The Mansion: A Subprime Parable by Michael Lewis

"The Mansion: A Subprime Parable" tells about the events that occur when the author rents a  mansion on St. Charles Avenue in New Orleans with his family. The author, from the upper-middle class, experiences the problems of living in a house he can't quite afford. He reflects that Americans lust for expensive homes that they don't have the money for, and that he is no different. In the end, the author and his family move back to where they came from. Michael Lewis, the author of this essay, attended Princeton University before getting his MA in the London School of Economics. Mr Lewis became a financial journalist and is a contributing editor to Vanity Fair. He also writes for The New York Times. "The Mansion: A Subprime Parable" is rooted in the idea of the American class system. Ideally, there is a lower class, an upper class, and a large middle class. The author readily admits that he is from the upper middle class, and this essay is about what happens when a upper middle class family tries to transition into the upper class lifestyle.

A parable is a story meant to instruct. The author's purpose is to share with the lesson he learned from renting the mansion. He realized that pretending to be something he is not, attempting to live the life of the upper class, is ultimately doomed for failure. In the end, Lewis writes, “And so we fled, back to where we’d come from: the upper middle class.” (Lewis 86). The essay was published in Conde Nast Portfolio, which was known to target middle to upper class adults. Lewis delivers his purpose well, mostly through the use of the anecdote, which tells his story with clarity and dry humor. There is also symbolism: the mansion itself symbolizes the elusive upper class. He uses a great deal of imagery, describing the feeling of not belonging by saying, “-we all sit in the formal dining room, under the gilded ceiling and the crystal chandelier, eating packaged tortellini off paper plates.” (Lewis 81). Through these devices, Lewis emphasizes that his experience serves as a consequence for us to not thirst for what we cannot afford.

American Class Structure

"It is not the man who has too little, but the man that craves more, who is poor." -Seneca

Source:Dennis Gilbert, The American Class Structure in an Age of Growing Inequality (6th ed., 2003), p.270