Pulp's The Girl As An Outsider

People privileged with a surplus of the necessities of life cannot live the same lifestyle that poor people do. The girl tries hard to fit in and conform to the norms of the people living in poverty but regardless of how hard she tries, she will always be seen as an outsider. "Laugh along with the common people, laugh along even though they're laughing at you, and the stupid things that you do. Because you think that poor is cool." (Pulp, verse 7) Convincing the girl to be one with the dominant culture and forgetting about everything she has ever had is tough for her since regardless of how well she integrates into the new environment, she will always be viewed as an alien. In this quote it shows how even though they are laughing along with the girl, it is not necessarily laughing

The girl is seen as an outsider and does not fit in with the mainstream. Wishing to be like common people is viewed by the dominant culture as stupid because since she comes from a rich background, there is no need to live like "common people". The girl's attempts at conforming to the dominant cultures norms are seen as comical to the people belonging to the dominant culture and this all relates back to the fact that she never grew up in this type of environment. The choice of living like common people is derived from the fact that she is doing this out of curiosity when the people living in this environment are living like this out of necessity. Because she has a lot of things many of the people in the dominant culture don’t have such as higher education and money, she will only show empathy and never truly understand the lifestyle that the people in the dominant culture live. It is hard to find common ground with people that live two different lives. As the girl is in a whole other echelon in regards to economic status, it will be hard to establish positive relationships with the people in the dominant