Class: A Memoir of Motherhood, Hunger, and Higher Education

Many memoirs center around the author’s struggle to achieve a certain goal, and Class recognizes this genre convention. Though the text does not totally conform to the traditional notion of memoir, it does succeed in centering personal and financial obstacles.

Stephanie has a paradoxical relationship with the idea of resilience; she acknowledges that it can be a positive attribute but also shows how this concept is often idealized and reduces the lived experience of someone who has experienced considerable trauma.

Stephanie’s determination to graduate from college stems from several sources: She wants to make Emilia proud, she wants to prove wrong everyone who doubted her, and she wants to prove to herself that her lifelong love of writing is valid. Every day, Stephanie’s time with Emilia is reduced because of work, classes, and homework, and Stephanie is deeply motivated to prove to her daughter that this lost time is meaningful. On career day at school, Emilia expresses that she wants to be a writer like her mom; her impression of a writer is someone scowling at a computer. Stephanie initially thinks that getting into the MFA program will be an essential next step for making Emilia proud of her.