Examples of Stratification in the Movie Trading Places

Essay on Trading Places <Tab/>Trading Places provides many examples of stratification. Throughout the movie the actions, words and appearances of its characters and their surroundings show the true-to-life stratification that exists in society. As the movie progresses, the separation of the upper and lower classes becomes more defined. The main characters wind up on top but the paths they take are marked by the unfairness, prejudice and stereotypes associated with …

…treated Billy Ray as an inferior and unintelligent human being. They described the commodities market to him in a fashion that portrayed him as an idiot. It goes back to them stereotyping Billy Ray, calling him a simple Negro (a "very musical people"), with drug problems, from a broken home. Paul Fussel described it best when he said, "You have to feel superior for the right reasons, and having money is not one of them."