Reflection #7: Status

Symbols of status and wealth

   When Jimmy was invited by Crake to RejoovenEsense, his status elevated.  His former employers, who once treated him an ad writer, treated him as we would treat a person who had just won the Nobel prize.  This is yet another aspect of the sad modern world that Atwood tries to portray: that people are being treated not for who they are as human beings, but for what jobs they have and how much cash they have in their pockets.
   Jimmy was never anybody important, but once Crake invited him to RejoovenEsense, he joined the higher class.  He became respected and people started to suck up to him.  This sub-plot feels familiar, and I remember reading Mark Twain's "A Million Pound Bank Note".  In Twain's short story, the protagonist Henry Adams was very similar to Jimmy.  He was poor and of lower class.  However, once he demonstrated that he had a million pound bank note, he was respected, and many shops GAVE him things such as expensive suites, without even asking for money right after he demonstrated the bank note.

   People respect others with status, even though that status may be false, and it is often funny to see someone who was once superior sucking up to someone who was in an inferior position.  It is also quite sad.  However, that is how the society today works.  You either keep your head low, or you get trampled on.