Karl Marx, a German philosopher, and social critic from the nineteenth century states that society is broken down into three economic classes: the aristocracy, the bourgeoisie, and the proletariat. The aristocracy is the traditional notion and nobility of the upper class. For example, it is a society with kings and queens in which their power is build up through the labor of the working class. The bourgeoisie, on the other hand, are middle-class individuals who control factories, business, and other enterprises. Finally, there is the working class known as the proletariat. They do not own or control institutions or political structure like the aristocracy and the bourgeoisie. Flannery O’ Connor’s short story, “Everything That Rises Must Converge”
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According to Donald Hall—hegemony is the system of interlocked institutions, practices, worldviews, expectations, hopes and fears that make the status quo seem natural and unchallengeable. Julian’s mother power is retained by her worldview. In her eyes, she see herself as one of the most influential women in town and believes she is greater than other women. This shows interlocked institutions between the characters. Julian’s mother is stuck with a power in the past; therefore, she is unable to see her reality. This is a way for her to take control and keep her power, in order for her to maintain what her family once had because she fears the loss of her family history. During the 1790s and 1860s he grandfather and her father we both slave owners. She lived in a double stairway house along with her nurse Caroline (O’ Connor 611). Now that house is “rotten and [has] been torn down. Negros were living in it” (O’ Connor 611). To maintain her family’s history she denies and does not seem to realize that she is now living in a new time period the 1880s where slavery does not exist. The world in which the people she saw as less important are now equal to her or even greater than her. In addition to cultural hegemony, the plot of the story is important to
According to Donald Hall—hegemony is the system of interlocked institutions, practices, worldviews, expectations, hopes and fears that make the status quo seem natural and unchallengeable. Julian’s mother power is retained by her worldview. In her eyes, she see herself as one of the most influential women in town and believes she is greater than other women. This shows interlocked institutions between the characters. Julian’s mother is stuck with a power in the past; therefore, she is unable to see her reality. This is a way for her to take control and keep her power, in order for her to maintain what her family once had because she fears the loss of her family history. During the 1790s and 1860s he grandfather and her father we both slave owners. She lived in a double stairway house along with her nurse Caroline (O’ Connor 611). Now that house is “rotten and [has] been torn down. Negros were living in it” (O’ Connor 611). To maintain her family’s history she denies and does not seem to realize that she is now living in a new time period the 1880s where slavery does not exist. The world in which the people she saw as less important are now equal to her or even greater than her. In addition to cultural hegemony, the plot of the story is important to