Unlike the Hallway Hangers, the Brothers have higher aspirations for their future, aspirations that include finding stable employment and sustaining a middle class life style. Viewing ability and hard work as integral to educational and occupational attainment the Brothers committed themselves to school and engaged in extracurricular activities, rather than substance use. These differences in aspirations provided the foundation for MacLeod to fashion his own social reproduction
People have dreams, and sometimes those dreams can be destroyed. Many times this devastating event happens because of either money or social class. In S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, the Greasers understand and realize they belong to the working class and that mobility up the social class ladder is nearly impossible. With the money disadvantage of the working class, even the most plausible chance to move up the social class ladder cannot.
However, the outcome of Vance’s life was different as he was graduated from Yale Law School, able to get a well-paying job and currently living the American Dream with his wife Usha. The purpose of the author in this memoir was to understand the reader of how social mobility feels and more importantly, what happens to the lives of the white working-class Americans, in particular the psychological impact that spiritual and material poverty has on their children. J.D Vance provides an explanation for the loss of the American dream to poor white Americans living in a toxic culture in this Ohio steel town.
In James W. Loewen’s “The Land of Opportunity,” he states that social class affects the way children are raised. He discusses the inequality in today’s society and how the textbooks in high school do not give any social class information. The students in today’s time are not taught everything they should be taught. He states that your family’s wealth is what makes up your future. Loewen discusses that people with more money can study for the SATs more productively and get a better score than someone who has less money.
The American Dream is the expectation that American’s will have opportunities to become successful, rich, live peacefully, and provide for a
There is lower, middle, and upper class, but there are also subcategories that fill the gaps in between, like the impoverished and the top one percenters. “Class in America”, written by Gregory Mantsios, addresses the myths and realities about socioeconomic class in America and how they affect American lives. His article highlights the unequal divide that has persisted over the course of history and will continue to manifest in the future. To introduce the existence of this issue, Mantsios states that this country’s citizens “don’t like to talk about class...or class privileges, or class oppression, or the class nature of society” (Mantsios 378). This is the case in America today because people are neglecting to acknowledge the existence of these elusive
The American dream is a dream of a land in which one can prosper with ambition and hard work. This idea has created many illusions for some because in reality the American dream is proven to be something that is rarely achieved. No individual is guaranteed success or destined for failure, but it is apparent that women, people of color, and those born into poverty will face greater obstacles than others, despite being a greater part of the American population. An author that tackles the issue of class in the United States is Gregory Mantsios. In his essay, “Class in America-2009”, Mantsios aims to prove that class affects people’s lives in drastic ways.
They understand the sacrifices their parents have made for their children and to support their family. But, upper classmen might not be able to understand why inequality causes consequences because they do not experience the same situations. Those who earn more do not need to work more hours and sacrifice little things, such as vacations, in order for their children to go to school. They may not even notice any changes to their lives because they make more than enough to live stress-free, while low income families spend most of their time struggling to make ends meet. Although this essay was written about 11 years ago, I believe it is still just as effective as when it was first written because the economy is constantly changing and always leads to consequences because of the inequality present in society.
Being born into a particular family determines how well off you are. Class in America determines the people that influence you, and the better opportunities you are exposed to. In Gregory Mantsios writing of “Class in America” you can understand the many differences between class and how one might have better success. Mantsios shows three profiles of three different people born into different classes. One of the profiles shows how the lifestyle might be born into a wealthy family.
He tells the reader about his life being turned upside down after making one childish mistake. The greaser struggle more than the Socs because they are poor, the Socs jump them, and people think that they are trash. The greasers do not have money or own very much. “We’re poorer than the Socs an the middle class.”
In Chapter 12 of Readings for Sociology, Garth Massey included and piece titled “The Code of the Streets,” written by Elijah Anderson. Anderson describes both a subculture and a counterculture found in inner-city neighborhoods in America. Anderson discusses “decent families,” and “street families,” he differentiates the two in in doing so he describes the so called “Code of the Streets.” This code is an exemplifies, norms, deviance, socialization, and the ideas of subcultures and countercultures.
Another example of the advantages that the middle class have over the working class is that the middle class would most likely grow up reading or listening to their parents reading a book, which gives them an advantage of the skills needed for reading in the school environment, while the working class might not being able to access such books, resulting in them not being able to have the skills that the middle class has, which will disadvantage them within the school environment. Middle class learning grow up being taught certain values, such as to ask by saying ‘may I’ while working class learners did not. This may seem like something small but within the school environment they focus on the values that the dominate groups possess resulting in the learners being picked on or judge against resulting in them not feeling as if they are capable to do as the middle class learners are and feeling as if they will not succeed. This shows how the schools promote the dominate culture within
In A Framework for Understanding Poverty, Ruby Payne try’s to explain the behaviors and barriers of three social classes: poverty, middle class, and wealth. Beyond the social class of poverty, it’s a breakdown of the elements of the classes and the ‘hidden rules’ each one has. She stresses that these hidden rules aren’t taught in businesses or schools, these of which function as the hidden rules of middle class. Payne states these hidden rules aren’t exactly natural, they’re learned, and as one grows up in a particular class those rules are set in place. She lists all the rules in each class, and the differences are striking.
Thematic Essay- Society and Class Society and class is an important theme in “The Outsiders”, a novel written by S.E Hinton. “The Outsider”, is a book about two gangs, the Greasers and the socs who are rivals because of their economic and social differences. Throughout the book, S.E Hinton outlines that Socs, who have a better economic status are unaware of all of the other aspects in life and feel superior over the Greasers. In book, The Outsiders, it 's shown that a human society can be separated a society because of society and wealth.
Originally the American Dream was simply the idea that hard work was all that is required to obtain a decent life. As simple as this sounds, this idea was revolutionary for its time. The roots of the American Dream can be traced all the way back to the Declaration of Independence: “All men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” This gave the common man a chance to improve his status in the world. In the old world, there was no class mobility of any kind.