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British Lit, Gender Roles and Women's Existence & Social…

- - - - Every major character articulates their version either of what makes life meaningful or of the challenge of pursuing meaning.
        
        For Michel, the path seems clear: Make money, find a good partner, get a good home, have children, climb the ladder, and enjoy the fruits of a successful life: “Look: you know what is the true difference between these people and me? They don’t want to move forward, they don’t want to have nothing better than this. But I’m always moving forward, thinking of the next thing.” (32)
        
        For Leah and Natalie, however, authenticity is elusive.
        
        From childhood on, the two of them struggle to pinpoint who they really are, and what they want.
        
        Most poignantly, their continual awareness of the fact that they don’t know the answers to life’s questions only increases their anxiety and disaffection.
        
        Ambition, many characters discover, adds pressure to the already chaotic world of urban life.
      - NW directly demonstrates that ostensible success may not be a path to fulfillment at all.
        
        After having children, Natalie experiences a double-sided sense of guilt, as many contemporary women juggling family and career might.
        
        On one hand, she feels anxious about acknowledging her family in her career world, and on the other hand, she feels as though her career takes time, attention, and energy and that she should be dedicated to her children.
  - - - The inner workings of all the characters reveal a chronic sense of isolation amongst all the individuals, despite the tribalism that social classes in England suggest.
        
        During her planning for the party, Clarissa includes and rejects members of her social network seemingly haphazardly, revealing her true ambivalence towards most of the people she knows.
      - Clarissa does not enjoy the party she has so carefully planned, worrying that the event is a failure despite the large number of guests who attend.
        
        Much of the time the reader spends following her through her social escapades is spent lost in her thoughts, which implies that other characters are spending similar time in her company.
      - In the character of Septimus Warren Smith, the author explores her own experiences with despair and impaired mental health and its impact on loneliness: “Septimus Warren Smith, aged about thirty, pale-faced, beak-nosed, wearing brown shoes and a shabby overcoat, with hazel eyes which had that look of apprehension in them which makes complete strangers apprehensive too. The world has raised its whip; where will it descend?”(12)
        
        Septimus represents the plight of the working class, who live in close quarters yet experience small comfort from the situation.
        
        The smallness of Septimus and Rezia’s flat emphasizes what little flexibility they have within their social positions, though Septimus can earn enough money to pay for medical treatment on Harley Street, the road in London where private medical specialists set up offices and run their expensive practices.
- - - - Hardy juxtaposes nature and society in order to argue that the natural world is generally benevolent and self-regulating, while human society is cruel, destructive, and full of falsehoods and hypocrisy.
        
        Metaphors comparing her physical attributes to natural phenomena heighten the connection, such as when Alec mentions her “holmberry lips” (61).
        
        Because of Tess’s origins on a country farm and her work in various agricultural labors, those around her often perceive her as “a fresh and virginal daughter of Nature” (156).
      - Tess finds refuge in the natural world after her traumatic encounter with Alec.
        
        She will only leave her house to creep into the woods, where no one judges her since “she ha[s] been made to break an accepted social law, but no law known to the environment” (98).
        
        This contrast between the natural and societal responses to Tess’s illicit experience of sexuality deepens with the birth of her child; from a social perspective, this is incredibly shameful, but from a natural perspective, it is unremarkable and even positive.
      - Tess believes in the possibility of renewal and regeneration, she is ultimately stymied by more rigid social conventions. In the eyes of society, she remains a fallen woman.
        
        Angel explains that one reason he cannot stay with Tess is because of the potential impact on any future children: “[T]hink of wretches of our flesh and blood growing up under a taunt” (262-63).
        
