Are Middle-Class Virtues Normative?

Roberta Rosenberg’s essay “’I Hate this Book’: Middle-Class Virtues and the Teaching of Multicultural Texts” addressed why it is often easier to accept cultural disparity in regards to race, ethnicity, or religion, but not class. In the United States, middle-class values tend to be seen as “the norm.” Poverty is inextricably linked to “fatalism, helplessness, dependence and inferiority.” Middle-class Americans are driven to increase the perceived gap between themselves and the poor. Impoverished Americans are not to be related to or sympathized with. In an era where the American Dream is just a fantasy, the poor are chastised and punished for failing to succeed.

In The Beans of Egypt, Maine the Bean family is a striking example of the failure of the lower class, rather than a failure of America as a whole. If America is characterized by middle-class values, then the Beans cannot even been considered Americans. Instead, Earlene describes them as entirely the other. They are more animals than human as Roberta’s babies resemble a pack of wild hyenas with “fox colored” eyes.

In an ultimate defiance of middle-class virtues, the Beans seem to be content in their poverty. They do not go to school or church and refuse government aid that may alleviate their situation. Although Rosenberg points out that there is also a third person narrator who is sympathetic with the Beans, readers refuse to acknowledge this voice. After reading this essay, I went back and looked at moment that the Beans are presented in a positive light. With Rosenberg’s comments in mind, I realized that I had skipped these passages because I found them to be unbelievable. Once my opinion of the Beans had formed, I refused to allow a counter argument to sway me.

I hoped Rosenberg would have addressed why readers easily accept cultural disparity in regards to race. Is it because that disparity is so engrained in our culture? Does middle-class America really mean middle-class, suburban, white, Christian, America? I think this essay will affect the ways I read other literature. I hope to recognize that the virtues associated with middle-class America are not necessarily those that should be perpetuated.