This also occurs in the tale, “The Children’s Prattle.” This tale does not explicitly show the social falling of an individual, but does show a different kind of lowering on the social ladder. By having the very poor boy, with the last name ending with ‘sen’ surpass the wealthy children lowers their standing simply by having another person atop them on the social ladder. The children do not turn out to live terrible lives similar to the ball, instead, the story says, “They had become decent and kind human beings” (Andersen 14). These children follow their in the footsteps of their parents, and live out their lives at similar social rankings, but now are below this initially very poor boy. The previous paragraphs proves that Andersen truly …show more content…
In the story “The Sweethearts,” Andersen says, “A top and a ball were lying in a drawer among a lot of other toys. One day the top said to the ball, ‘Shouldn’t we become engaged? After all, we are lying right next to each other in the drawer’” (Andersen1). This was a very common occurrence in history; people of the time married people in the same social class. Because the ball was laying right next to the top, it assumed they were of similar status. Despite the actual difference in classes, it clearly displays the commonality of marrying in the same class, therefore, maintaining another family of similar social class generation after generation. It also shows that although social mobility was possible and prevalent, it was not the most common happening. While the ball dropped in terms of social class and the top climbed, the rest of the toys in the story remain at exactly the same social standing throughout the story. Only two toys out of all the toys owned by the child are able to accomplish social mobility, which is a very small percentage. The small percentage is also the case in real life in the nineteenth century; it was much more common to stay in the same social class than it was to jump either up or …show more content…
The social mobility of the boy is shown in contrast to everyone else present in the story who remains at their same social class ranking. A quote in the story saying, “‘I am a chamber child,’ she declared, although she could just as easily have been a ‘cellar child’, for, after all, we can’t choose our parents,” explains the unlikeliness of social mobility (Andersen 3). It is clear from this quote that the social class of the parents was directly correlated to the social class of the children, and was not likely to change. The children in this tale all grow up to be decent and good people, likely in the same exact social situation they were as children. This gives value to the conversation the children have in the beginning of the tale, because the job of their parents sheds a very good light on what would become of most of the children discusses this. This passing of social class is also prevalent in this story when it discusses how the boy with the last name ending in ‘sen’ could never become anything (Andersen 7). Family names implied social standing, which was almost always passed down through
For the families in Nectar in a Sieve, “there is no margin for misfortune” (Makandaya 136) because they live subsistent lifestyles. The low class families rely on their crops and if the crop fails they could starve. The landowner lives a lavish lifestyle and the majority of the population lives day to day. Families will pay a dowry in order for their daughters to be married and if they are a poor family their daughter will marry poor. The rich stay rich and the poor stay poor in most cases. In In the Time of the Butterflies the rich would go to school and the poor would work on the farms. Most of the citizens in their town were poor farmers who didn’t know how to read so unless you were a lucky farmer who made a lot of money it was likely that you and your family would remain poor and uneducated. "In the last few years, Papá had made a lot of money from his farm. Now we had class. And, Mamá argued, we needed the education to go along with our cash.” (Alvarez 12) is an example of the classes set by society. In both books the lower class stayed poor and the upper class stayed
Having a family of low socioeconomic status inevitably leaves me to reside in a low-income neighborhood which makes it more likely for me to witness the tragedies, adversities and hardships that people go through [not excluding myself]. Being conscious of this kind of environment, and these kinds of events, creates a pressure on me for having the aim to achieve social mobility in order to escape the aforementioned environment so that my own children could witness one less abominable aspect of life. Moreover, my family’s low socioeconomic status does not authorize me the privilege of being raised with the concerted cultivation method that kids of high socioeconomic status are more prone to being raised in. My family did not have the financial resources that granted us access to extra classes or lessons of instrumental classes, swimming practices, karate practices, or any other extracurricular activities that people of high socioeconomic status would be able to afford. This invisible fence that prevents me from these extracurricular activities enables me to having more appreciation towards the hobbies and talents that other people have. Plus, the fact that my family’s low socioeconomic status acts as a barrier from enjoying expensive luxuries in life creates a yearning [in me] to enjoy them later on in my life, in addition to acting as the fuel to my wish of achieving social mobility in anticipation of providing my own children with the luxurious vacations, gadgets, beachhouse, new cars that I could not
The time and way people are brought up in society makes a huge difference on how they will climb up the social scale in life. In the classic novel House of Mirth, by Edith Wharton and Call it Sleep, by Henry Roth the main characters experience totally different upbringings into society. While Lily Bart is brought up into a high class society, David is born into an immigrant family in a part of the city, which has similar people as his own country. The two characters in the novels both have different and some similar views on how to climb up on the social scale. Although they would give different advice to each other on how to climb the social scale, and have different views on life, one thing that would be common would be to have money.
Throughout time, family dynamics continually adapt to fit an always changing society. Using the sociological imagination, I can analyze my family’s history to understand the shift between Puritan farming life to the Industrial Era to the modern-day family I live in now.