        The natural cycles would suggest that Tess and Angel would heal and restore themselves if they had more children, but Angel is obsessed with the possible social shame those kids would face.
      - The sacrificial imagery present just before Tess’s death (stretches out on an ancient stone believed to be associated with pagan sacrifices) solidifies the novel’s message: As a child of nature, Tess must ultimately be sacrificed to social norms lest she reveal just how arbitrary these expectations are.
  - - - NW declares its connection to geography in its very title, which refers to the actual postal code for northwest London.
      - The novel makes references to street names, bridges, parks, buildings, and map directions, most of which highlight real places: “The Cock Tavern. MacDonalds. The old Woolworths. The betting shop. The State Empire. Willesden Lane. The cemetery. Whoever said that these were fixed coordinates to which she had to be forever faithful? How could she play them false? Freedom was absolute and everywhere, constantly moving location.” (397)
        
        The geographic references are a backdrop against which characters’ identities, motivations, and actions emerge.
      - London spaces are imagined to define people.
        
        Characters at a public pool are arguing, each proudly mentioning where they are from with the implication that some areas of London (like Hackney) are superior to others (like Harlesden).
      - The novel's central conflict is the fight against the notion that a person's origins define who they are, as demonstrated by the various unsuccessful attempts (with differing degrees of success) made by characters like Natalie, Michel, and Leah to leave particular neighborhoods.
      - Open spaces like sidewalks, parks, and public transportation tend to be sites of drama and danger.
        
        Private and indoor sites depict intimate, domestic life.
        
        Since the turmoil that plagues characters like Leah and Natalie throughout the novel is existential, it is hidden even in private spaces for most of the novel—until it all comes out in the end.
  - - - Set on a planet that is changing quickly and won't be able to support human life in the near future due to rising temperatures worldwide and the quick evolution of enormous lizards that hunt people.
      - The central conflict is how the characters are compelled to fight against an increasingly hostile environment, even though some of the major conflicts arise from characters engaging in combat with one another.
      - As Kerans moves into the Ritz Hotel, iguanas, who are constantly present, watch the platoon from the windows of abandoned buildings, while molds and fungi become living components of the ornate and luxurious furnishings.
        
        In this sense, the natural world and the human characters in the book seem to be conspiring against each other.
      - Ballard's account of the sharp rise in global temperatures differs from the current climate change in Earth's history in that it was not caused by human activity.
        
        Something distinctly outside of human control caused the changes to start with solar storms that destroyed the earth's shield against solar radiation.
        
        In this sense, it presents people as the defenseless victims of a shifting climate, struggling to adjust to their new surroundings.
      - The way the characters discuss the science they do serves to further emphasize the idea that nature is outside of human control.
        
        Dr. Bodkin and Kerans should just witness the numerous changes brought about by the shifting climate, instead of trying to stop or undo what is happening.
        
        When Kerans learns that the platoon has been ordered by Camp Byrd officials to permanently relocate north, it signifies a concession made by humans to the natural world because it implies that they have been forced to give up the city.
      - Their only chance of surviving the changes brought about by nature is to be at its mercy.
        
        When Strangeman shows up in London, the characters' belief that they have no power over nature is called into question.
        
        It's interesting to note that Strangeman doesn't seem to suffer from the same nightmares that Kerans, Dr. Bodkin, and Beatrice do—dreams in which humans are subjugated and eventually disappear from the planet.
        
        He doesn't appear to be impacted by the significant changes that have occurred in the surrounding environment.
        
        Strangeman stands for the only character who really faces nature and thinks he can change it.
        
        Strangeman demonstrates his ability to actively alter the natural world to his desired state by draining the lagoon that covers a portion of London.
        
        After Strangeman drains the lagoon, he restores London to a state where buildings and other man-made structures rule the surroundings.
        
        The characters get the chance to experience life 75–100 years ago, when humans ruled the planet, during the brief period of time the lagoon is empty.
        
        Dr. Bodkin and Kerans soon put this state to the test. Dr. Bodkin tries in vain to blow open one of Strangeman's dams, and Kerans eventually succeeds where Dr. Bodkin failed. Dr. Bodkin and Kerans believe that acknowledging nature's supremacy over humanity is the only path to survival in the new world.
        
        The future they envision, one in which people acknowledge their inferior status in the kingdom of life, is directly threatened by draining the cities.
        
