Social Status in Great Expectations

Social and financial status play a big role in our environment today. The wealthy tend to get more recognition for having more money and the lower class tend to get a bad reputation of being uneducated people who have no rights as citizens. Social status in a large town relates to how well people treat a person and see them as they represent themselves throughout the community. In the book Great Expectations, Charles Dickens explains wealth and popularity in the 1800 's as a key factor of life. He allows the reader to see how important it is to be in the upper class, but he also makes the reader realize that whether being wealthy or poor that certain person is always judged in their life and sometimes being judged can ruin who they really are inside. Lower class citizens in the 1800 's were represented as good hearted people who took all they could get and make the best out of what they owned. Joe was described as a man of many words and a person who crafted and was skilled in his work. He worked as a blacksmith and made the best living he could from his small income. He became a victim of Mrs. Joe 's abuse and also turned into a long lost friend of Pip 's. His status in this particular book was represented as being an unpopular person, but someone who would give the shirt off of his back for the man who was striving to live more than he was. Joe never let Pip down even when Pip erased Joe from his memory. During Mrs. Joe 's funeral service Pip came back to a saddened Joe with not a word to be said. Joe was a strong person during this time, but also held his heart in his throat thinking deep down he would never become something to Pip. Pip now being wealthy thought he would surround himself with wealthy humans, but in reality never understood the friendship Joe cherished and he also took for granted what Joe taught him in life. During the time of Pip 's debt Joe came to Pip 's rescue and nursed him back to stable condition. Pip had no money, but yet