Social Hierarchy in Under the Lion’s Paw by Halim Garland

The social hierarchy is something that is hard to escape wherever you are, but our society has made it almost impossible to ignore no matter how old you are or how good of a family you come from. In Hamlin Garland’s short story, “Under the Lion’s Paw,” there is a slew of social hierarchy and power for wealthiest man in the story; while the poor man is just looked at as nothing. This happens in our society everyday and it can hurt the people under ridicule so much, surprisingly nothing is ever done to fix it. Consequently letting the predicament continue to get worse. Furthermore, shouldn’t social hierarchy be based on more than just the amount of money you make? It is preposterous to not consider who that person is in society; like what they do to better our community, how they carry themselves and treat other people, and the history of their families. If we continue to base the worth or rank of the people in our world, we will continue to pass up people that could do so much for our world, but are never given a fair chance because of how we rank usefulness in this world.

In Garland’s short story we are presented with three different parties: the Council’s, the Haskin’s, and Butler. Mr. and Mrs. Council are a “lower-middle class” family that works hard for their money and does all the farming themselves to keep up their land. The Haskin’s are a family from out of town that are just coming into town and looking for a new place to stay and make a new life out of. Finally, there is Butler; who is one of the wealthiest landowners in the town and rents a piece of his land to the Haskin’s. Mr. and Mrs. Haskins may be down on their luck, but were always grateful and diligent in order to take advantage of the things they were given throu...

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...social classes that the world tends to put us in, we can sure make a difference by changing our view on them and taking more into consideration when grouping people into a class or ranking.

Works Cited

Baym, Nina, Arnold Krupat, Robert S. Levine, and Jeanne Campbell Reesman: Hamlin Garland. "Under the Lion’s Paw." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. 8th ed. Vol. C. New York, NY: Norton, 2012. 736-46. Print.

Economist, The. "Wealth and Class." The Economist. The Economist Newspaper, 08 Jan. 2007. Web. 16 Apr. 2014. .

Kraus, Michael W. "Status Hierarchies: Do We Need Them?" Psychology Today: Health, Help, Happiness + Find a Therapist. Psychology Today, 2 Oct. 2012. Web. 17 Apr. 2014. .