Essay Sample about Social Status and Class

The world has revolved around social class for a long time. People want to show everyone that they are high class, even when they aren’t. Social status and class affect how we see the world and how we treat others. Everyone seems to believe that only high-class people are snobs, but people from any class can be.

Social status and class affect the lens through which we see the world. Through this lens, we see people who have and people who don’t. This pins everyone against each other. It’s like a race. People want to prove that they are better off than others because they have a higher quality of life. Due to this, we know that a snob can come from any class. A snob is defined as someone who over-admires high social class and status. In the article At the Top of the Bottom in the Segregated South, David Lewis talks about how his life was while growing up in the segregated South. His parents were both teachers. His father was the principal of his city's high school, which was an all-black school. He was at the top of the lower class. He knew that he had to live disciplined because he was being judged by both sides. He says “We were people of consequence in the eyes of both ‘races,’ a family who lived… under the discipline of a double mandate: … social uplift in the community of color; and to serve… as hired professionals of the Jim Crow order” (“At the Top of the Bottom in the Segregated South”). This shows that snobs can come from any class, as even people from the lower class were criticizing him.

There are many lower class people who want to be part of the upper class, which causes them to be snobby to those others because they want to be from a higher status. Myrtle is a prime example of this. She longs to be part of the upper class. In chapter 2 when Tom, Jordan, and Nick visit, she pretends that she is a high-class person during the party. She changes her dress and the way she acts. Nick observes “the intense vitality that had been so remarkable in the garage was converted into an impressive hauteur” (Fitzgerald ). We can also see this with the nanny in the article My Nanny was a Dreadful Snob. The nanny in the article is not high class. She is still a snob to those who are lower class than the people she works for and doesn’t want to associate with them. When she speaks to children of higher class families, she tries her best to make good relationships with them. She wants to make a good impression of herself and be a part of the upper class. When the cold she nannies questions why she treats the other child like this, she says“ I don’t know- he’s so common” (My nanny was a dreadful snob). We see in both of these cases that people from any class can be snobs, and try to associate themselves with a higher class and status.

In opposition, some people believe that only the high-class can be snobs. The higher class has the means to show off, and the lower class doesn’t. Although it is true that only higher-class people have the means to be snobby, this view is proven wrong by the nature of classism. Classism is prejudice against those of lower classes. People don’t want to judged or discriminated against because of their class and social status. Classism pins everyone against each other. In the lower classes, people want to show others that they have more than others. They want to show that their status is higher, and they are more respectable. In turn, we see that anyone from any class can be a snob. 

Overall, we see the not only wealthy, high-class people can be snobs. We can also see that social class and status change the way we view the world and treat others. Hopefully, in the near future social class will not matter as much as it has for the past years and we can see others for their true worth.