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SND + TCP: Theme of 'class divide' - Coggle Diagram
SND + TCP: Theme of 'class divide'
THESIS:
Both Walker and Williams explore class divide as a source of power and conflict; while The Color Purple presents class mobility as possible through economic independence and community, A Streetcar Named Desire portrays class conflict as destructive, rooted in resentment and the collapse of traditional hierarchies.
'A Streetcar Named Desire'
Central conflict between old Southern aristocracy and working-class modern America.
Blanche clings to inherited class status:
Uses language, manners, and illusion to assert superiority.
Stanley represents rising WC power.
Resents Blanche's pretensions and exposes their falseness.
Loss of Belle Reve symbolises the collapse of traditional class structures.
Williams presents class divide as brutal and destabilising.
Paragraph-by-paragraph plan
P1: TCP
Class oppression rooted in race, gender and poverty.
'Your black, you're poor, you're ugly, you're a woman, you're nothing at all! Celie: Until you do right by me, everything you even think about gonna fail!'- Mr ___
P2: TCP
Class mobility through economic independence.
'I am so happy. I got love, I got work, I got money, friends and time.'- Celie
P3: SND
Old vs new class conflict
BLANCHE:
Please don’t get up.
STANLEY:
Nobody’s going to get up, so don’t be worried.
P4: SND
WC dominance and cruelty
'Who do you think you are? A pair of queens? Remember what Huey Long said- 'Every Man is a King!' And I am a king around here'- Stanley
'The Color Purple'
Class is shaped by race, gender, and economic power, with Black women occupying the lowest social position.
Celie's financial dependence reinforces her oppression.
Celie's business gives her autonomy.
Shug represents a different form of class: social freedom and mobility despite marginalisation.
Walker suggests that escaping class oppression requires community.