From Exploring the Titanic

A Floating Layer Cake of Social Classes

By Robert D. Ballard

The Titanic

• “Unsinkable” luxury cruise ship

• Began it’s maiden voyage April 10, 1912

• Layers of the ship divided guests based on background, wealth, and education

Social Classes of the Titanic

• Manual workers

• Third-class passengers

• Second-class passengers

• First-class passengers

The Floating Layer Cake

• Layers of the ship are like the layers of a cake

• Layers are made up of different social classes

• Lower class stays on the bottom layer

• Middle class sits in the middle area

• Upper class is the icing on the layers

Social Values and the Titanic

• The upper class passengers had more beautiful accommodations.

• The lower class passengers were placed in very basic accommodations.

Social Values

• Society treated lower class people with very little respect.

• Wealthy people were placed at a higher level of respect in society.

• Gates were locked on the ship between the levels to keep the classes separated.

• Traditionally, society separates the classes and provides little interaction between the different classes.

Passengers of the Titanic

• Due to location on the ship, first class passengers had better access to the life boats.

• It has been argued that lower class passengers did not have the same chances of survival because they were less important.

The Titanic passengerstructure is very much like society’s socioeconomic classes.

Society separates the lower class from the upper class with different obstacles just like the Titanic’s barricadesseparated the classes on the ship.

Conclusion

Statistics and Pictures http://www.sciencedrive.com/mitchk/stats.htm

Titanic Pictures http://www.mce.k12tn.net/diasters/titantic.htm

Works Cited