Four Writing Options
One. In a 4-page typed essay, support or refute the argument that your matriculation through college, and the major you have chosen (or not), is inextricably entwined with the class status anxieties analyzed in Paul Fussell’s Class. In other words, argue for or against the idea that fear of falling short of America’s status system—a code system that is much more complicated than income level alone—is a significant driving force in your college studies. What evidence is there, or not, that you are beholden to class status codes? What evidence is there, or not, that you have rejected America’s class status script and have carved your own path, so that you love learning for its own sake? Are you an aspiring bourgeois consumer? Are you an “X person”? Explain. Successful essays will show a clear and accurate reading comprehension of Paul Fussell's Class by integrating the book's major principles into your essay. You must have a Works Cited page referring to Class, and two other sources.
Alternative Option:
Two. In a 4-page essay, defend, refute, or complicate Fussell’s assertion that class is not as mobile as the American Dream purports it to be; rather, social class is more fixed like a caste system. Successful essays will show a clear and accurate reading comprehension of Paul Fussell's Class by integrating the book's major principles into your essay. You must have a Works Cited page referring to Class, and two other sources.
Alternative Option:
Three. Using bell hooks' essay "Learning in the Shadow of Race and Class" (Acting Out Culture, pages 287-295), develop a cause and effect analysis thesis that supports Fussell's contention that ascending the class ladder results in colossal psychological upheaval and speaks to the hyper-competition that defines the American Dream.
Alternative Option:
Four. Develop an analytical thesis about the way class is perceived in the African American community or another ethnic group. How do race, culture, and history contribute to the unique attitudes minorities attach to the codes of social class?
Class Definition Summarized
Where you live, what degree of education you have, what kind of job you have, how you dress, and entertain yourself, and how you speak all are part of the class code by which our fellow Americans judge and rank us according to the hierarchy system.
Let us be clear: Your class can even determine your happiness and life expectancy, as we read in "All Hollowed Out," an article that would make a good resource.
Also consult "America's self-destructive whites."
And consult "Why Are White Death Rates Rising?"
Study Questions from Paul Fussell's Class
One. Why is the subject of economic-social class so sensitive for Americans?
We too often lack other ways to define ourselves. Our social class, a mix of income and tastes (personal interests, hobbies, and consumer goods), defines us more than anything.
We define ourselves, consciously or unconsciously, by our money, job, trophies, and other consumer goods that cumulatively create our image of class to others in society.
How others perceive our social class affects how validated or esteemed we are, or not. It is human nature to seek validation, and we find this through social class.
Class Insecurity in a Hyper-Competitive America
In the 1980s, America, it is agreed by all economists, became hyper-competitive. Real wages fell, and both parents had to work, creating "latchkey kids." Money started siphoning to the 1% and today the problem is worse than ever.
The idea of class is made worse in an age where the number-one issue perhaps in politics and cultural life is class warfare between the 1 Percent and the Rest of Us.
The sensitivity is further reinforced by the manner in which class status speaks to America's hyper-competitive nature. Already, preschoolers are trying to get an edge for kindergarten. Elementary school students are cramming for SATs. High school students are already volunteering for outstanding citizen projects to put on their resume.
Many parents micromanage their every child's movement in time to insure maximum productivity toward the goal of competing in the Darwinian marketplace.
Millennials and Hyper-Competition
Millennials may provide a turning point in this hyper-competition. Unable to buy a house or even pay off their student loans, they may be creating new ways to define themselves based on empathy and cooperation. From this point of view, Fussell's book may be in part outdated.
With a shrinking middle class and a war—both explicit and implicit—on the poor, the idea of class has never been more volatile.
Need for Human Belonging and Being a Member of the Club
Our class standing is also sensitive because Americans use class standing as a primary way of judging others and deciding to accept people into "their pack."
Social Class and American Myth of Equality
And yet another problem of discussing class is that the very idea of class clashes with the American mythology that we are all equal in a democracy that gives everyone "an even playing field."
Looking at stagnant wages, unaffordable housing, a shrinking middle class, the health care crisis, the education crisis in the inner cities, mass incarceration of the poor, the cost of higher education, and the shrinking of desirable jobs and we have a very sensitive issue on our hands when it comes to talking about class.
Social Class and Materialism
A very unsophisticated and low-class way of perceiving class is by judging other people based on their material possessions.
