Imbalance between rich and poor creates an unjust world of social inequality. Society as a class system is based on hierarchy of power, privilege, and prestige. One could take advantage of these three elements and abuse them to be beneficial to the indivisual, but harmful to the rest of society. The Year of the Flood takes place in a post-apocalyptic world, harmed by corporate control, and violent slums. In comparison, The Cat’s Table takes place on an immigrant ship embarking on a journey towards England, with a rich elite class living in luxury and an underprivileged larger lower class. Both of these works seem to have a social system that enables the powerful to take control, and the powerless left harmed and unnoticed. While both The Year of the Flood and The Cat’s Table take place in contrasting settings, it is evident that social inequality is universal. Power, although sometimes can be a good element of society, can also be abused and used in evil ways to create corruption in the world. In The Year of the Flood CorpSeCorps, the corrupted corporation government takes control over businesses and the world. There is a large frightened and obedient middle class that unwillingly accepts the corporate control. The people living in the pleeblands are deprived of equal rights and are left in the dark. The CorpSeCorps had to portray an image to the people of provoking safety and peace. Even thought they put up the forefront of saving the world, in reality the corporations goes behind the citizens’ back, manipulates the population to do illegal acts, and brainwashes the community to follow immoral beliefs. “The local pleebmobs paid the CorpSeCorps men to turn a blind eye. In return, the CorpSeCorps let the pleebmobs run the low l... ... middle of paper ... ...es that there is a flaw in the social system. Because prestige is so prominent in the elite’s mind, they cannot experience the same experiences that Michael goes through throughout his time on The Oranasay. This is seems as a disadvantage to Michael because his journey is made so much more impactful because of the adventures he went through that the elite would not have experienced. Socail inequality is a problem that not only happens in one setting, but also is prevalent everywhere around the world. The Year of the Flood and The Cat’s Table are an example of two very different settings but have the same concurring issue of social class inequality with abuse of power, corruption, abuse of privilege, and the motivation to keep social status. Power is a tool that we must use delicately because it can be used in evil and unjust ways to create problems in our society.
...eam, as Romero showcases the fact that the flaws shown within the characters end up turning their situation into something far worse than it had been in the beginning. It shows just how depraved, violent and absolutely terrifying humans can easily become when put into situations without consequences. Romero’s film is dredged in cynicism towards the modern American Dream, the way he deals with symbolism towards how “just” the American system is during battles and war, and how incredibly messed up our generalized view on racism and the ever ongoing struggle for certain ethnic groups to survive is. “The negativity of the characters extends, in fact, into every facet of their lives; indeed, the film implies the deepest denial of the goodness of effectiveness of every facet of human life in general. Every kind of human relationship is ridiculed or negated in the film.” 4
For millennia, there have been constant conflicts between the upper class and the lower class, characterized by the upper class’s sense of superiority towards those less economically prosperous. Mansfield, Gordimer, and Orwell describe these conflicts between the upper and lower classes to propose that completely transcending class prejudices is impossible and suggest that societal values have greater impact than individual values as they degrade both a person’s behavior and morality.
In consideration of how power functioned in both the Crucible and the Holocaust a tend of how an individual can use power to control, influence, benefit themselves, and also protect themselves from attacks can be seen. Human Nature compels us to gain power because of want, but once we have the power we will inherently use it to influence other because of the need of the individual to have their ideas agreed with. Power can either make a leader great or make a whole society or movement corrupt. Lessons can be used about how to effectively use power to properly initiate change and make a positive impact on the world.
