Appleman Chapter 4

Thinking about this chapter is conflicted for me, because some of what Appleman was saying here is brilliant and some of it is terrible. I don't think Hamlet is a great choice for teaching the subject, but there are so many books out there that are. I know from growing up in Grosse Pointe, or as I like to call it "The place where all the white people ran", that there's a lot of guilt and anxiety when it comes to talking about status compared to other people, especially in schools like this, and I definitely think it needs to be talked about.
Some of the books that I think would be great for teaching this are the Distopic books, because the Marxist comments in some of these books are so striking that it's practically impossible to ignore. It might be interesting as well to look at some Russian literature, even pre-Communism, for class struggles(Some of the work by Gogol or Dostoyevsky would be particularly interesting). But I think a smart teacher can take some of this and work really well with it. Some of you would not believe the insane majority of people at a school like GPN who think anybody, no matter who you are, can just as easily make something of themselves as any other person, and those who don't are simply lazy/failures. I guess what I'm saying is I think the Marxist view is important, just make sure you have the right works for it.