        By killing Strangeman, re-flooding the lagoon, and moving south, Kerans demonstrates his insistence that the laws of nature govern development rather than those established by humans, thereby casting doubt on the notion that mankind could ever hope to genuinely control nature.
        
        Humans must acknowledge their own inferiority and realize that the whole "man versus nature" argument is absurd since nature will ultimately win out regardless of any other living form, including humans, that is unable to keep up.
- - - - Emma
        
        A more serious observation and concern belies the comedy in order to expose the truth of a situation or a person’s character.
        
        Humor works for and against Emma in her dealings with Miss Bates.
        
        At Box Hill when Emma publicly jokes about Miss Bates’ garrulousness, Mr. Knightley is more direct in his censure of her use of humor.
        
        He states that given the disparity in the two women’s wealth and status, Emma’s joke bears the unintended weight of a public humiliation for Miss Bates and could even set a dangerous precedent for how others in Highbury treat her.
        
        While Emma regains her ability to laugh and mock after this incident, her increased compassion and self-awareness causes her to choose her targets more carefully.
        
        Following this reproach, Emma’s “thoughtless spirits” and “pride of the moment” are corrected by mortification and tears, as her mockery of another reflects worst upon herself (323).
  - - - Through his depiction of guilt and repentance, Hardy explores the discrepancy between the relative morality of different actions and the subjective experience of guilt.
        
        Prince the horse's death is the first event that causes a character to feel deeply guilty. Given that "Tess was not skilled in the management of a horse," John Durbeyfield should have been the one driving to the market, and as a result, the death is the result of an unjustified situation (37).
        
        Tess immediately blames herself and “regard[s] herself in the light of a murderess” (40).
        
        Her sense of guilt is so exaggerated that she endures harassment and possibly rape at the hands of Alec d’Urberville because she feels she must atone for this accident.
      - Tess shows a similar exaggerated sense of guilt when she tries to deny herself marriage to Angel.
        
        Tess will attempt to defend her past by telling Angel, “I was a child—a child when it happened! I knew nothing of men” (251), but such outbursts contrast with her overall attitude of resignation; she sees herself as an essentially guilty and shameful person who does not deserve to be happy with her true love.
      - Tess’s reaction to committing murder represents perhaps the most striking gap between guilt and the actual magnitude of an action.
        
        She shows no repentance whatsoever about having taken the life of another human being.
        
        After years of carrying shame for actions that were not her fault, Tess seems to exist outside of guilt and repentance even when she violates one of the most central laws of society.
        
        She calmly reports to Angel, “‘I have killed him.’ A pitiful white smile lit her face as she spoke” (407).
        
        Tess moves fully into the more naturalistic and pagan perspective she has long been associated with and ceases to operate within social rules at all.
- - - - Gradgrind emphasizes the virtues of facts. He contends that all the students in the classroom will ever need is knowledge of the facts.
        
        Gradgrind uses this idea as the cornerstone of his personal philosophy. He has developed a distinct worldview that places a premium on self-interest and pragmatism and disapproves of whimsy, fantasy, and flights of fancy.
        
        This philosophy is taught to all students at Gradgrind's school, which offers the only public education available in the area on the grounds that students must follow Gradgrind's teachings in order to receive an education.
        
        Gradgrind affirms his privileged status in society by instilling in kids his worldview. He raises a generation of kids in Coketown to adopt his worldview by using his resources and wealth to promote his ideology.
        
        The powerful and wealthy create a self-serving, self-gratifying philosophy, which they then demand be taught to all children.
      - Whimsy, fancy, and imagination are out of place in the industrialized world that is obsessed with profit.
        
        For example, Sissy gets in trouble at school for smiling at a picture of a horse.
        
        Though she has a lively imagination, Gradgrind doesn't think this is appropriate for a child her age.
        
        She is stupid and unteachable in his opinion.
        
        His children are not happy. Louisa is deeply unhappy and emotionally cut off from the outside world..
        
        Tom's education has taught him the importance of self-interest. Instead of committing his life to labor, he discovers that, as the affluent son of a prominent family, he is free to consume alcohol, smoke, and gamble to his heart’s content.
        
