The Effect of Class on Self

In Fiterzgerald's "The Rich Boy," we meet Anson Hunter and immediately he is introduced by the narrator, Anson's later-on friend, that his family is very rich and that Anson possesses an early sense of superiority. As a young man, we are told that Anson "had a confident charm and a certain brusque style, and upper-class men who passed him on the street knew without being told that he was a rich boy and had gone to one of the best schools" (Fitzgerald, 154). We are told that Anson is thick-set and not quite handsome, though this seemingly has no effect on his confidence or sense of standing on the class scale to which he is sure he is at the top.

Anson's sense of superiority over others seems only to swell as the story continues and as Anson grows older. In my opinion, the following passage is a hard-hitting moment where the reader must no longer doubt his callous attitude, even considering the kind acts that Anson does for his friends throughout the story: "There were so many friends in Anson's life -- scarcely for whom he had not done some unusual kindness and scarcely one for whom he did not occasionally embarrass by his bursts of rough conversation or his habit of getting drunk whenever and however he liked. It annoyed him when any one else blundered in that regard -- about his own lases he was always humorous" (Fitzgerald, 165).

My questions for consideration is this: How does the innate sense of superiority and upper-classness in Anson effect not his relationships with others which all eventually fail, but rather his relationship with himself?