Education played a major role in influencing both Arthur and William. Arthur gets accepted to Saint Joseph’s as a freshmen in High school. He will get a better education, and have a better chance at college at this school. In his first year, Arthur starts out at a fourth grade level. He does not advance much by the end of the first term, and he does not look to be very promising. Arthur ends up being thrown out of Saint Josephs, and has to return to the inner city school, Marshall High School. William is also accepted to Saint Joe’s as a freshman, and he does extremely well his first year. William starts out at a fourth grade level just as Arthur had, but he advances. William went from the fourth grade level to eighth grade in just one school year, which was a significant change. He did so well that Patricia Wier, a wealthy white woman, decided to pay

Social Class also had an important part in both Arthur and Williams’s lives. Arthur’s family lives in a housing project called Cabrini Green. They do not have much money, and there are many hard times for the family. Arthur loses his opportunity to go to Saint Josephs because he cannot afford to pay the tuition. This is hard on him and his parents. His mother loses her job due to chronic back pain, and this causes the family to delve further into poverty. They have no electricity, and no gas. The affects that this economic situation has on the family are evident in the fact that the father leaves, and Arthur and his mother are left to try to pull themselves out of the hole so to speak. William on the other hand, lives in a housing project called Garfield Park, but he is not as bad off. His family seems to be ok, and his brother provides for them as best he can. William gets his tuition paid for by Patricia Wier, and he is given a job. Eventually his brother Curtis gets a job from her also. So in a way, William is being provided for better than Arthur due to the advantages provided by the Wier’s.

The sport of basketball was the one main social institution that had a big influence on Arthur and William. Arthur had big dreams of playing in the NBA, and he followed those dreams to the last. Arthur went to Saint Joes’ and he did not play as good as they had hoped, so they dropped him. Then he went on to Marshall high school, where he took them to State. This was a huge accomplishment for Arthur, and it go him into a junior college, despite his academic deficiency.

Some topics in this essay:
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