Knowles Blog Two

As Jack Burden continues to tell his story, he outlines the many relationships his mother has been through in the past, since she and his father separated.  The men that Jack Burden’s mother has had relationships with perfectly demonstrate the different types of wealth in the Southern upper class during the 1930s.  First of all, Jack writes that his mother was “a woman out of the scrub-country of Arkansas…”  She came from a rural family, most likely a wealthy plantation family and married civilized, educated men.  Jack discusses each of these men, listing them as “the Scholarly Attorney and the Tycoon and the Count and the Young Executive…” (161).  All of these men fall into the upper class, but each one came to be there in a different way; all show characteristic ways in which men at the time became economically successful.  The Scholarly Attorney, Jack’s father, most likely came from a wealthy background, and with a good education found himself in a well respected, highbrow job.  The Tycoon, or “Daddy Ross” as Jack calls him, may have come from a lower class family, but through shrewd business tactics, wise investments, and a controlling hand, was able to work his way up through the social hierarchy, to the upper class.  The Tycoon epitomizes the idea of a “rags to riches” man that many Americans still held hope in, although it was rarely an obtainable goal.  The Young Executive, “who had been a Young Executive from the day his mother gave the last push and would be a Young Executive until the day they drained out the blood…” (161) embodies the type of upper class man who is, similarly to the Tycoon, involved in business, but probably came from a wealthy family, and did not do so much of the work himself to get to a respectable position.  Finally, the Count, who Jack’s mother met in Europe, exemplifies the upper class man from an aristocratic European family.  This type of man got his wealth and status purely from family name and inheritance.  He is not the American “self-made man”, and from Jack’s narration of the story, the Count seems to fit the stereotypes of a European nobleman.  The Count “played the piano all day… road a horse and made it jump over gates… then the count came into the house and drank wis-kee and held a persian cat on his knee…” (161).  Although Jack’s descriptions of his Mother’s partners may be skewed or exaggerated, they still portray several archetypal Southern upper class men of the 1930s.