My great grandfather, John, grew up in Norway. He live in a small house with nine siblings. He knew he could not live there for long because the tradition in Norway was the oldest boy would inherit the land of his father. Sadly, John had four older brothers. Therefore, he would never inherit the land and would have to find a different job. He knew he needed to do something to survive in the world, so he got his education. Back then, once a child passed eighth grade, they were considered educated. “Life chances are reflected in measures such as housing, education, and health” (Schaefer 2016:194). At the age of fourteen he had his education done and he left home to work on a fishing boat. As a fisher he lived on a boat for weeks at a time. However, he thought he could do better, so he worked for his oldest brother, who had inherited the farm land from their father. John worked there for a few years until he decided to take a huge chance, he was going to move to America. He had heard rumors about better living conditions, more jobs, and better opportunities. He did not have the money to …show more content…
The Hodnefield’s had a daughter, Marguerite, who John had falled in love with. They got married on March 8th, 1991. They got married in the Little Brown Church in Nashua, Iowa. It was a very small wedding, only the pastor and organist were in attendance. They moved out of her parent’s house to a one hundred and sixty acre farm north of Ellsworth, Iowa. They took two big steps in their life, getting married and owning their own land. This was difficult, especially since they are part of Karl Marx’s proletariat class. The “proletariat is the working class” (Schaefer 2016:184). They were in this class because John had always worked or another person or himself. Even after he had his own land, he was still part of this class because he was not apart of the bourgeoisie class. To be in the bourgeoisie class one need to “own the means of production, such as factories and machinery” (Schaefer 2016:184). Even though John just bought land he did not have any means of production; therefore, he was still in the proletariat class. He had no problem being in this class because he was healthy, had a house, and a new wife. However this life experience only led to