Imagine how people judge us in our cars, which are like a reliable ranking system in class-obsessed America. Notice how Mercedes is the apotheosis (ultimate) in perceived success. Notice how Rolex means “you’ve made it to the top, baby.”
Notice the humility required to drive a Corolla as one works in the pizza delivery service.
Imagine the embarrassment some might feel pulling up to the valet at Cheesecake Factory in their Corolla while they notice all the other cars are of a Teutonic origin and smack of unapologetic opulence and luxury.
The Fearful Middle Class
According to Fussell, the class most inclined to get anxious, "testy or irascible" in the presence of a social class discussion is the middle class or the bourgeois. They feel most vulnerable because they are in a class that is most fluid: They can move up or down.
In contrast, the upper class, often fueled by old money, feels secure in their class status and the proletariat or working class “know they can do little to alter their class identity" because we can infer from Fussell that being low class often results in learned helplessness and a sense of futility.
The two class extremes are more fatalistic while the middle class feels they have a choice in the matter.
Further, we read that proletariats or lower classes have contempt for class aspirations. As Fussell writes, “Thus the whole class matter is likely to seem like a joke to them—the upper classes fatuous in their empty aristocratic pretentiousness, the middles loathsome in their anxious gentility. "The hell with the rich and the suburbanites. I'm happy with my low-class station in life."
Two. How do the different classes define class differently?
Proletariats, the working class, define class by how much money you make. Sheer materialism is the basis of their class ranking system. They could care less about your vocabulary, manner of speech, education level, taste in clothes and music. It's all about the money.
The middle class says class is a combination of money, education, job type, and manners. The middle class wants to be part of "polite society."
The upper class says class is a matter of refined tastes, aesthetics, insouciant style, and adhering to the rich’s secret codes of conduct (which Fussell will elaborate on later). But for now let us be content to say a truly rich person would never refer to a limousine as a “limo” or even a limousine. Rather, he would say, “The car is here.”
Three. What forces in the digital age bridge the gap between the classes and made some of Fussell's points outdated?
Anyone can have an opinion posted on a blog.
Anyone can post videos on a YouTube channel.
Anyone can engage in self-promotion with the various social media vehicles.
Anyone can “go viral,” which has become a universal metric in judging our relevance.
People of various economic stratums have top-tier smartphones.
In the digital age, job outsourcing has become so great that politicians and media people rarely use the term “middle class” anymore. Now they speak about “average Americans,” suggesting class divisions have changed to Us and The 1%.
Four. Why is social class as an implicit ranking force so prevalent in America?
Fussell writes that in America “we lack a convenient system of inherited titles, ranks, and honors, and each generation has to define the hierarchies all over again.”
How many hits and likes your social media platforms receive could be today’s defined hierarchy of relevance and social esteem.
We create these hierarchical systems, Fussell points out, because it is in our human nature to seek the esteem and admiration of others.
Further, Fussell observes that hell is being neglected or held in contempt. Being seen as irrelevant, not being validated, these are the punishments for being at the bottom of the ranking system. These are the hells to be avoided at all costs.
In a society that sees itself as democratic, we disappear. And by disappearing, we long to reappear by finding distinction.
Distinction is the tool for ascending the class hierarchy.
But a lot of attempts at distinction come across as misguided, needy, even desperate.
Too many selfies, too many Facebook posts, too much self-promotion, and we look desperate to use others to fill up our empty vessels.
Five. What is the dark side of social class in America?
As we see those laughing and gloating above us in their higher classes, those of us looking upward from our lower position, are afflicted with the curse of envy, the rancor and resentment that comes from perceiving others as enjoying life more than we do. They’ve had more than their fair share, and we’ve been short-changed.
Bitterness and rancor ensue.
This bitterness is intensified when we’ve been told that the American Dream affords us social mobility when in fact social mobility is too often the exception and not the rule.
We now know that economics is the number-one factor in determining one’s body weight. Skinny people are conspicuously rich. The obese are conspicuously lower on the economic rung.
The visible divide reinforces class envy.
Another conspicuous class divide is the legal system. People with money go to rehab for drug crimes while the poor go straight to federal prison, and now degraded to felon status, they lose their privileges as American citizens.
America likes to paint the myth of democracy and a “Classless” America, but we very much indeed tied up in the divisions of economic and social class.
Six. How does Fussell define “class”?
Class is a status system based on money, social prestige, and political power.
The class lines are “rigid” and suggest a caste system, Fussell argues.