        Gradgrind’s story is a lesson in the importance of sentimentality.
- - - - Characters, like Colonel Riggs and Strangeman, think that civilization will continue much as it has in the past, only in cities located north of the Arctic Circle.
      - Some characters think that human civilization in this new world is doomed to fail.
        
        Given that they believe that the birthrate is declining and that global temperatures are rising too quickly for humans to survive, Kerans and Dr. Bodkin have a decidedly fatalist outlook on the state of the planet.
      - The central conflict is driven by this tension between the possibility of renewal and doom, as many of the characters struggle not only to prevent annihilation but also to understand what birth and renewal might actually mean for the human race given the current situation.
      - References to biblical imagery are often used to depict the conflict between birth and doom.
        
        Kerans laughs to himself about how soon a new Adam and Eve will find themselves in a terrifying Garden of Eden, and Strangeman's African followers "crucify" Kerans, despite the fact that Kerans survives the ordeal.
        
        The idea that this Adam and Eve will be the last humans on Earth, rather than the ones in charge of reviving the population, makes the imagery of Adam and Eve in the new Garden of Eden incredibly fatalist.
        
        Being the final woman in London, Beatrice takes on the characteristics of Eve, while Kerans takes on the characteristics of Adam.
        
        The fact that the two haven't conceived a child despite an apparent three-year sexual relationship lends credence to the fatalist symbolism of these new Adam and Eve figures.
      - Dr. Bodkin and Kerans consider the buildings to be "womb-like," especially the submerged planetarium, and the water to be "amniotic."
        
        Dr. Bodkin chooses to view it not as the thing that is destroying human civilization, but as something that gives life.
        
        This implies that the world and its different species are going through a period of change that is more like a gestation period leading up to the eventual beginning of a new chapter in the history of life on Earth than a period of death.
        
        It implies that life is embryonic and ever-evolving, including humans, and that the world serves as a womb for all life.
      - Dr. Bodkin, Kerans, and Beatrice choose to see the changes in the world as a process of rebirth and regeneration that may or may not have anything to do with the human race, instead of lamenting the end of the human race.
        
        Embracing the innate urge to relocate south is as much an acceptance of one's own mortality as it is of an evolutionary renewal.
  - - - Emma’s true instinct when it comes to the marriages of people she cares about is to maintain social distinction.
      - Emma wishes to subvert the status quo, both in her notions of her marital prospects and those of others. She resolves to never marry and to refashion the stereotype of the cross old maid into something more genteel and consequential.
        
        Given her wealth, status, and comfort, Emma sees herself as an exception to the patriarchal society’s rule that a woman must marry.
        
        She tells Harriet that “it is poverty only which makes celibacy contemptible,” adding that “a single woman, of good fortune, is always respectable, and may be as sensible and pleasant as any body else” (72)
      - A family’s wealth and social standing rose and fell according to the marriages of its children.
        
        While men earned a living, either from property, through a profession, or by trade, women had a fortune, or dowry, which was given to their bridegroom on marriage.
        
        Established gentry families who have had their properties for generations such as the Woodhouses and the Knightleys generally sought to retain their nobility by marrying families of similar origin, whereas those who made their wealth in trade and thus had lower social standing often sought to rise through marriage.
        
        Status-seeking Mr. Elton regards Emma’s plans to marry him to Harriet Smith as a debasement that would threaten his precarious hold on wealth and gentility.
      - The novel adopts a tone that is more realistic than romantic, illustrating the challenges faced by marriages in which there are differences in status and income
        
        Miss Churchill “had resolution enough to pursue her own will in spite of her brother, but not enough to refrain from unreasonable regrets at that brother’s unreasonable anger, nor from missing the luxuries of her former home” (10)
        
        In polite society, secret engagements were frowned upon; the toxicity of this one is demonstrated by Jane's declining health and enduring sense of shame.
- - - - Women had very limited social roles during the Victorian era depicted.
      - The expectations placed on women during that era are demonstrated by the patriarchal beliefs held by men such as Bounderby.
        
