Truman Fleming, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, tires of
the shallow socialite realm. He decides he wants to find out how the other half (this being what he defines as 'poor') lives and snubs all those he has known, all that he has known and anyone interested in ensuring their future income. Meanwhile his mother buys him enough food to feed an army, hires him a personal chef, and the reader will know that his mother will bail him out if ever needed (A mummy's boy).
He meets Marcy at a construction site where he is a construction worker. He immediately assumes that she is a "rich girl", like him, born with a silver spoon in his mouth, despite abundant references elsewise (all through the book). He then decides to tell her the error of her ways (which he has determined through his assumptions). When she starts to tell him of her views, instead of actually listening, he gets angry and storms off. Marcy, for some unbeknownst reason, actually seems to like this guy, and decides to apologise for making him angry. Through Marcy's friend Calvin, he learns the error of his assumptions, and for some strange reason, seems to believe he can talk to her without some serious groveling. Which he does. Is Marcy so spineless? Once finding out who slashed her tyres, does she do anything about it (particularly since she paid US$600 for a new set!)? No. Maybe she is spineless.
Marcy has worked so hard to get where she is. She deserves someone better than Truman. If this is the kind of condescending arrogance displayed at this time, imagine what living with him for long periods of time would be like? By the end of this book, I was dreading the ending, knowing they would end up together, and hating it. I wanted the ending to be different, where Marcy shows him up for what he is (an arrogant condescending jerk), learns from it, and moves on (away from him). If we wanted to read about the conditions of poor people we would read Engels' Conditions of the Working Class Man and London's People of the Abyss. Lets see Truman in those conditions without his mummy!