[Eileen R.]

To people of various classes: How do you feel your socioeconomic status is represented in literature?

User Detail :  

Name : Eileen R., Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, City : Hartford, State : CT, Country : United States, Occupation : student, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, 

[C. Phillips]

Well, mostly African-Americans in my family’s income bracket don’t even get acknowledged in literature. To be sure, there are more non-white characters in American literature than ever before but for the most part almost all African-Americans characters are dirt poor and subjected to condescending model minority stereotypes. I wish that some serious author would do a better job of portraying life for African-Americans that come from two-parent home-owning households. It’s a minor gripe for me though.

User Detail :  

Name : C. Phillips, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Disability : lupus, Race : Black/African American, Religion : Christian, Age : 25, City : New Orleans, State : LA, Country : United States, Occupation : university student, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[Jim]

It’s interesting because the great literature of the past always represented the extremes really well, what with Jack London, Charles Dickens, Tolstoy, etc., but people of what you might call lower-middle or ‘underachiever intellectual’ class hadn’t been represented very clearly recently until the groundbreaking novel ‘Generation X’ by Douglas Coupland, which was a huge revelation to a lot of people. There have been a lot of books, TV shows and movies following in the wake of that novel that mirrored its depiction of this class of people with varying degrees of probity. The image of the downwardly mobile, well-read but chronically underemployed ne’er-do-well of the current era of technology industries, mass downsizing and global markets run amok is a relatively new specimen marked by a new psychology. There are people like us in every developed nation and in plenty of the undeveloped ones. We feel no class loyalty or work ethic, and frequenly espouse anarchist ideas even while wallowing in shallow consumerism. We’ll probably see more and more books written about us, as we’re a rich target market for exploitation. We could have become world leaders or social pillars if we weren’t so cynical, and we’re in danger of being lined up against a wall and shot in the next revolution. We’re like the people Jesus criticized for being ‘neither hot nor cold.’ Literature will do us a service when it stops seeing us as exotica and more as a symptom of the world’s ills. But I can’t see that happening in the near future.

User Detail :  

Name : Jim, Gender : M, Religion : Agnostic, Age : 36, City : Seattle, State : WA, Country : United States, Occupation : poet, Education level : 2 Years of College, Social class : Lower middle class, 

[Jeanine Flynn]

I read a great book by Lawrence Otis Graham, titled ‘Our Kind of People’ it’s the story of the upper-class black in America. We do exist, and have not been represented in media. The Cosby show opened the door, however some people thought that was a fluke. There are black families with ‘old money’.And these families are not generations of entertainers or athletes. If you are curious about this the book, it is a great read.

User Detail :  

Name : Jeanine Flynn, Gender : F, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : African american/Native american Cherokee, Religion : Catholic, Age : 32, City : Honolulu, State : HI, Country : United States, Occupation : surgical first assistant, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, Social class : Upper class, 

[Author]

Posts