There are different ways Fussell would divide the classes: “rich and poor; employer and employed, landlord and tenant, bourgeois and proletariat.”
There are gentlemen and there are cads, he writes.
You are either couth or uncouth (uncivilized, uncultured).
There are homeowners and renters.
Fussell explores the possibility of 3 classes: upper, middle, lower.
However, he resolves that there are in fact 9 in the United States of America:
- Top out-of-sight
- Upper
- Upper middle
- Middle
- High proletarian
- Mid-proletarian
- Low proletarian
- Destitute
- Bottom out-of-sight
These nine address the social differences more than the economic ones.
Seven. For Fussell, being rich is no guarantee of being high class. Explain.
Fussell shows more than implicit contempt for the rich when they engage in the following:
People engage in vulgar displays of self-aggrandizement through their accumulation of things.
People with no self-awareness conform to all the clichés of “having made it.”
People rub your nose into their conspicuous consumption.
People define themselves solely by their material wealth and possessions. Such people are called philistines, a very disparaging term.
People rely on their wealth to define their “greatness” while they allow themselves to become humorless, mediocre, and complacent.
Because of their wealth, some people feel entitled to control and bully others who are “less” than they are.
Such people in Fussell’s view (and I agree) are petty, vulgar, narcissistic, small-souled, low-class philistines.
Eight. Why do we know so little of the top class, the out-of-sight rich?
They are literally out-of-sight. They live in stealth. They don’t want to be seen since their privileges are best maintained without rousing the lower classes.
Because we rarely see them, we are unaware of their codes, language, clothing, travel, and even spending habits. Yes, we can generalize that their spending habits are extravagant, but we don’t know how specifically extravagant they are.
Nine. What do the super rich and the super poor have in common?
Both exist in invisible mode. We don’t see them.
Both receive money without working. The rich get rich from stock dividends, interest, and inheritance. The poor get handouts.
Since neither extreme works for their money, they are both rather unemployable.
Ten. What are the distinguishing characteristics of the middle class?
They are inclined to pay each other compliments as a way of reinforcing middle-class standards, values, and aesthetics.
They are the most insecure of all the classes because they constantly fear they may fail in their middle-class performance and go down the social class elevator.
They are obsessed with manners, modesty, and etiquette so as to be perceived as “classy” and “good role models for the community.” For example, a domestic argument wouldn’t hit high decibels; in contrast, a working-class or proletarian argument can escalate into an ear-piercing maelstrom or ruckus.
They are eager to conform to society’s scripts for what constitutes a “decent family” and “achieving the American Dream.”
McMahon Grammar Lesson: Mixed Structure
Mixed construction is when the sentence parts do not fit in terms of grammar or logic.
Once you establish a grammatical unit or pattern, you have to be consistent.
Example 1: The prepositional phrase followed by a verb
Faulty
For most people who suffer from learned helplessness double their risk of unemployment and living below the poverty line.
Corrected
For most people who suffer from learned helplessness, they find they will be twice as likely to face unemployment and poverty.
Faulty
In Ha Jin’s masterful short story collection renders the effects of learned helplessness.
Corrected
In Ha Jin’s masterful short story collection, we see the effects of learned helplessness.
Faulty
Depending on our method of travel and our destination determines how many suitcases we are allowed to pack.
Corrected
The number of suitcases we can pack is determined by our method of travel and our destination.
Mixed Structure 2: Using a verb after a dependent clause
Faulty
When Jeff Henderson is promoted to head chef without warning is very exciting.
Corrected
Being promoted to head chef without warning is very exciting for Jeff Henderson.
Mixed Structure 3: Mixing a subordinate conjunction with a coordinating conjunction
Faulty
Although Jeff Henderson is a man of great genius and intellect, but he misused his talents.
Corrected
Although Jeff Henderson is a man of great genius and intellect, he misused his talents.
Faulty
Even though Ellen heard French spoken all her life, yet she could not write it.
Corrected
Even though Ellen heard French spoken all her life, she could not write it.
Mixed Structure 4: The construction is so confusing you must to throw it away and start all over
Faulty
In the prison no-snitch code Jeff Henderson learns to recognize variations of the code rather than by its real application in which he learns to arrive at a more realistic view of the snitch code’s true nature.
Corrected
In prison Jeff Henderson discovered that the no-snitch code doesn’t really exist.
Faulty
Recurring bouts of depression among the avalanche survivors set a record for number patients admitted into mental hospitals.
