In academic circles, social class describes the relationships between individual agents and groups as they struggle through social hierarchies. Weber famously defined the social stratification as a three-component theory frequently adopted my sociocultural scientists. Weber viewed class as the composite of three distinct elements, the economic relationship of an individual to the market, his or her status in regards to non-economic capital like ed

The glass ceiling that pervades American life defines not only one's education, but all of the aspects of one's place in, relation to, and understanding of social class. In the capitalist marketplace, these correlations are more exaggerated and play a more defining role in everyday life. Louis Breindeis argues that this dynamic undermines the egalitarian precepts of a democracy. "You can have wealth in the hands of a few, or democracy. But you cannot have both."3 Collins and Yeskel purport that the recent atrocities in the Gulf Coast bring the issue of social class and its national construction and relevance to the forefront of concern. As the horror of Katrina and ensuing flood wiped the poor out of New Orleans, the financial distinctions between those who could afford to escape and those who had little choice but to stay became clear to almost all Americans right away.

The Rivers boys grew up in the Chicago ghetto, in a family of six with a largely absent father. Their nearly-single mother struggles to provide some semblance of a normal home life for her children, but the criminality and pathology that pervades her inner-city neighborhood deprives the children of the innocence those not financially disadvantaged witness. While critiques of the welfare-system purport that children like these have every opportunity to make use of the American education system to attain their dreams, the very fundamentals of their life are put into a different light that would prevent the easy attainment of a better life. As children of a specific social class, they witness a specific societal texture; that fabric does not allow for social buoyancy like that of middle class children, their schools are understaffed and friends' lives full of depressing trauma. They do not live a childhood that builds towards a future success; they spend their early years coping.

These early lessons play an important role in defining their role in society; while it was not their choice to be born into a Chicago ghetto, that stigma stays with them in all other parts of American society. Despite their own goodwill, Lafyette's struggle to prevail over his difficulties and exceed at school, for instance, they are branded as members of a specific class; even to Kotlowitz, they are the symbol for a group. As they grow older, these difficulties to not decrease; popular films like "Hoop Dreams" make clear the struggle that boys who have been socially cast in a specific class face even through college. William and Arthur are the stories of success: they play basketball in college, they want to go professional; popular focus is not on their successes, though, it is on the class into which they were born and out of which they have little mobility.

"To be connected to any one factor, such as gender or class or race, can make life difficult. To be connected to multiple factors can guarantee limite

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1951
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)