Tamar Lewin's Analysis

Tamar Lewin’s article, Up from the Holler: Living in two worlds, at Home in Neither, is an account of the ascent of a young girl named Della Mae Justice from lower class to middle class as she grows up to become a successful lawyer. Justice comes from a poor family with minimal life chances for favorable living conditions and a better future with opportunities for advancement. Her family lived in a small house located in East Kentucky. Her mother was mentally ill and her step father was a truck driver. Her lower social class accounted for her poor living conditions and thus, she ended up in foster care for 9 months. However, she was rescued from poverty by her cousin Joe and his wife who took in Della Mae and raised her and encouraged her to …show more content…
Her progress from lower class to middle class through the acquisition of higher Education is an example of upward vertical mobility which also demonstrates how education influences social class and improves life chances. The fact that Della could attain a higher social position in the stratification system as compared to her parents is an example of upward intergenerational mobility. Her higher-ranked occupation as compared to her parents exemplifies the concept of occupational mobility. Della Mae had a well-established and somewhat luxurious life in Lexington and worked for the largest law firm there. However, she and her husband moved back to Della’s home town, Pikeville when they took custody of Della Mae’s niece and nephew who had been previously living in foster care. Della Mae at this point changes her life plans, her goals to become partner in the law firm take a backseat as she takes the role of guardian and leaves no stone unturned to ensure that her niece and nephew have better life chances and available resources to flourish and fit in the middle class than she had. Her husband could get a better job in Pikeville as Executive Director in the center of abused children, and Della Mae started working for her cousin’s law firm where she had a more flexible schedule allowing family time. This demonstrates how gender impacts and restricts social mobility for women because they must care for others. Della Mae Justice’s experience highlights life chances and social mobility in many ways, but also depicts how the social class a person comes from can determine how far they can go. In Della Mae Justice’s words “The class a person is born into, is a starting point on a continuum, if your goal is to become on a national scale, a very important