53 pages • 1 hour read
Annette LareauUnequal Childhoods: Class, Race, and Family Life
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2003A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Myth of the American Dream and How Social Class Persists Through Life
In America, individualism supersedes all other ideologies. There is a strongly held belief that anyone can succeed or mobilize themselves upward through the social classes. All it takes is hard work, persistence, and skill. While it is true that some people do manage to find their way out of the poor and working classes, or even downward into them, most people remain in the social class in which they were raised. Social class is the utmost influence in what opportunities are afforded to children as they move through the education system and into adulthood. According to Lareau, the American dream is a myth that does not apply to most Americans, and through her study on the influence of class on family life and life trajectory, she dispels the idea that failure to succeed is solely the fault of the individual.
Lareau cites a generational phenomenon in which social class persists within families as time goes on. Parents are raised within a certain social class, learn the skills and values associated with that social class, and then teach the same strategies and skills to their children. While the skills obtained in the 
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