Does Class Matter?

I am reading Prep by Curtis Sittenfeld.  I just started it an I already really enjoy it.  It is a book about a girl named Lee Fiora who moves from Indiana to a Massachusetts boarding school called Ault.  Ault is really fancy and has not just an air of wealthiness, but a consuming air of wealthiness.  The book deals with a lot of issues, but the most pressing one is separation of the classes.

Life is wildly different at Ault than in Indiana. In Indiana, Lee was the kid who was the top of her class.  In Indiana, Lee was praised constantly for being so smart.  Lee always knew the right thing to say in Indiana.  In Indiana, money never mattered.  Lee's life at Ault is the exact opposite.  Here Lee is really lonely and really has no friends to help her adjust.  She's nice and kind and smart, but no one feels the need to be her friend because everyone else has friends already.  At Ault all the kids come from incredibly rich and wealthy backgrounds.  In Indiana, Lee didn't have a lot of money but there it didn't matter.  Here at Ault, it's part of what makes her an outcast.  In fact, the plot doesn't entirely revolve around how much her being on scholarship affects her, but it's a huge component. At Ault kids really throw money around.  It truly doesn't matter for them.  Like the character Little says at one point, "They buy 70 dollar track warmups and it means absolutley nothing."  Most of the kids have lawyers and doctors as parents.  Lee has farmers for parents.  Now while Lee didn't go from rags to riches, her surroundings definitely did.

If I were in Lee'splace I don't know if I would be able to keep it together.  It must be really stressful to be an outcast the way Lee is.  It kind of humiluiating to be in her shoes.  She's so lonely, and it's all because of her economic class.  I mean, can you imagine being with a ton of kids who can do the one thing you can't and being an outcast because of it?  Lee is already lonely, because she's not being accepted into multiple different social circles, but on top of that she's on scholarship.  Lee is an outcast on both counts, socially and econnomically.  She came from a accepting place where her economic situation was common, now Lee is uncommon.  Lee had to transition radically.  One day, top of the world (In Indiana), the next, bottom of the heap (at Ault).  One day average income, next, "dirt poor".  Now, she's not poor but she's definitely not in the same class as most of the kids at Ault. 

I think enconomic class separation is a huge issue both in this book and in the world.  It can prevent people from becoming friends, and can even tear apart friendships.   It is a destructive and elitest mindset, and it doesn't just happen economically, it happens racially and socially too.  Just look at Maria and Tony in West Side Story, true love torn apart by class differences.