Comparison of Jake in Love in L A and Edgar in Class
Both “Love in LA” and “Class” are short stories about the power of materialism and wealth. The main characters in these stories, Edgar, in “Class” and Jake, in “Love in LA“, both favor a wealthy lifestyle, but they have different ideas for the purposes of their wealth. Edgar is a successful lawyer, who manages to seemingly rise above reservation life with an income that allows him to be considered well off. ... Jake on the other hand, does not consider a prosperous job a necessary means of obtaining the luxury and leisure that would naturally result from one. Furthermore, Jake values his freedom in the world of unemployment, but yearns for the leisure of a prosperous career, which will grant him access to LA life, whereas Edgar exaggerates his wealthy lifestyle, granted to him by corporate America, as a means of separating from his American Indian roots. Jake does not have an occupation, yet he would like to reap the benefits of the freedom that is associated with it, while Edgar’s occupation corrupts his private life, rather than remaining a separate entity. Jake despises the unavoidable disadvantages that go hand and hand with the average workers responsibility, yet he daydreams about the plush luxuries that many of them may have the choice of soaking up from the L. ... Jake could imagine lots of possibilities when he let himself, but none that ended up with him pressed into a stalled freeway” (Gilb 236-237). This description shows Jake’s extreme opposition to the work routine, because he has come to the conclusion that the inconveniences, like the traffic, are not worth the effort of confronting each day. However, another part of Jake believes that a life with more luxuries would be more enjoyable. This is shown through his value of superfluities that would allow him to live the famously, glamorous L. ... On the other hand, Edgar’s occupation corrupts his private life, rather than remaining a separate entity.