sm is said to be fading, the supremacy of white man conquers the black slave who has something equally important to say.Ultimately, the difference between race and class cannot be defined by color, but by the situation in which the race and class defines itself. It may be relevant to examine why Eliot chooses his own race to criticize and Jacobs assumes the other route. In The Wasteland by T.S. Eliot, the chapter entitled ?The Fire Sermon? begins with a description of a polluted river just after the autumn leaves ?clutch and sink into the wet bank.?(). The inclusion of ?silk handkerchiefs?() among the trash adds a little bit of class to a tainted riverbed. Eliot alludes to the wealthy Anglo-Saxon class of humanity when he writes of ?city directors? and ?their friends?(). On the other hand, Harriet Jacobs refers to her race as ?God ?breathing machines? and ?faithful?(). Although Eliot?s woman in the poem is not a slave, the woman likely feels oppressed due to her social status. Jacobs also describes the ?colored race? as being ?the most cheerful and forgiving people on the face of the earth,?() which constitutes how Jacobs has the ability to work as a nanny for a white woman although she was enslaved by a white woman for much of her life. Eliot criticizes his own race less leniently when he writes about the ?gilded shell?() that the aristocratic people live under. The poem goes on as the woman is being stripped of this status and must start anew with a man who works with ?dirty hands,?() describing the working class man. Oppositely, Linda Brent refuses to give in the temptation of material possessions stating ?I wanted no chain to be fastened on my daughter, not even if its links were of gold?(). Brent says this at having an opportunity to sell her daughter for a great amount of money to the Flint family, despite how well they say they will treat her. Dr. Flint, Linda?s aforementioned oppressor, of Incidents relates to the white men d...
