This is by far the most interesting topic to me that we have studied up till this date. I would specifically like to talk about my view of social class in the United States. Social structure is a very important part of any society around the world, but I think that America has a unique approach to this. I would like to start by saying that I do believe it is true that Americans are judgmental and tend to see others in a certain social class because simple things like the brand names the other person is wearing, or not wearing, by the car that they drive or the house that they live in. Now, that is what I believe is the typical answer if you were to take a survey on the street, but let's reach a little deeper shall we?
I like to call this the "underdog" theory, and although the PBS website did not discuss this, which I was hoping it would, I decided to go ahead and talk about it anyways because I think it is interesting. So what do I mean by the "underdog" theory, well let's apply it to sports for this example. Do you remember the Oklahoma and Boise State game, where Boise State was thought to have no chance to win, while at the same time everyone was cheering from them (because they were the underdogs). Well, while they were defined and judged by others to not be as good as Oklahoma, they actually ended up winning and everyone loved it! Why? Because they were the underdogs!
Another example, the classic Cinderella, Pretty Woman story. Who doesn't love it? The "underdog" Cinderella or Julia Roberts, while they were looked down upon as being lower class or lesser than others, they ended up turning into beautiful classy ladies and completely proving everyone wrong. That's what I think makes America so different than anywhere else. Just think what movie just won an Academy Award, Slumdog Millionaire, another great story about a "rise to riches." America is about second chances, America is about breaking out of the social structure you are "thought" to be in and changing your destiny. Now although this is not true in all cases, I wanted to highlight it because I think it is so interesting and really well kind of awesome! Hehe.
What are your thoughts?
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The site mentioned what I think is the opposite of the 'underdog' you're talking about - "don't get above your raisin'". Interesting that they talked about that but not the other side so much.
ReplyDeleteI do have one problem though - Cinderella isn't really an American story. I was going to say it's originally German but a quick wikipedia search tells me it actually is far older, ancient Greece. I had assumed it was German as I had to read the Grimm version in high school.
Oh! You're right about the Cinderella story, I just did some research. Thank you for pointing that out. :-)
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