Power simply can be defined as control over resources. This control allows for individuals to bring about change. The influence of power typically has a negative impact on individuals. It has even been said that “Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Typically, as an individual gains power they tend to be less inhibited and act more based on their personal desires disregarding what is ethically right. Oftentimes, individuals lose sight of their morals in attempts to gain more power and exploit other people. Indeed, it is true that “with great power comes great responsibility” and whether an individual lets that responsibility corrupt them is a strong measure of their personal character (Ferguson and Peterson,
Social inequality is characterized by the existence of unequal opportunity for various social positions or statuses within a given group or society. It is a phenomenon that has a long history as social inequalities has a wide range of varieties. From economic, gender, racial, status, and prestige, social inequality is a topic often disputed by classical theorists. Sociologists Karl Marx, Max Weber, W.I. Thomas, and Frederic M. Thrasher have formed varying thoughts on this recurring phenomenon. Marx believed that social inequality synthesized through conflicts within classes and in modern society those two classes were the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. In contrast, Weber disputes Marx’s simplistic view of the conflict and theorizes that social
Power is the source of all corruption as supported by Dickens’s novel A Tale of Two Cities. The characters Monseigneur, Marquis of Evermonde, and the revolutionaries all become corrupt in the end because of the power they possessed. If they did not possess power, they would not have been able to complete the actions they had planned to. Then, if they’re actions did not occur, the corruption they caused would cease to exist
Society today is split in many different ways: the smart and the dumb, the pretty and the ugly, the popular and the awkward, and of course the rich and the poor. This key difference has led to many areas of conflict among the population. The rich and the poor often have different views on issues, and have different problems within their lives. Moral decay and materialism are two issues prevalent among the wealthy, while things such as socio-economic class conflict and the American dream may be more important to those without money. Ethics and responsibilities are an area of thought for both classes, with noblesse oblige leaning more towards the wealthy.
One of these groups, the functionalists, view that the uneven distribution of wealth is due to the fact that the cream rises to the top and the people who have money and prestigious positions are the ones who are capable of getting the job done. Functionalists see that there are 3 things that are intertwined with each other; wealth, power, and prestige. These three things are rewards for people who are of good character, eg: people with advanced knowledge, hard workers, and people who can take on responsibility. This whole perspective is more merit based than anything and tells people in the society that they get w...
Social inequality refers to inter-relational processes in our society that has an adverse effect on limiting or harming a specific group’s social status, social class, and social circle. The way in which people behave, socially, through racist or sexist practices and other forms of discrimination, at the grass roots, gets down to affect the opportunities of the minorities, that the wealthy individuals can generate for on their own. This can be seen in almost all the levels of economy, ranging from state to the global economy.
As shown in literature, corruption and the abuse of power is an ongoing discussion. When it comes down to the point where people are being used and abused physically and psychologically, it creates a hostile environment for both the subjects and the abuser. As represented in the two similar texts Lord Of the Flies and “I Only Came to use the Phone”, corrupted authority and abuse of power usually end up leading to the collapse of a society or a world of chaos and violence.
From a very early age, children experience many different stages of life until they become adults with distinguished personalities, but the concept of social inequality has different impacts on different classes of individuals. Throughout this essay, I will discuss what social inequality is. Furthermore, to accomplish this task, I will describe three different ways a society can be stratified (the upper class, the middle class, and the poor). I then aim for the audience to comprehend the various ways our current society in the United States of America is unequal with a couple of examples. While defining and describing the concepts of class, race, and gender, I will further give a couple of general examples of how inequality related to that
Human nature is greedy and self-interested. At least that is what Machiavelli might have said. The television show Gossip Girl, plays on this imperfection of man, through revealing the scandals of New York City’s royalty. “Gossip Girl here, your one and only source into the scandalous lives of Manhattan's elite” (“Pilot” 1.1). Each character is solely self-interested in their actions and the character of Gossip Girl feeds on all of their drama. The characters rarely worry about whom they must manipulate in order to get their way, which ultimately shows an overwhelming amount of immoral behavior. Making others see the flaws of Manhattan’s elite through this immoral behavior evokes feelings of vanity. This raises up commoners by making them feel that they have a higher level of integrity than this group of elite. There is always scandal that the elite partake in that would never even apply to the commoners, making the elite’s downfall even heavier: “One thing about being on the top of the world, it gives you a long, long way to fall” (“In The Realm of the Basses” 2.14). On the other hand, competition is created in the elite world,...
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.
Power is both a good and evil thing. With power, a person has the potential to change the world. With power, a person’s words would be so influential, that anything would be possible. But when a person uses power for evil, it could possibly provoke the most horrible events imaginable. One person who used power for evil was a character from the movie Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith created by George Lucas. The characters name was Chancellor Palpatine. In a span of about fifteen years, he was able to manipulate the political system of the Galactic Republic so that he would come to power. With various events such as the Clone Wars, he gained more and more power as Chancellor, so much so that the only thing that the Chancellor feared was to lose his power.
It is perpetuated by the way wealth, power, and prestige are distributed and passed on from one generation to the next