Corrected
Recurring bouts of depression among avalanche survivors resulted in a large number of them being admitted into mental hospitals.
Mixed Structure 5: Faulty Predication: The subject and the predicate should make sense together.
Faulty
We decided that Jeff Henderson’s best interests would not be well served staying in prison.
Corrected
We decided that Jeff Henderson would not be well served staying in prison.
Faulty
Using a gas mask is a precaution now worn by firemen.
Corrected
Firemen wear gas masks as a precaution against smoke inhalation.
Faulty
Early diagnosis of prostrate cancer is often curable.
Corrected
Early diagnosis of prostrate cancer is essential for successful treatment.
Mixed Structure 6: Faulty Apposition: The appositive and the noun to which it refers should be logically equivalent
Faulty
The gourmet chef, a very lucrative field, requires at least 10,000 hours of practice.
Corrected
Gourmet cooking, a very lucrative field, requires at least 10,000 hours of practice.
Mixed Structure 7: Incorrect use of the “is when,” “is where,” and “is because” construction
College instructors discourage “is when,” “is where,” and most commonly “is because” constructions because they violate logic.
Faulty
Bipolar disorder is when people suffer dangerous mood swings.
Corrected
Bipolar disorder is often recognized by dangerous mood swings.
Faulty
A torn rotator cuff is where you feel this intense pain in your shoulder that won’t go away.
Corrected
A torn rotator cuff will cause chronic pain in your shoulder.
Faulty
The reason I write so many comma splices is because the complete sentences feel logically related to each other.
Corrected
I write so many comma splices because the complete sentences feel logically related to each other.
Faulty
The reason I ate the whole pizza is because my family was a half hour late from coming home to the park and I couldn’t wait any longer.
Corrected
I ate the entire pizza because I’m a glutton.
In-class exercise: Write a sample of the seven mixed structure types and show a corrected version of it:
One. Verb after a prepositional phrase
Two. Verb after a dependent clause
Three. Mixing a subordinating conjunction (Whenever, when, although, though, to name some) with a coordinate conjunction (for, and, nor, but, or, yet, so)
Four. The sentence is so confusing you have to start over.
Five. Faulty predication
Six: Faulty apposition
Seven. Incorrect use of the “is when,” “is where,” and “is because” construction
Types of Arguments
(I've adapted these ideas from Chapter 3 of How to Write Anything by John J. Ruszkiewicz.)
Know what kind of argument you are writing:
Argument to advance a thesis:
You argue for a thesis as you champion an idea or a cause.
For example, you might argue for eating steamed vegetables three times a day and provide the many benefits of employing such a practice.
Another example would be a writer who argues that the Paleo diet is the most effective way to maintain lean muscle mass.
Another example would be for a writer to argue for water rationing and triple water bills for homeowners who go over their water threshold.
Refutation argument:
You refute an already existing argument or practice, showing point by point why the argument is weak, precarious, or even fallacious (fallacy-laden).
For example, you might refute Civil War reenactments on the grounds that they are white male fantasies based on the infantile hunger for nostalgia, the toxic Kool-Aid of White Supremacy, and the denial of moral accountability for the evils of slavery.
In your refutation, you paint Civil War reenactments as a grotesque pageantry akin to a racist Disneyworld where are all the actors are white and black history has been erased because "it would be too disturbing" to the bogus, idealized world inhabited by the emotionally-arrested aspirants of "the good old Confederate days" and their other shameless displays of morally-bankrupt tomfoolery.
Once you decide on your argument or claim, you must consider finding compelling reasons to support your claim.
Support Your Claim
Without support consisting of data, statistics, reasoning, logic, and refutations to counterarguments, your opinion exists in an abyss or a vacuum. You must develop a considered or educated opinion, which is the result of fearlessly studying the pros and cons of your subject in which you try to minimize your prejudices, biases, and other emotional baggage that might blind you from the truth.
Understand Opposing Claims and Points of View
You don't have an educated or considered opinion until you have been tested by your opponents' strongest arguments. If you can refute those arguments, then you can continue with your claim.
You will also gain credibility with your readers for showing your understanding of your opponents' views.
You will gain even more credibility when you can refute your opponents with assured insouciance rather than infantile hostility. Also choose polite insouciance over hostility as the former is a sign of intellectual superiority; the latter is a sign of juvenile fear and inexperience.
