How Class can Determine Ones Social Identity
             Class is what every person in this country strives for. People spend their entire lives trying to improve their own social stature, and many times end up completely miserable. A person can work their way up a corporate ladder to find in the end that they are completely alone at the top. The only gratification they seek is the payout. Money is not class. Money is something that people confuse with social standing. True, the upper class typically is very well off, but money is not the only thing that makes them upper class. This point is illustrated both, in the novel Black Gangster, by Donald Goines, as well as the hit (no pun intended) HBO show The Sopranos. Two of the main characters, Prince and Tony, are both men of wealth and power, but unfortunately, they both lack class.
             There are two words that can describe Tony Soprano, scum and bag. He is a horrible person and his upper-class lifestyle will be but a moment in his life. His source of income is murder, extortion, and robbery. Obviously, Tony is not really considered by anyone, but himself, as upper class. There is no way the actual upper class will ever accept him. He is their novelty. We see this in an episode where Tony goes golfing with his neighbor and his two friends. His neighbor, who is a doctor, makes his living off of people whom he helps. This, in my mind, can actually be considered class. The doctor's friends, whom also are "real" upper class members, persist on asking Tony mob-type questions, as if he were Al Capone's sidekick. They don't see Tony as one of them. He is a complete outsider and will never, no matter what, be accepted as someone of high social standing. In a way, Tony and the Doctor's crew are like skinny girls having fat friends; it makes them feel better about themselves. I personally think that if Tony made a decent living that resulted from a good education, he would ha...