“No matter how much effort you expend, if your language does not give you away, your grammar will, or your taste in clothes or cars or ideas.” People can try to move around between classes, but ultimately they will exhibit signs of their original class, writes Paul Fussell, cultural historian and author of Class, a guide about midcentury American status. Can a man like Don ever truly overcome his poor background, or will he always show some signs that he’s not from the same wealthy world he currently inhabits? His two selves - suave Don and hapless Dick Whitman - when juxtaposed, create for class identity confusion that are reflected in his conversations and behavior. Social-rung advancement isn’t always natural for Don. Don Draper’s identity, and the way it endangers him, has always been the key storyline on the show. It is the story of an ad man cloaking his dirt-poor background and military desertion by passing as a member of a higher class. At its heart, the AMC TV show “Mad Men,” about to return for its final half-season, is about the yearning to belong.
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