Give Appropriate Sartorial (Clothing Style) Splendor (Writing Style) to Your Arguments
Your argument is the "body" of the essay. Your writing style is the fashion or sartorial choice you make in order to "dress up" your argument and give it power, moxie, and elan (passion).
Here is the same claim dressed up differently in the following two thesis statements:
Plain
Civil War reenactments are racist gibberish that need to go once and for all.
More Dressed Up
Our moral offense to civil war reenactments rests on our understanding that the participants are engaging in nostalgia for the days when the toxic religion of white supremacy ruled the day, that the participants gleefully and childishly erase black history to the detriment of truth, and that on a larger scale, they engage in the mythical revisionism of the Confederacy narratives, hiding its barbaric practices by esteeming racist thugs as if they were innocent and venerable Disney heroes. Their sham is so morally egregious and spiritually bankrupt that to examine its folly in all its shameless variations compels us to abolish the sordid practice without equivocation.
Plain
We need to stop blaming the poor for their poverty.
More Dressed Up
The idea that the rich are wealthy because of their superior moral character and that the poor live in poverty because of their inferior moral character is a glaring absurdity rooted in willful ignorance, the blind worship of money, and an irrational fear of poverty as if it were some kind of contagious disease.
Qualify Your Thesis to Make It More Persuasive and Reasonable
Qualifiers such as the following will make your thesis more bullet-proof from your opponents:
some
most
a few
often
under certain conditions
when necessary
occasionally
Example:
Under most conditions, narcotics should be legalized in order to decrease crime, increase rehabilitation, and decrease unnecessary incarceration.
Examine Your Core Assumptions
Assumptions are the principles and values upon which we base our beliefs and actions.
Claim
Under most conditions, narcotics should be legalized in order to decrease crime, increase rehabilitation, and decrease unnecessary incarceration.
Assumption
Treating drug use as a medical problem that requires rehabilitation is morally superior to relying on incarceration. Some may disagree with this assumption, so the writer will have to defend her assumption at some point in her essay.
Here's a link (with grammar errors) for writing counterarguments and refutations in your essay.
Notice the link, which is from a community college, is riddled with grammar errors. We all make mistakes from time to time, especially on the Internet, but a pattern of errors is disturbing indeed.
McMahon Grammar Exercise: Essential and Nonessential Clauses
Birthdays that land on a Monday are a bummer.
Birthdays, which can be costly, are overrated.
Circle the relative clause and indicate if it’s essential with a capital E or nonessential with a capital N. Then use commas where necessary.
One. I’m looking for a sugar substitute that doesn’t have dangerous side effects.
Two. Sugar substitutes which often contain additives can wreak havoc on the digestive and nervous system.
Three. The man who trains in the gym every day for five hours is setting himself up for a serious muscle injury.
Four. Cars that operate on small turbo engines don’t last as long as non-turbo automobiles.
Five. Tuna which contains high amounts of mercury should only be eaten once or twice a week.
Six. The store manager who took your order has been arrested for fraud.
Seven. The store manager Ron Cousins who is now seventy-five years old is contemplating retirement.
Eight. Magnus Mills’ Restraint of Beasts which is my favorite novel was runner up for the Booker Prize.
Nine. Parenthood which is a sort of priesthood for which there is no pay or appreciation raises stress and cortisol levels.
Ten. I need to find a college that specializes in my actuarial math major.
Eleven. UCLA which has a strong actuarial math program is my first choice.
Twelve. My first choice of car is the Lexus which was awarded top overall quality honors from Consumer Reports.
Thirteen. Mangoes which sometimes cause a rash on my lips and chin area are my favorite fruit.
Fourteen. A strange man whom I’ve never known came up to me and offered to give me his brand new Mercedes.
Fifteen. My girlfriend who was showing off her brand new red dress arrived two hours late to the birthday party.
Sixteen. Students who meticulously follow the MLA format rules have a greater chance at success.
Seventeen. The student who tormented himself with the thesis lesson for six hours found himself more confused than before he started.
Eighteen. There are several distinctions between an analytical and argumentative thesis which we need to familiarize ourselves with before we embark on the essay assignment.
Nineteen. The peach that has a worm burrowing through its rotted skin should probably be tossed in the garbage.
Twenty. Peaches, which I love to eat by the bucketful are on sale at the farmer’s market.
Twenty-one. Baseball which used to be America’s pastime is declining in popularity.
In-Class
Work on your thesis statement and show me.
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