Certainly, being born into a privileged family have their advantages. Unfortunately, for those who are born into poverty may struggle for their success, but it is not impossible. The podcast “Three Miles” is a great example of that. Comparatively, on the surface Melanie and Raquel are two individuals coming from the same unfortunate circumstances. Although, both girls were introduced to the same pen pal program their outcomes would travel different courses. Initially, the purpose of this program is to give students from poor neighborhoods a glimpse inside their wealthier counterpart’s lives, from another school. Raquel and Melanie’s backgrounds were similar, because they were afforded the same opportunities, but they turned out differently. Raquel was driven while Melanie is unambitious.
...nce any degression on the social ladder. However, there will always be those who dictate who and what the society truly is. Just like Chesnutt portrays for us in The Marrow of Tradition, there will always exist a social ladder, upon which we will either rise or drop.
A main factor in the storyline is the way the writer portrays society's attitude to poverty in the 18th century. The poor people were treated tremendously different to higher classed people. A lot of people were even living on the streets. For example, "He picked his way through the hordes of homeless children who congregated at evening, like the starlings, to look for the most sheltered niche into which they could huddle for the night." The writer uses immense detail to help the reader visualise the scene. She also uses a simile to help the reader compare the circumstances in which the children are in. This shows that the poor children had to live on the streets and fend for themselves during the 18th century. Another example involves a brief description of the city in which the poor people lived in. This is "nor when he smelt the stench of open sewers and foraging pigs, and the manure of horses and mules" This gives a clear example of the state of the city. It is unclean and rancid and the writer includes this whilst keeping to her fictional storyline.
One of the first things the narrator says about himself is that he comes from a well off
Throughout the chapter, Shipler displays an extreme liberal bias involving people in poverty. His view in this chapter is that the childhood majorly affects a person’s future. He states, “Their future is crippled by their past” (Shipler 143). This quote is somewhat true. The adolescence years are the most important in shaping a person. However, Shipler takes this idea to the extreme and makes it seem that if a person has a bad childhood, he or she will end up in poverty. One real life example he puts in this chapter is the story of Peaches. Peaches had never known her birth parents, lost her adopted family before she was five, and was forced into a foster home. Because of her dark skin she was discriminated against and also suffered from verbal and physical abuse. ...
...d by a difference in wealth. The difficulty to provide for a family, much less make more money to rise above the working class, caused children born into working class families to feel like they were “stuck” because they did not have the extra time or money to devote to an education. Instead of being able to learn and grow during childhood, children in the working class focused on the survival of themselves and their family. This contrasts the middle class where children had the possibility to earn an education before working in the future. Horatio Alger argued that anyone can change their situation by a little extra work and by improving their behavior, but Ragged Dick was an unrealistic character. Children born into poverty often faced a cycle, where guidance and luck could not even help the escape the working class because they were committed to their families.
Another example of their poverty is when the family goes to the slumps to pick up a plow that Mr. Slump had borrowed. The author explains that the Slumps just left their tools where they unhitched but, the little girl’s family had a shed where they put the machinery when it was not being used. Obviously the Slumps are not as openhanded as the little girl’s family, and are being treated as inferior because of this.
Social classes are a dividing system for people of a nation or country, and have existed for as long as history can date back. In the past, it has designated people to certain categories that determined the opportunities and privileges that they could receive. In the past, the social class a person belonged to was determined by which one he or she was born into, and this label generally stuck to someone for life. In more recent history, broadened opportunity has opened up an escape for those stuck in the lower classes. The social class a person is born into has become a starting point in life, and where somebody ends up is decided by his or her determination. In Toni Cade Bambara's “The Lesson,” the theme is about learning that a person can break free of the inequality of a social class, which is shown by the use of plot, characters, and symbols.
The class issue played out in early forms of mixed marriages and people were driven by convenience to marry from their own cycles. The changes that preceded the modernization era created a social distance between the whites, blacks and the Asians. The whites considered they were superior and placed a barrier between themselves and the other races, however it can be concluded that despite the various sanctions that existed, these unions thrived and become a learning point in history. They enriched the US culture and shaped relations between different groups. This is evident today in the composition of America population, by the rich blend of different cultures and peaceful co-existence of its citizens.
While the Burnells talked of their doll house they showed their cruel and prejudice nature by excluding the Kelvey children from the group. “And the only two who stayed outside the ring were the two who were always outside, the little Kelveys. They knew better than to come anywhere near the Burnells.” The way the people treat the Kelvey family is less than equity. They gossip of the Kelveys creating rude remarks of their outer appearance and making up harsh tales of them and the father of the young children. “Many of the children, including the Burnells, were not allowed even to speak to them. They walked past the Kelveys with their heads in the air, and as they set the fashion in all matters of behavior, the Kelveys were shunned by everybody.” The people handle the Kelveys as though they are rodents that take their disregarded clothing and scraps from their tables. They may think of them as rodents by how they wear clothes made from table cloth, curtains, or the second hand clothes from the rich families’ homes. Even the aunt of the aunt of the Burnells shooed the Kelveys away just as though they were unwelcome animals. The children of high society ranked
Kuttner also agrees, “a lot of ugly realities were concealed by “traditional values”; the legal and economic emancipation of women was long overdue, and the task now is to reconcile gender equality with the healthy raising of the next generation.” (124). Before the 1890s, females had no other options but to live with their parents before marriage and with their husband after marriage. They couldn’t work and if they did, their wages were way lower than men.