Superficiality in "Class"

Edgar Joseph and Susan McDermott in Alexie's short story "Class" share a marriage in which neither fully commits and both are unhappy. Problems stem from Edgar's inability to discover his own true identity, and therefore his inability to recognize other people's true identities as well. He deliberately alters his own appearance so as to be seen as he wishes to be seen, and he similarly judges others using meaningless prejudice and stereotype and therefore cannot discover who anyone else really is. His wife, consequently, is alienated and alone, an unintended victim of her husband's identity crisis and a targeted victim of her husband's incapacity to either understand or empathize with her. However, at the end of the story there is hope that Edgar can see that people are more than what meets the eye, and that just because he himself appears Indian doesn't mean he can truly identify and be accepted as such, and just because his wife appears unhappy does not mean that he is justified in abandoning her-he is forced to see what is important in life, and to be thankful for a stable comfortable existence and to have someone to share it with, someone with whom he belongs.

When Edgar Joseph first meets his future wife, he adopts a persona to impress, not one that is indicative of his true character. After Susan asks about his religious affiliation, he does not answer truthfully but instead calculatingly contemplates the answer that will bring about the goal he wishes to achieve, "the clever, scintillating answer that would have compelled her to take [him] home with her for a long night of safe and casual sex" (Alexie 474). Therefore, his first few sentences during their first conversation already fall into the category of deceitful and egotistical. Edgar has deliberately lied to urge Susan into bed with him, and he does so while fully aware that he is betraying her trust and deceiving her into believing that he is someone he is not. This shows a complete disregard for her feelings on the subject, as well as a disregard for her right to see and judge him for who he is, not for who he thinks she wants him to be.

This also shows Edgar's inherent flaw-- that he himself does not know exactly who he is, and therefore shows Susan's inability to know him as well. He makes efforts to come across as women would want him to be, offering Susan a safe reply that he was baptized but not confirmed, when at last she forces a response to her question. She admires his braids, which he wears only because he realized that his "hair impressed jurors but irritated judges" (475), not because he takes pride in his heritage. In fact, he sells his heritage and distorts is when he sees fit, to increase his chances that women will find him exotic and enticing. He tells Susan he is of the Spokane tribe after introducing himself with an intentionally Indian name he does not in fact answer to, which is the greatest deception he performs in the conversation. Without giving his real name, he undeniably conceals his identity in its most basic yet most important form, and he fully transitions into being someone he is not, and never was. Without people knowing each other's names, they are still strangers, and Edgar is preventing Susan from having an opportunity to move on from being strangers to sharing a healthy relationship through this deception. Furthermore, this is a pattern that Edgar employs effectively and consistently, and he has repeatedly in the past "told any number of white women that [he] was part Aztec and [he'd] told a few that [he] was completely Aztec. That gave [him] some mystery, some ethnic weight, a history of glorious color and mass executions" (476), a history he does not share with pride but sells cheaply for its sensational effect on women.

In fact, he claims not only that it has a sensational effect on women, but on white women specifically. Edgar submits his future wife to stereotypes based upon both her race and gender during this first encounter. He initially approaches Susan only after calculating that of all of the white women in the room, she is the tenth prettiest, which shows an emphasis placed on both her ethnicity and her external appearance, both shallow and judgmental. When he learns that Susan's life has been filled with sadness and pain, caused by a sister's death and a brother's aggression, he thinks to himself: "So much pain for such a white woman" (474). This words choice indicates prejudices he holds towards her race, as he isn't stating that she has experienced a lot of pain, but that she has experienced a lot of pain for being white. This shows that Edgar believes white women normally live quite painless existences, not ones filled with the misfortunes of reality that are visited upon every race. Furthermore, in addition to comparing her appearance to other white women and making assumptions about white women in general, Edgar refuses to acknowledge that Susan should have character or individuality. After his indistinct response to her question on religion, he tells her: "I read somewhere that many women think ambiguity is sexy" (475). However, Susan proves him wrong saying she likes clarity, after which he takes a step back in shock, seemingly thrown off by the suggestion she should be different from other women.

It is for these reasons that Susan and Edgar's marriage is troubled and destined to fail. Because Edgar cannot see who he truly is and therefore have an identity, Susan can never truly know him and love him for who he is. Furthermore, he continues to make inaccurate assumptions about Susan even after their marriage, attributing her to having had an affair with an architect named Harry although he never reads the love letters he finds in her closet. To add further discredibility to this assumption, after the death of their child when he wife no longer wishes to sleep with him, he assumes that she is again having an affair "with another architect named Harry, but [his] private detective found only evidence of her grief" (480). The fact that he assumes his wife is carrying on with another man of the same name and the same profession shows how irrational these assumptions are, and when his private detective finds that his wife is seeing a therapist he is unaware of that fact. This shows a lack of knowledge of his wife's character and emotional needs, and an overall lack of intimacy, a total disconnect during a time of family crisis where families are supposed to seek comfort and strength in each other. Susan can find neither in Edgar, as he thinks he knows everything about her while knowing nothing and he makes no effort to find out the truth beyond the lies with which he surrounds himself.

