American Icons on the Obligations of Success
In “To Have and Have Not: Notes on the Progress of the American Class War”, journalist Michael Lind criticizes both the wealthy for their lack of social responsibility and the middle and lower-classes for their apathy-themes that are echoed throughout the history of modern American literature. Lind tells readers that each day, “people in expensive suits continue to quietly go about the work of shifting the center of gravity of wealth and power in the United States from the discounted many to the privileged few.” Lind sites several examples of corruption and injustice within the American culture stating, “In any other democracy, an enraged citizenry probably would have rebelled by now against a national elite that weakens unions, slashes wages and benefits, pits workers against low-wage and immigrant competition-and then informs its victims that the chief source of their economic problems is a lack of ‘high personal diligence.”
An similar version of Lind’s views regarding the obligations of the upper-class can be seen in Benjamin Franklin’s Autobiography and Other Writings in which Franklin writes that individuals have an obligation to use whatever financial, intellectual, or other gifts they have been given to contribute to the greater good. This was a view that Franklin devoted his life to following. Like many of the upper-class individuals of his time, Franklin employed servants. However, he was always considerate of those less fortunate than himself-whether he was offering a poor woman a shilling to sweep the street in front of his house or going door-to-door to build support for a new community hospital or library. In addition, Franklin made frequent use of his scientific mind to improve the lives of those around him with minimal regard for his own personal financial gain. For example, when Franklin is offered the opportunity to patent the stove he invented he declines for the same reasons he later failed to patent many of his other inventions. “That as we enjoy great advantages from the inventions of others, we should be glad of the opportunity to serve others by any invention of ours, and this we should do freely and generously,” Franklin wrote.
In “Cora Unashamed”, Langston Hughes illustrates the ideas of both Lind and Franklin by exploring the complex relationship between the oppressed and their oppressors through an eloquent description of the life of Cora Jenkins and the hardships she is forced to endure at the hands of her employer. Cora, an African-American servant, has worked for the Studevant family since she quit school in the eighth grade, yet they have little understanding of her as a person. Unlike Franklin, the Studevant family is not concerned with their servant’s ambitions or improving her quality of life. They are unsympathetic when Cora’s only child dies of whopping cough. However, Cora is grief-stricken when Jessie, the youngest Studevant daughter, passes away. In short, the Studevant family treats Cora as though she were no more than a piece of property-and her economic dependence forces her to accept this injustice until she reaches her personal breaking point. Hughes wrote, “The Studevants thought they owned her, and they were perfectly right: they did. There was something about the teeth in the trap of economic circumstance that kept her in their power practically all of her life-in the Studevant kitchen, cooking; in the Studevant parlor, sweeping; in the Studevant backyard, hanging clothes.”
In William Dean Howells’ The Rise of Silas Lapham, self-made businessman Silas Lapham is more economically independent than Cora Jenkins, but is nevertheless oppressed by the strange social customs of those who are “old money.” Mrs. Corey in particular is determined to keep the Lapham family out of the upper-class social circle. She and her husband organize a dinner party to discourage their son Tom from associating with the Laphams’ youngest daughter Irene. Of the dinner party, Mr. Corey states, “It would be the best way of curing Tom of his fancy, if he has one. He has been seeing her with the dangerous advantages which a mother knows to give her daughter in the family circle, and has no means of comparing her with other pretty girls.” After receiving the invitation Silas and his family attempt to learn the complex etiquette of the upper-class by purchasing a guidebook. However, the Coreys’ offer Silas wine at the party-even though they know he is not accustomed to drinking alcohol-and make minimal efforts to include Irene and her mother in the night’s activities.
Like Silas Lapham, protagonist Lily Bart in Edith Wharton’s The House of Mirth fails to achieve her aspirations of joining the upper-class social circle. Wealthy pleasure-seekers seduce the middle-class Lily into living far beyond her modest means-leading her down a spiral of depression, poverty, and death. Lily’s “friends” repeatedly encourage her dangerous goal of entering the upper-class social circle through a well-planned marriage and betray her trust to advance their own motives. Grace Stepney, Lily’s cousin, even manages to cheat her out of a substantial inheritance by spreading false accusations about her behavior with local men. Lily’s obsession with material passions and social status leaves her unable to reclaim either her inheritance or her reputation. One of the few people who truly cares for Lily is Seldon, but even he is too self-absorbed to stop her demise. When Seldon discovers Lily’s body at the end of the novel, he is filled with regret but blames societal forces-and not his own behavior-for the unhappy event. Wharton writes, “He saw that all the conditions of life had conspired to keep them apart; since his very detachment from the external influences which swayed her had increased his spiritual fastidiousness and made it more difficult for him to live and love uncritically.”
All citizens of a democratic society such as America-regardless of financial status-have an obligation to ensure the welfare of others. Such prominent American writers as Lind, Franklin, Hughes, Howells, and Wharton have explored the consequences of the failure to acknowledge this basic truth-creating timeless works of literature in the process.
