A country club is where people who are usually wealthy go to enjoy themselves. Members of country clubs often golf, gamble, joke, and compete with other members who belong to the same unique, and private group of people. Belonging to this separate part of society gives these people prestige and respect. However a country club isn't only where rich people play golf and gamble. It could also be where poor people go to joke, and have fun. "The pool hall is a junior-level country club"(Ramirez 414). Ramirez's is showing through the use of this metaphor that the poor neighborhood of the barrio has its positive aspects. For instance, the pool hall is its own country club for the people of the barrio.
First, the pool hall is in a poor neighborhood, however there are physical similarities between the pool hall and an Anglo country club. Nonetheless the people of the barrio are still entitled to enjoy themselves. This is Ramirez's point of writing his story The Barrio. The pool hall is a place where the poor people of the barrio go to experience the same things that rich people do at country clubs. This is why Ramirez uses the metaphor "The pool hall is a junior-level country club"(Ramirez 414). The pool hall is a place where men gather and play a game where balls are struck on a green surface. "the cracking, popping balls on the green felt"(Ramirez 414). This is identical from the way rich people play golf at country clubs; striking balls on a green surface. In a pool hall people also sit down have drinks and play dominoes. "While veterans play dominoes beneath rudely Hung playboy foldouts"(Ramirez 414) While in a country club, men play cards and drink under beer posters with pretty girls in bikinis. As you can see the two places are very similar, that is why they are both country clubs in a sense; the golf course in a rich neighborhood and the pool hall in the barrio. .
Another way in that the pool hall of the barrio and the country club of the Anglo community are similar includes the mood of the two settings.