Legend, by Marie Lu, is a dystopian novel jammed packed with action. Every page the author has you wanting more. The piece encompasses a variety of themes, but the poor versus the rich is the one that is the most evident throughout the book. Marie Lu does an amazing job developing the main characters. Day and June are enjoyable because they’re relationship with each other is unique and different from characters of other books. June is the Republic’s prodigy and has grown up living a privileged life. Day is the Republic’s most wanted criminal who for about the past 3 years spent his life living in the slums. They basically come from two completely different backgrounds. This book has contrasting characters that complement the books many themes; overall making the …show more content…
The Republic is not unlike America where you have the ability to work your way up. It is a system built to keep the rich, rich and the poor, poor. The Republic does this through their “Trials”. If you get a good score you are rewarded a position in the Republic, if your score is good you get to go to high school, if your score is average “you join the poor,” and if you fail you are sent away to labor camps (Lu 7). The children who grew up living poor or in the “slum sectors” are most likely to fail their Trials because they didn’t have schooling and the rich pay for their children to be tutored. That means most of the rich kids will follow in their parents’ footsteps and achieve position in the Republic’s government. The author continues to support this theme with the main characters. Day was from the slum sectors and was supposed to be shipped off to a labor camp. June came from a wealthy family and became the Republic’s prodigy. This theme is part of the books conflict and has an interesting plot twist during the rising action. This story would not be the same without its splendid main
Mantsios defends his claim by sharing the four myths and opposing seven realities of the American dream of equal opportunity. Then comparing three profiles of people from upper, middle, and lower classes, then by proving the correlation between educational attainment and classes. In a country with democratic principles, the general public makes an impact on the country, but it’s truly governed by politicians and the incredible power of wealth. Mantsios gives up the economic spectrum break down by giving the facts on the differences between the one who have very little, a lot and not enough money. One myth that Mantsios makes in his essay is how “all Americans do not have an equal opportunities to succeed. Inheritance laws ensure a greater likelihood of success of the offspring of the wealthy” (295). The huge gap between the upper and lower classes shows the social struggle. Higher income classes have a more likely chance for successful inheritance which allows the wealth to get passed on to the offspring. However, Davidson contradicts the theory’s that were presented by Mantsios by stating “Maddie represents a large population: people who, for whatever reason, are not going to be able to leave the workforce long enough to get the skills they need”(349). However, if Maddie works hard enough she can prove Mantsios wrong. That doesn’t mean she has to go to college or get a higher education, of course, that would make everything simpler. All she has today is work her way up in the company to make something of herself to show that she can still reach her full
Growing up in a more privileged environment things may come easier to one. But one should not be surprised of those that are in a less fortunate situation that are not able to reach certain heights, compared to someone from a more privileged back ground. Even if one is not in the best environment, they are able to make a choice to keep fighting for a better life. In the podcast “Three Miles” that is exactly the attitude described from a girl name Raquel, on the other hand Melanie froze her life doing what she thought she deserved. Though Raquel and Melanie had similar backgrounds in that they were raised in the same poor neighborhood and attended the same indigent high school, in the end Raquel was able to succeed in her life after getting denied a Posse scholarship, whereas Melanie worked in a supermarket for ten years, feeling that was as good as it was going to get.
book you continue to hear about characters of different social statuses along with their little
As we can clearly see, socio-economic status and class conflict both affect each character in the story in a different way, but ultimately lead to the same place. Class conflict is a major theme from the beginning of the story. “Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone” he told me, “just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had” (1). A quote from Nick’s father on the first page of the novel immediately sets the theme of class conflict. Even though this is a piece of advice about humility, it still highlights the economic and power gap between the American upper and lower classes.
America has always seen as the symbolic ideal country of prosperity and equality. This is the reason why people come to America hoping to become successful, but in matter of fact we all have an equal plan field to be successful is not entirely true. For there are social boundaries that keep use limited based upon our own status. Whether we are born of a low class or of a high class the possibility of economic mobility in a sense are predetermined by two factors of social class and success together they both affecting one’s another opportunity of success. In order to achieve success, we must know that it is made up of two main concepts and they are fortune and position. But when a person is limited by their class prohibiting them to achieve success, the point of trying is meaningless. However, there is a way to break the construct that keep groups stuck in the lower-class and is through education. Education gives more opportunities for success to the individuals and since education is very important, culture and the government should focus more directly upon this to reach economic stability. Class standing directly affects economic success in America by limiting a person’s chance of success however; one can overcome by focusing more upon education and culture.
