Opening Pandora's Box Analysis

Words: 567
Pages: 3

In the essay titled “Opening Pandora’s Box: Adding Classism to the Agenda” Felice Yeskel does a fabulous job of creating a conversation of classism in our country. While classism is something that gets very little attention, it is at the root of most other “isms”, and has a place in conversation. She asks us as readers to add issues of classism to our work, and to address it when talking about racism, sexism, heterosexism, etc. The structure of the piece was describing her findings in a six and half year study with a group of six individuals with very different class experiences. The meetings took place monthly for about 6 hours, over a six and half year time frame, with six people that were dedicated to having conversations about their class …show more content…
It creates a feeling of uncomfortableness, and that is why it is never addressed. Because how could one have empathy or compassion with someone who has had a completely different life experiences? I know that it is easy to feel this way. At school, I am friends with people who happen to have families with a lot of money. I want to justify that there is nothing wrong with this, it just happens to be a different way that I was raised. I have always worked two jobs, paid for my schooling, and continue to make ends meet for myself because my family was never fortunate enough to have a lot of disposable income. However, I have been fortunate enough to make college a reality, and have sights on a bright future because of it. The point of this is that there is supposed to “boundless opportunity” and visions of the “american dream”. To be honest this just isn’t always a reality. Yeskel says “ The American Dream-- the belief that people in this country can attain enough income to own their own homes and provide comfortably for families if only they work hard enough-- is pervasive. The fact that most Americans can point to at least one example where this is true reinforces the myth of class mobility and the assumption that those who don’t move up the class ladder lack a strong work ethic.” (97) She brings up the pure irony in this situation. People in America are bred to feel like they have endless opportunity, when in