The Wallses were kept in their social class quite simply because they were discouraged by a social ladder with a few missing rungs. After having researched social class, its causes and effects it is evident that much of it is psychological. This is reflective in the book. It follows that social class is like quicksand. The lower you get in social class usually indicates that you aren't very educated and that you make less money. To struggle out of that makes one sink mentally because in many cases the chasms between the socioeconomic levels of class such as lower class to middle class can be too big a gap to bridge. This seemed to be the case with the Wallses. They were so settled in their rut of lower class that it drove them to alcoholism and depression instead of determination and drive.
In this memoir the parents of the given household acted as children. I was having a discussion with friends of mine the other day about some of our own childlike behaviors. I elaborated about how I was one of those people who will be all ready to clean their room, garbage bag in hand, and then when my parents come in as I'm bent over to pick up my first reeses peanut butter cup wrapper and yell "clean your room," I'll drop the bag and go on the computer not to clean my room for a few more weeks. If I'm tucking myself in and my parents come in screaming "GO TO BED!" I'll untuck myself and wait an hour or two. I do it out of spite for what is expected of me.
That is one reason why social class is so hard to break out of. People are trying to start a momentum for themselves and other people pushing that momentum is only vexing. It's a jarring interruption to your own personal drive. It's unnecessary and frowned upon with indignance.
Furthermore, people will rise to the expectations set on them. I firmly believe that the reason I consider myself intelligent today is because I was expected to succeed in the advance reading group in first grade. I was put in advanced math all the way up through 6th grade, when I was removed from advanced math my math grade started to slip to Cs and Ds from As and Bs. Efied math but a B in AP US Government. I've risen to what is expected of me. It is not because I am the best actor that the performances I give are of a high calibre. It is because I am expected to be the best actor that I put the work in so that my performances are of the best quality. People rise to the expectations given to them.
The Wallses suffered from being thought less of throughout the book. They didn't think enough of themselves. They mained in their rut because that's what they thought themselves capable of. Social class is not an insermountable circumstance but rather a glass ceiling that can be easily shattered with some positive thinking.
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You know I never really thought about it that way Cages. That is so true...especially with the schooling. As soon as kids are put into honors math in 5th grade they are automatically convinced that they are good at math and will remain good at math. I really liked the way you put that.
As soon as Jeanette and the other children were old enough to realize that they can stop thinking of themselves as being poor and expecting themselves to live this poor life, they were able to break out of it. They used each other as support systems to hold high expectations for one another so that they were able to become the adults they did.
I definitely agree with your conclusion that social classes are much influenced by the standards and expectations that are placed on them. I too feel that much of what I have accomplished as an individual and as a student has been determined by the expectations placed on me. There are so many times when I look back on my life with some regret and a tiny whit of resentment toward my parents for having not challenged me as much as I think I could have been. Granted, there is such a thing as being over challenged. Those of us that are in Mock Trial can attest to that, as this years case is about the tragic death of an athlete whose parents arguably placed lethal expectations on him. Anyway, in regards to social classes as a whole, evidence can be repeatedly found supporting the conjecture that higher expectations = higher achievement.
However, I am not convinced that this is the case for the Walls family. The family did not at all seem to consider themselves of lower value than anyone else. In fact, Rex though highly of both his wife and kids. He called his Jeanette and her siblings, "geniuses" and the "smartest damn kids." The family denied every stereotypical expectation placed on them. When one man referred to Jeanette's father as the "town drunk", Jeanette acts extremely offended, obviously because she doesn't believe that comment at all. There are many examples of how the Walls family denied and defied societal boundaries. I think that such "Glass ceilings" may have had some affect on the family, but in my opinion, not as much as they may have had on the average impoverished family.
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