This book teaches the importance of self-expression and independence. If we did not have these necessities, then life would be like those in this novel. Empty, redundant, and fearful of what is going on. The quotes above show how different life can be without our basic freedoms. This novel was very interesting and it shows, no matter how dismal a situation is, there is always a way out if you never give up, even if you have to do it alone.
In Confronting Inequality, Paul Krugman discusses the cost of inequality and possible solutions. Krugman argues to say that it is a fantasy to believe the rich live just like the middle class. Then, he goes into detail about how middle class families struggle to try to give their children a better life and how education plays a factor in children’s future lives. For example, children’s ability to move into higher education could be affected by their parents economic status. Also, He discusses how politicians play a role in the inequality, because most of politicians are in the upper economic class. Finally, Krugman says how we could possibly have solutions to these various inequalities, but how America won’t get
Legend follows two characters June and Day who come from different levels of society. June is a privileged teen, raised by her older brother and the only person to get a perfect score on the Trial, a test determining
This battle is reflected on in The Great Gatsby Curve where it is discussed why the American Dream is becoming less of a reality. I think that this realization has a lot to do with why the people from the “poor” group felt pride; making it to Cornell despite coming from a low-income family is a huge accomplishment and is contrary to what usually
Through these two novels, we’re able to see the quandaries that women must face when modernity and old customs come head to head. Both of these women remain brave and to try to sustain their new found freedoms, despite any difficult encounters. It is these women with their fierce ideals that would make them pioneers for all women liberation movements.
Poverty on social conditions affects everyone in every part of the world, no matter if they are rich or poor. First of all, everyone is divided into some sort of social class. The most known classes are the economic classes- the lower class, the middle class, and the higher class. The lower class goes through arduous labor all day and night to earn decent amounts of money to provide for themselves and their families. Most likely, they are the only source of income for the entire family. The higher class works hard to keep up or raise their high social status. They also work hard so they don’t loss their social rank, which permits them to hold a higher power over the middle and lower classes. Similarities of decisions made by characters in these two literary works will analyzed to understand the meaning behind the actions and influences of the social classes on each other.
The first part is that the charter is working very very hard to achieve something that they want. “He pushed Chickie hard on test--timed, multiple-choice--pages and pages of them. After a while, Chickie got so that he no longer feared the test.”(101). This shows that Chickie is work hard and cares about his future. And is try leave behind his mother and go to school but he needs to prove that he is good and can be independent. “The school interview lasted longer that Chickie had expected. They liked him and offered ham a scholarship and a summer-camp job.”(103). This shows that Chickie can work hard and can get to what he wanted. And that he does not need his mother or anyone else, and that you can start from the bottom and get to the top. That is how “If I Had The Wings Of An Angel” by Judith Gorog shows that you can work to become
Fundamentally, from Tateh’s Jewish heritage, Ruth believes that education leads to her children’s success and insists them to focus on their study. Ruth remembers that Tateh pays for her private lessons on bookkeeping in Suffolk. Ruth points out, “He was tight with his money, but when it came to that kind of thing, he wasn’t cheap” (McBride 80). Tateh does not have much money and is often reluctant to buy Ruth new clothes. However, he resolves to pay for expensive tuitions so Ruth can get good education, a core value of Jewish culture. This experience becomes a distinct part of her youth and a stepping stone for her children’s future. Naturally, Ruth follows the same attitude to seek the best school for her children. McBride comments, “[We] were traveling miles and miles to largely white, Jewish communities to attend schools” (McBride 89). Although Rut...
There lies an obvious gap between the quality of education that is received between citizens with wealth and those who lack it, which makes it quite challenging to work together on social progression. Toni Bambara does a fantastic job portraying this reality in here essay “The Lesson” through a story of a group of children from low income families and their trip to a high class toy store with Miss Moore, a highly educated woman. The kids are blind to the value of education and where it could take them in life. Throughout their acquaintance, Miss Moore reminds the children that “Where [they] are is who [they] are, but it does not necessarily have to be that way” (258). Never understanding what she is saying, the children tend to ignore Miss Moore’s remark and often become agitated with her. The children have access to a better life through education and they can become anything they desire through hard work and learning. Life in poverty must not be a permanent fixation, these poor children are unfortunately blind to what Miss Moore is trying to convey. Due to a lacking education, these children are forming subjectivity quite different from those who are highly educated. With that being said, there is an obvious separation from realities between the wealthy and the poor. Having equal access to education among different classes is vital in contributing to social advancement. In today’s
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