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2.6 Social Class in America
The social class of America is a vaguely defined concept which includes several commonly used terms that use educational attainment, income and occupational
prestige as the main determinants of class. While it is possible to create dozens of social classes within the confines of American society, most Americans employ a
six or five class system. The most commonly applied class concepts used in regards to contemporary American society are:
1 Upper class; those with great influence, wealth and prestige. Members of this
group tend to act as the grand-conceptualizes and have tremendous influence of the nations institutions http:student.britannica.comcomptonsarticle-
208190social-class. 2
Upper middle class; the upper middle class consists of white collar professionals with advanced post-secondary educational degrees and
comfortable personal incomes. Upper middle class professionals have large amounts of autonomy in the workplace and therefore enjoy high job
satisfaction. Upper middle class professionals earn roughly 62,500 €41,000 or £31,500 or more and tend to reside in households with six figure incomes.
3 Lower middle class; semi-professionals, non-retail salespeople, and craftsmen
who may have some college education. Out-sourcing tends to be a prominent problem among those in this class who often suffer from a lack of job
security. Households in this class may need two income earners to make ends meet and therefore may have household incomes rivaling the personal
incomes of upper middle class professionals such as attorneys.
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4 Working class; it includes blue as well as white collar workers who have
relatively low personal incomes and lack college degrees with many being among the 45 of Americans who have never attended college.
5 Lower class; this class includes the poor, alienated and marginalized
members of society. While most individuals in this class work, it is common for them to drift in and out of poverty.
2.7 Nick Cassavetes’ Biography
Nick Cassavetes is an American. He was born on May 21, 1959, New York. His full name is Nicholas David Rowland Cassteaves. He is son of John Cassavetes
an actor and director and Gena Rowlands an actress. He has two children named Sasha and Virginia. He studied literature at Syracuse University, 1976.
Nick Cassavetes was an actor for over a decade before he added writing and directing to his Hollywood repertoire. Born and raised in New York, Cassavetes
appeared in two of his fathers films, Husbands 1970 and A Woman under the Influence 1974, while growing up. He is also worked on television commercials
and worked as a janitor. In 1997, he got awards as a Directors Week Award, Fantasporto, best film, for Unhook the Stars and Golden Palm nomination, Cannes
International Film Festival for she’s So Lovely. Returning to the directors chair for a project that spoke to his experience
with his own daughters heart disease, Cassavetes took on his first big-budget Hollywood genre film, John Q in 2002. Starring Denzel Washington as a
desperate working-class father who turns to violence when his HMO wont cover
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his sons heart transplant, this unconvincing piece of schlock received devastating reviews across the board. American critics described it, alternately, as So lacking
in shame that it finally seems laughable, a movie that transcends stupidity and soars into the empyrean of true idiocy, and A shamelessly manipulative
commercial on behalf of national health insurance. The director fared immeasurably better in 2004 with The Notebook. As penned by Jeremy Leven
and Jan Sardi, this gentle and evocative adaptation of Nicholas Sparks bestselling novel follows an elderly man James Garner who reads a heartbreaking period
love story aloud to a female nursing home resident Gena Rowlands. The film then plays out the story-within-the-story, about a couple who share the greatest
summer of their lives with one another, and are then irrevocably separated by their parents and the rise of World War II. The press responded far more kindly to The
Notebook when it premiered in the U.S. on June 25, 2004.
2.8 The Summary of Notebook