However, once Edgar finally looks into his wife's eyes and sees how unhappy she is, he has an epiphany. He looks at her with surprise, and she asks "what?", which was "a huge question to ask and answer at any time in [their] lives" (480). This description shows that they have a severe lack of communication and never question each other, and therefore never show any interest or connection in each other's lives. Edgar doesn't answer the question, but avoids admitting his realization, perpetuating the cycle of alienation in their relationship, until his visit to an Indian bar. This bar finally shows Edgar the truth about where he belongs. Stuck inbetween two cultures and two ethnicities, but until now mostly identifying with one-the richer non-Indian side of himself, he now confronts the impoverished Indian side of his heritage. He realizes, after he is attacked for his money, social status, and choice of a rich white wife, that he will not be accepted by other Indians based on external and superficial characteristics for which he himself is guilty of judging others, specifically his wife.

His experience humbles him, as he admits to an enraged Indian named Junior with whom he initiates a fight by staring at, that he is "nobody" (482), after he has formerly worked so hard to change himself into someone else and be the "somebody" that everyone else wants him to be and deems important and worthy enough to give attention. Instead of avoiding confrontation and making himself agreeable to the other party, Edgar becomes enraged when Junior stereotypes him as having white children, and agrees to fight the much larger much more violent Indian. Edgar promises to fight for the insult to his dead child, and only after this uncharacteristically meaningful action does Junior misread him. Junior has previously correctly anticipated Edgars' privileged existence, but only now that Edgar has broken out of character does Junior misconstrue him to believe that he is in fact honest, to which Edgar replies "I lie all the time, most of the time. But I'm not lying now. I want to fight" (483). Fighting Junior shows the two different worlds that the Indians live in, when Edgar "dreams of connecting with [Junior's] jaw and knocking him out with one punch" (484), and then Junior attacks Edgar "with a left uppercut that carried with it the moon and half of every star in the universe" (484). Edgar's fantasy world has been literally knocked out of him, and he has figuratively been given a look at the real world, the larger universe beyond his dreams, in which he will not be accepted by his Indian culture which he himself only rejected and exploited. This is brought out further when he explains to the bartender that he wanted to be with other Indians, to be with his people, to which she replies: "We're Indians. You, me, Junior. But we live in this world and you live in your world" (485).

She brings Edgar yet closer to reality, making him realize that his unhappiness can be remedied because he has the basic necessities in life and can afford the luxury of caring about and working to achieve true happiness. Arguing that she doesn't even have enough to eat, she scoffs at the idea of loneliness or that his wife may not love him. Edgar has failed where he normally succeeds, the bartender refuses his advances and finds him unimpressive when he is trying his hardest to actually identify with his heritage, which in his experience is when woman have found him most attractive and irresistable. After the fight, Junior has robbed him of a braid, signifying a loss of his ability to use his appearance to emphasize that he is Indian for the sake of impressing the white women he typically associates with. His nose is broken as well, which can also be considered a defining characteristic of Native Americans-the abrupt and prominent nose, which is now deformed. His perception has altered figuratively, as one eye was swollen and he "wouldn't be able to see out of it in the morning" (485).

After the bartender berates him and helps him see the advantages of his situation, especially in comparison to hers, he stands in the dark storeroom by himself. He has time to think over the events and his experiences and then walks out into the empty bar, and out on the street, and out of the darkness. He arrives home and "without changing [his] clothes, [he] crawled back into bed with Susan" (485). Such an action implies hope for their relationship, because he is no longer hiding himself, he no longer looks like the perfect Indian that he now knows he is not, he looks and is flawed. Without trying to fix his nose or wash his clothing he is now owning his actions and encouraging his wife to ask him "what?" and begin opening up to each other and discussing their thoughts and feelings, specifically about the child they both lost and the fight began over, and also about his identity which he is now closer to finding. He has now seen beyond appearances, and Edgar realizes that just because he may look Indian doesn't mean he can really be one, or accepted as one among other Indians, and therefore this gives hope that he may perhaps realize that just because his wife is a white woman he cannot make assumptions about her and will instead try to know her for who she really is, which goes beyond her appearance like his identity goes beyond his.