        Bounderby uses Gradgrind, Louisa's father, to set up their marriage. Louisa is thirty years his junior.
        
        He sees Louisa as his property, just like his factory or his country estate. He anticipates Louisa to be submissive, quiet, and committed to him in this regard.
        
        He does not think she will love him because he has an indifferent, cold perspective on life and feels that sentimental, abstract ideas are best left to stupid women.
        
        The way Louisa is treated in her marriage is a reflection of how she is viewed by society, serving as an analogy between the two.
        
        Like the rest of her society, Louisa has little agency in her marriage. She is limited in her ability to express herself and lacks actual power.
        
        She is therefore miserable. Her upbringing, social exclusion, and living in a patriarchal culture all work against her happiness.
        
        In this society, women frequently aren't able to make positive changes in their lives.
      - Rachael's purpose is to demonstrate how poverty makes society's mistreatment of women worse.
        
        She has to deal with all of Louisa's problems and the issues that come with working for a meager wage in a dangerous, industrialized society, which puts her at the crossroads of poverty and patriarchy.
        
        Rachael complies with every social norm. She is a hard worker and compassionate individual.
        
        Blackpool praises her work as a nurse and her quiet, dedicated manner, comparing her to an angel.
        
        Rachael fulfills the expectations of society, but despite this, she continues to live in poverty and loses the man she loves.
        
        There is no reward in society for following the rules or for taking care of her. A woman experiences pain even when she follows social norms.
        
        The unspoken destiny of Mrs. Blackpool provides insight into the actual dangers women encounter in a patriarchal culture.
  - - - Continual reflections of diversity, ever-present in cosmopolitan London, and an increasingly obvious fact of contemporary life. Different cultures and identities intersect.
        
        Characters experience the collision of cultures in their interactions with each other in this space.
        
        Leah and Michel are a mixed-race couple, and as a child, Keisha is fascinated by comparisons between her working-class home and the middle-class Hanwells'.
        
        Residents from a diverse range of cultural backgrounds (Irish, French Algerian, Jamaican, Anglo-Saxon) and socio-economic standings (poor, working-class, and middle-class) live in the same area.
      - The intersections are an irrevocable aspect of personal identity for the characters, some intersections are beyond the characters’ control.
        
        Some of the ways that Frank and Natalie differ, are attributed to the fact that Frank is mixed-race and born in Italy to a relatively well-off mother, while Natalie’s family has Jamaican roots and is decidedly working-class in London.
      - Other identities are acquired through the life choices that characters make.
        
        Natalie decides to pursue college, study law, and accept a job back in London, and must juggle both a new economic identity and the continual reminders of her origins, in addition to trying to negotiate between her multiple identities as a career woman and mother.
      - The characters’ identities clash with the realities of life in London, despite the city’s diversity.
        
        Aside from socio-economic challenges (as when Natalie is said by Nathan and others to have forgotten her roots by becoming financially successful), these conflicts often center on race and nationality.
        
        Leah’s mother, Pauline, dismissively refers to Michel as Nigerian, even though he is French Algerian, seeming to equate all of Africa with one nation.
        
        Characters like Nathan express frustration with being reduced to their racial identity (he expresses that as a black man, he has been viewed as nothing but a criminal since age 10).
        
