Albeit not originally set in New York City, The God of Carnage by Yasmina Reza is the epitome of the wealthy class in NYC. The lower classes have to worry about feeding their children, sending their children to school, not losing their job, not losing their homes. The upper class on the other hand? Oh they sit around, eat pastries and drink rum in the afternoon; they socialize.
In The God of Carnage, both families have more money than they know what to do with. The Vallons (Veronique and Michel) own rare, irreplaceable, and expensive art books. They buy tulips for the house and Michel owns rum from years ago. The Reilles (Annette and Alain) come from the same community and Alain is a big-shot lawyer. Without anything better to do during the day, these two families congregate to discuss the actions of their two sons: Ferdinand Reille hitting Bruno Vallon in the face with a stick and therefore knocking his teeth out. Although originally social and professional, this “meeting of the minds” is anything but so; it’s chaos, it’s carnage! After throwing up, drinking, random calls from the mother, and random calls from Alain’s phone, entropy ensues. One might think that it would be “couple vs. couple,” but it was more like “every man for himself.” Is that not the way of the upper class? There’s a great example from Stone’s Wall Street, when Darien leaves Bud because she’s used to being a lone wolf, out only for money and pride, not love. Each character switches sides regularly, and not only that, but each seem extremely dedicated, if not addicted, to their job.
Alain, one might say, is a workaholic, meaning that he can never, separate his work life from his home life. The same can be said about Bud. In the beginning of the movie, his small, cramped room has an unmade bed and a desk full of papers, books, and a computer. Basically, the only difference between his room and his cubicle is that in the cubicle, there are other men. Alain, even when talking about his son’s “animalistic” behavior, he can’t put his phone down. He constantly picks up, caring more about the lawsuit and media than his own son and wife. This, I feel, is accurately portrayed of the upper class: addicted to work yet they fret over the little things and don’t see the big picture.
Under the façade of wealth, power, and civility, the upper class in The God of Carnage, are mean, nasty, self-centered people. Wall Street is extremely similar. I hope that in some work, either a book or movie, will show the upper class in a good light, much like Breakfast at Tiffany’s.
