In the following essay excerpt, Carson explores the theme of "social snobbery'" in Appointment in Samarra.

Appointment in Samarra constitutes O'Hara's object lesson in the cruel side of social snobbery. Julian English, the novel's protagonist, affronts a social climber at a dance. In turn, English himself is made the subject of ridicule for this error in taste. Two days later English commits suicide in despair.

Two varieties of social snobbery exist here. One is that of the "smoking room of the Lantenengo Country Club" and the other is the kind of censure exerted upon English by the middle class populace of Gibbsville who "collectively . . . presented a solid front of sound Pennsylvania Dutch and all that it implied. . . What a pity it was that this business wasn't in the hands of one of their own men instead of being driven into the ground by a Lantenengo Street. . . wastrel...