Portrayal of Class in 2 Broke Girls Essay Example

know each other. The main protagonist Max, acted by Kat Dennings, is a waitress in a diner in Brooklyn, and has a second job as a babysitter in a high society household in Manhattan.

Max presents a young woman, trying to climb the social ladder by producing cupcakes, but partly due to her pride and because of her lack of ambition, she does not take the initiative, and therefore has to live in a small and dowdy apartment. But when one day, Max is introduced to her new staff member at the diners, her life is about to change abruptly. Beth Behrs is playing the role of Caroline, the daughter of an ancient multi-billion dollar stock exchange speculator, who had to bow out of all his money, when he was suddenly forced to show up at court because his abject affairs came out.

Max, who is at first skeptical towards Caroline and regards her only as another inept servant who she must cover for, but realizes after a short while that Caroline has much more character than she first thought. At this point of the series, Caroline suggests that one should sell Max’s cupcakes in Manhattan, as they are too delicious for their price and one could easily earn good money with that. But Max, who is too proud to go to Manhattan to earn money from the “ignorant” rich inhabitants, refuses her request. This shows not only that Max, who comes from the lower middle class, has prejudices towards Caroline and all the people from Manhattan, who represent the high class of America, but also that Caroline sees immediately the money-bringing sides of

the cupcakes.

Although she is presented in some cases as a naïve blonde of low intelligence, which is obviously stereotyping, she nevertheless shows her economical knowledge and therefore in a certain way lives the American dream: She is persuaded that Max is able to climb the ladder of class by selling cupcakes. In this special case, Caroline shows nearly no prejudices towards Max, maybe also due to her simplicity, and encourages her to invest in an own cupcake shop. In contras, Max does not take Caroline’s suggestions seriously, because she sees her as a snobbish girl without any experiences in life. Her estimation of Caroline’s character is only based on prejudices and presents the stereotype of the upper class lady who has no idea about the life of lower class women.

Another aspect of class related stereotypes, shown in the series, is clearly drafted in the fourth episode of the first season: “Two Broke Girls- And the Rich Peoples Problems”, in which the differences of Caroline’s and Max’s problems are shown. In this episode, Caroline realizes that she needs a bite guard, after biting into an apple and seeing the dental imprint. As she cannot offer to pay her old dentist, Max takes her to a practice in the underground, which is seedy and dirty, and Caroline flees after a few minutes. The fact that she actually knows which of her teeth needs care, pictures her knowledge in things, which Max would never even think of.

Her priorities in life differ immensely from those of Max, as Max has not even been to a dentist for years. Obviously, Caroline cannot simply oversee

her dental problems and therefore decides to brake into her old home (which is under security observation), to get her bite guard. When she enters with Max through the window of her dressing room, Max is so excited about the luxuriousness and the immense amount of clothes, that she decides to stay a bit longer to take a bath in Caroline’s whirlpool-bath tube. These scenes do not only prove Max’s and Caroline’s completely different lifestyles, but also their attitude towards things which are important in life, and which are nonsense. Another example, is also Caroline’s shoe cabinet, which can be moved by using a remote control, and looks as a gigantic grill for chicken.

Caroline designed it on her own, which is completely incomprehensible for Max, who would never spend money and effort on a shoe cabinet. Actually, their different attitude towards money is one of the most important points of their relation and also presents most of Caroline’s stereotypes. When Max asks her why she did not bring some of her clothes into their apartment, Caroline answers that she could not wear a 3000$ dress in Brooklyn. While Max only sees something to wear, Caroline shows the often assumed reaction of a high society girl, who lays more emphasis on style than on pragmatics. On the other hand, the series does not omit the lower class stereotypes.

When Caroline finds 200$ in one of her bags, she takes with her to the apartment, Max suddenly decides to spend it on very expensive Sushi, although she has never been eating Sushi before and had mentioned earlier in the episode that she finds it lavish

to pay such a high amount of money on raw fish. This presents the stereotype of people who should better be saving, but then spend their money on unnecessary things without thinking about it too long.

Another point of prejudices and stereotypes in class is presented through Caroline’s character and her relation towards Max. At the beginning, Caroline is only complaining and arguing, and does not seem to fit into the diners establishment, but after a while her way of life changes and she gets used to her new environment and she becomes best friend with Max.

Nevertheless, she has still some high society obsessions, which make her seem stupid in some cases, but her ostensible first impression vanishes after a while and she accepts her life as a lower class participant. Nevertheless, many of her behaviors differ from Max’s but this relays on her education and how she was raised. For example when Caroline enters Max’s apartment for the first time:

Caroline: “Oh my God! You got robbed!”
Max: “What are you talking about?”
Caroline: “All your good stuff is gone!”
Max: “This is what it always looks like.”
Caroline “Oh my Got it’s so cute! Totally cute.”
(Season 1, Episode 1)

This scene shows that Caroline totally seems to lack knowledge of Middle Class life and how their apartments are arranged, which is an exaggerated stereotype. On the other hand, Max’s prejudices towards Caroline’s background, can be seen in the following part:

Max: “You can sleep here.”
Caroline looks down at the torn-up sofa, hesitant.
Max (cont’d): “Oh, I’m sorry. Is this not good enough for you? Not filled with enough strangers on their way

to work? Not moving fast enough for you? Would it make you feel more comfortable if I made announcements every ten minutes?”

(Season 1, Episode 1)

During the whole season, the two girls discover more and more similarities and therefore come along without any problems. Still, their differences, which are remaining in some cases, are not negative at all. In contrary, when solving a problem, their different approaches on it finally always bring it to a good end. Although they are friends, especially Max often uses ironic phrases to friendly insult Caroline.

These badinages mostly point at Caroline’s high society background and are one the one hand used to make the audience laugh, but on the other hand it is especially putting emphasis on the stereotyping character of society. Caroline always tries to dress up elegant and high fashioned, whereas Max is calling it “bitchy” in some cases, or simply “overdressed”. Caroline contrariwise uses these obvious stereotypes only rarely, which is in fact again a stereotype of upper class members, who seem to be friendlier and less quick on the comeback than people from the lower class, like Max. In a nutshell, one can say that “2 Broke Girls” create an image of people from diverse classes, who get along with each other, although they have many characteristic differences.

The stereotypes and prejudices explained above do all have their seeds in issues concerning class. Obviously, Max and Caroline are not the only characters in the sitcom, who show prejudices towards other class members and they are also mainly presenting stereotypes, like for example the cook at the diners, who is a sexist,

rude Hungarian, and therefore presents the bad manners of lower class immigrants. The series portraits class in America in a playful way and uses humor to point at issues concerning prejudices and stereotypes.

Nevertheless, one should be aware of the fact that this sitcom is meant to be funny and is to a certain degree only produced for entertainment, so that many stereotypes are overrepresented. Finally, “2 Broke Girls” shows issues in class already at the beginning, when the two different women get to know each other, especially by regarding their daily problems and how they behave with each other after they finally became friends.