Social Class In America Summary

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The documentary Social Class in America depicts the impact of ascribed social status in the United States. We follow three boys, born at the same hospital, who live relatively close together geographically. We learn as we follow the boys throughout their life that although they have the same legal and Constitutional rights, they are not born “equal.” The child in the working class is born to a father who is employed at the local factory at the lowest level doing manual labor. Being an unskilled factory worker, the father rents part of a home which functions as the family residence in a run-down section of town. The middle class family’s dad also works at the factory, doing a desk job. Although there is little room for advancement in his …show more content…

They live a financially comfortable life that even includes employees who help with cooking and cleaning in the home. The truth of ascribed status (the social status we are born into) is more apparent when the boys graduate from high school. The lower class child goes straight to work at a gas station, eventually becoming a mechanic. The upper class child attends an ivy-league university before preparing to take over the family factory. We see various types of mobility in the middle class child. He graduates and initially takes a desk job in the footsteps of his father before traveling to New York City in hopes of gaining education and experience in the field of employment he desires. We see that the horizontal mobility, moving from one geographical location to another, does help to improve his social mobility. In a big city, class lines are drawn differently and are less apparent in many ways. He socializes with people from other classes and obtains a job as the head of an art department at an advertising company at the age of 30. Despite this success, the remnants of class lines impact his life as he sees the girl he loved years ago marry the upper-class friend who shared his birthday instead of him, part of which was because of social class differences

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