        When Felix is on the train, a pregnant woman asks him to get his “friends” (two other men across the aisle) to free a seat for her, assuming that since they are all black, they must know each other.
      - Continual reflections of diversity, ever-present in cosmopolitan London, and an increasingly obvious fact of contemporary life. Different cultures and identities intersect.
- - - - Both the school and the governess system are designed to give girls just enough knowledge and accomplishments to enable them to make a socially advantageous marriage.
      - Both Emma’s well-intentioned but ultimately relaxed education with Miss Taylor, and Harriet’s at Miss Goddard’s boarding school, are characterized by a lack of rigor.
    - - She discovers that her education from Mr. Knightley is the most important aspect of her life, she learns about the kind of person she wants to be.
      - She is less concerned with being superficially the center of attention than with knowing herself and fulfilling her duties in society.
    - - This was the outcome of her “living constantly with right-minded and well-informed people” and having access to mentors who would maximize her "lighter" abilities, including her musical aptitude (137)
- - - - The novel presents the past with just as much life and richness as the present day, suggesting that the past holds a very real quality for the person recalling it.
    - - The past is when Clarissa is happiest when she had her most deeply moving experiences, and so in her fifties, Clarissa spends a lot of time reflecting on the past, with an awareness that the end of her life may be approaching (passing of time): “Peter Walsh and Joseph Breitkopf went on about Wagner. She and Sally fell a little behind. Then came the most exquisite moment of her whole life passing a stone urn with flowers in it. Sally stopped; picked a flower;kissed her on the lips. The whole world might have turned upside down! The others disappeared; there she was alone with Sally.”(31)
    - - In important ways, Clarissa's illness and the war both made ideas of mortality more prominent in her memory.
    - - His emotions in the present moment are less defined, and he still does not know exactly how he feels about Clarissa.
      - His memories of the last summer they shared at Bourton are colorful and warm, and the complex nature of his interactions with young Clarissa makes him question less complicated interactions with Daisy, the woman he currently seeks to marry.
    - - Evans appears to him in shadows that are as real to Septimus as the conversations he has with his wife, Rezia.
      - Ultimately, the past catches up with Septimus, and his doctors cannot help him escape the memories that plague him so frequently.
- - - - Coketown is engulfed in industrialization.
        
        The sky is colored by the smoke from factories, which dominate the skyline and change the landscape due to industrial demands.
        
        The leaders of the community are the owners of the factories; men like Gradgrind and Bounderby control the schools and set the curriculum for the kids.
        
        A small aristocracy of wealthy businessmen ruled over the impoverished workers in the new factories due to the urgency of industrialization and the quick speed of societal change.
        
        While wealthy and powerful men like Bounderby and Harthouse can marry, separate, and seduce partners on a whim, Blackpool finds it difficult to make ends meet and is therefore unable to leave his wife and marry Rachael.
      - Industrialization made the gap between the rich and the poor more pronounced, highlighting the crippling effects of poverty on the weakest members of society.
      - The poor in an industrialized society suffer greatly from the devastating effects of industrialization on their mental health. The majority of Blackpool and Rachael's time is spent fretting.
        
        The lack of stability or security for the working class is the root of their anxiety. The problems brought on by fast industrialization make it impossible for them to know if they will have enough money to eat.
        
        For Blackpool's wife, the stress was excessive. She turned to alcohol to ease the stress of her low income.
      - The death of Blackpool is directly related to industrialization and poverty. His urgent financial needs force him to leave town, and on the way back to Coketown, he tumbles into the Old Hell Shaft, an abandoned mine pit.
        
        He sustains fatal injuries from the fall; metaphorically, he is killed by an industrialization artifact and on the verge of death by himself.
        
        The effects of industrialization are already apparent. Blackpool passes away without ever getting married to Rachel or becoming wealthy. Men such as him have no way out.
  - - - Indian culture is colonized or co-opted and transmitted from an English point of view several times in the novel.
        
        The colonization of Indian in Karim’s first acting role: Mowgli in The Jungle Book.
        
        The Jungle Book contains an Englishman’s view of Indian stories, so it does not represent an authentic Indian voice.
        
        Through the requirements that Karim wear a loin-cloth and shoe polish and put on a fake “Indian” accent, Karim is forced to mock his Indian heritage.
        
        Haroon notes, white people would dress in shoe polish and mimic African-American speech patterns and body language for comedic effect.
        
        Most of the English people attending the play don’t see the irony or prejudice inherent in such things.
        
        Kureishi exposes English racial hypocrisy, particularly among the educated, artistic upper- and middle classes.
        
