Persuit Of Attention (Book Review)
In the book The Pursuit of Attention written by Charles Derber, Derber describes how social class has a huge impact on how much attention one gets. Many times the only reason people receive as much as attention as they get is because of their social class and/or status. In this book Derber states, "In America, wealth, occupation, and education all significantly affects who gets attention in everyday interactions, with members of privileged groups receiving the most and those in subordinate groups experiencing a certain daily invisibility"(pg58) . This statement proves that people with more wealth and higher status will receive more attention then those in a lower position only because of their class. From my own personal experience I can see that in America the higher your status and wealth the more attention you get. For instance take a charity for an example, a well off person who will donate ten thousand dollars a year apposed to a middle class person who donates one thousand dollars a year most likely will have more attention paid to them because they are helping the charity out more, even though they are both making donations. The wealthy are paid more attention to because more people can benefit from them, then the
A good example of this is our political leaders. This makes these people feel like they feel like they are getting all this attention freely when in reality they are buying it. When I go to visit them in Ohio all eyes are on us, we are the center of attention and everyone is trying to please us. When I was five years old I went to a private all Jewish school. Going there I had one strike against me and that was the color of my skin. Many people can draw attention throw merchandise such as expensive cars, paintings, furniture and jewelry. I agree with this statement because it was been proving right many times. Derber states, "In America, the dominant classes are those which come to control economic, political, and cultural life"(pg59). The people who were donating hundreds or even thousands of dollars we getting there names hung on plaques around the school and having banquet dinners in honor of them. Many of the political leaders that we have in our country are well off before they were put into office and are well off after they leave office, with very few exceptions. This was my first real experience that helped me open my eyes and see who really gets the attention in today's society and why they do get all of the attention. I soon realized I had a second strike against me that I never realized would ever effect me and that was my social class. Reading this book opened my eyes to how serious social class is to Americans. This brings attention to the lack of respect that some people have for them, which puts them down rather then helps them feel a little better about the situation that they are faced with. These things are real big attention getters because it shows how expensive these items are, which once again pretty much shouts out what social class you are apart of.
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Acceptance Essays
