged in meals at tasteful restaurants, shopping at department stores, and finding more affordable variations of Fifth Avenue inspired fashion looks. While immigrant women and families may have been discouraged to find that a life of extravagance and ease, as the “American dream” had promised, may not be a viable option; it was certainly not impossible for these women to adapt to the American culture and find their of versions of luxury.

Mrs. Richard Skinner’s dress is very form fitting and looks quite confining, this is how most women dressed at this time. This is symbolic of the confining lifestyle that Mrs. Richard Skinner and many other women of this era lived. Copley was notorious for illustrating wealth through clothing pieces and fabrics. It is evident that Mrs. Richard Skinner is dressed in a lavish gown which demonstrates that the subject is indeed wealthy. This technique allows anyone looking at this painting to pick up on this queue, even without knowing the subject’s true identity.

In a short story by Katherine Mansfield called “The Doll’s House,” there is a social barrier between a family with less that is struggling to make ends meet and a flourishing family, that appears to not have any difficulties getting through life. The Kelvey family, whose hard-working mother makes the best of life that she can by crafting clothing from materials she can salvage from the wealthy clients’ houses she cleans. The Burnell family, who is getting through life with ease because of their position in the wealthy class, is the complete opposite in lifestyles. The short story “The Doll’s House” suggests society is unfair to the people with less and that possessions play a part in the deciding factor whether people will be your friend, but it only takes one person to break from the social expectations.

The food served was not as grand as the dishes that would be present at a high-class banquet; however, it was still sophisticated enough that the food was relatively unavailable for the lower class to be able to afford. This allows for the Bovary’s to have an air of aristocracy that masked their middle class reality. Moreover, although living comfortably, the actions of those in the middle class are still considered very basic; many of the bourgeoisie had lackluster table manners. Frustrated with Charles’ eating habits, Emma describes him “to be getting coarser in his ways;... after meals, he used to suck his teeth; eating his soup, he made a gurgling noise with every mouthful” (58). Such behaviour would be unheard of in the higher class, but to Emma, this was her unfavourable reality. Through this portrayal, she reveals her dissatisfaction with the behaviour of her own middle-class lifestyle. Furthermore, Emma’s constant sophisticated desires are incomprehensible by the rest of the middle class as the elder Madame Bovary “found her style too grand for her situation” (40). Emma views herself more as an aristocrat than a bourgeoisie, hence attempting to boast her seemingly more refined characteristics. Hoping to escape the mundane middle class, the bourgeoisie pine after the luxurious life of an aristocrat.