Social Class

Social Class

Social class and status can be defined in different ways.   One way to define this is to look at the objects the person possesses. These objects can take on symbolic meanings.   Some objects can have different meanings according to the social class of people who own them.   Stuart Ewan’s “Chosen People” helps show how objects can take on these symbolic meanings.   Lillian Heker’s “The Stolen Party,” Alice Walker’s “Everyday Use,” and Richard Rodriguez’s “Complexion” all have these objects in their stories.
In “Everyday Use” towards the end of the story the main object that is talked about is the quilts.   Dee asks for the hand stitched quilts made with her grandmas dresses opposed to the machine made ones.   You can tell in the story that this family is a hardworking, blue collar family, with not that much money.   By her wanting to posses these quilts it shows that this family is not materialistic at all and that they focus more on the simpler things in life.   This could be viewed as them being of a lower social class.  
In “The Stolen Party”, Rosaura’s mother was making fun of the idea of Luciana having a monkey at her birthday party.   She looked at this as an object of high status that she didn’t want her daughter to be associated with.   Her mother says “I don’t like you going,” and “It’s a rich people’s party (Heker, 315).”   Since her mother is a maid she feels like their social class is sort of untouchable by them and does not want her daughter to see this way of life and then get let down when her life is not as glamorous.   Although her mother thought this way, Rosaura looked at the monkey as an object of high status but in a positive way.   Heker says “every so often, she would slip out of the party unseen and go and admire it (Heker, 316).”   She admires her high social status but does not hate or envy it.
The story “Complexion” as a lot of symbols associated with social class.   One object that is shown throughout the story is the shovel.   This object is...