        Jamila fears her tutoring by Miss Cutmore was a form of colonization: “Jamila thought Miss Cutmore really wanted to eradicate everything that was foreign in her. ‘She spoke to my parents as if they were peasants,’ Jamila said. She drove me mad by saying Miss Cutmore had colonized her, but Jamila was the strongest-willed person I’d met: no one could turn her into a colony.”(53)
      - Indian culture is colonized through neglect or misunderstanding by English people, as with Margaret and her family.
        
        They believe it’s irrelevant to them. Margaret says that it’s irrelevant to Karim, because he’s only an Englishman. She completely ignores Karim’s patrilineal Indian heritage because Karim was born in England. To her, that’s all there is to identity.
  - - - The novel presents Tess’s fate as tragic and inevitable on the one hand, and utilizes it as a critique of class privilege—in particular, how poverty exposes individuals to exploitation.
        
        Tess is born into a modest family, and her parents’ careless behavior leaves the family very vulnerable.
        
        Before the accident in which Prince dies, Tess insists that she will not go anywhere near the d’Urberville home, and yet as soon as the horse dies, she laments, “[W]hat will mother and father live on now?” (39).
      - The threat of poverty forces Tess to go to the d’Urberville estate and stay there even as she grows more and more uneasy with Alec’s behavior.
        
        Tess’s financial and class position gives her no option other than to endure Alec’s advances.
        
        Alec feels entitled to seduce Tess because of his elevated class; as he tells her, “[W]hat am I, to be repulsed so by a mere chit like you? […] I won’t stand it” (79).
      - After Angel abandons her, financial tensions resurface as a prominent aspect of Tess’s life.
        
        She feels extremely humiliated when Angel's brothers unintentionally make fun of her walking boots, thinking that this will make them reject her due to her lowly social background.
        
        Tess’s shame around her class and financial situation is ironic because the novel refers frequently to the previous majesty of her ancestral family, and yet the lack of readily available assets makes her lineage meaningless.
      - Tess’s financial and class position pairs with her strong sense of responsibility to make her vulnerable to Alec’s advances for a second time.
        
        The irony that Tess actually hails from a much more pedigreed line than Alec reveals the hollowness of such social distinctions, even as those distinctions impact individuals’ lives in material ways.
        
        Tess’s beauty is what attracts Alec’s attention and makes him desire her, but her financial vulnerability is what ultimately allows him to exploit her.
        
        He is shrewd enough to know this and repeatedly offers financial protection to both her and her family, assuring her, “I can make them all comfortable, if you will only show confidence in me” (355).
- - - - forces Karim to think about social class and politics
      - Karim sees the flaws in Terry’s inflexible, negative view of humanity and the social class system.
    - - Karim sees the defects in his own education and social class. He envies the upper class’ knowledge of the way the world works.
    - - He is helpless in the world, with no knowledge of practicalities such as bus routes, tea-making, or diaper-changing.
- - - - Karim never identifies himself as either a heterosexual or a homosexual.
      - Pyke and his wife, Marcella, demonstrate an extreme in sexual experimentation as deliberate collectors of sexual partners.
      - Changez resorts to a prostitute, develops a relationship with her, and revels in his sexual discoveries.
      - Charlie also participates in a variety of different types of relationships, even paying for sexual torture.
      - Karim and Jamila both experiment with opposite sex and same sex relationships with a variety of partners: “And Charlie? My love for him was unusual as love goes: it was not generous. I admired him more than anyone but I didn’t wish him well…I coveted his talents, face, style. I wanted to wake up with them all transferred to me.”(15)
    - - Changez’s role as Leila’s primary caretaker speaks to the commune’s dedication to living out their principles.
      - Jamila, though she bows to her father’s wishes in accepting an arranged marriage, goes on to live in an egalitarian commune, where gender roles are deliberately and consciously made equal.
    - - Karim witnesses Haroon’s exploitation of his mother and then Eva; he criticizes his father’s uselessness on multiple occasions.
      - Changez’s transformation from an upper class Indian parasite into a productive citizen of the commune demonstrates hope for the future and fulfilling roles for all classes and both genders in an increasingly egalitarian society.