Basic Trope: A poor / middle-class character finds themselves in a position among the elite circle.
- Straight: Alice is a Scholarship Student at a prestigious academy, and all her classmates are about 10x richer than she is.
- Exaggerated: Alice is a penniless Street Urchin who has to scavenge trashcans just to fill her belly. After befriending the Princess Sarah, she is made an Honorary Princess, and must learn etiquette that would not be out-of-place among royalty.
- Downplayed: Alice, the Branch Manager of a local bank, spends a lot of time with many of the bank's multi-millionaire clients. However, due to her high position, Alice is far from poor, even if she's not quite the Elite member of the society.
- Justified:
- The rich classmates take interest in Alice because she is a novelty at first, but they soon warm up to her as actual friends once they see her character.
- Alice gives the elites insight into how their well intentioned plans will most likely play out among the lower classes that are meant to benefit from it.
- Inverted: Rebellious Princess Sarah goes to a public school and stays at the cheapest student housing available, sharing her bedroom with 3-4 other students who can't afford to rent their own apartments.
- Subverted: Alice's wardrobe of plain T-shirt and jeans may seem less extravagant than her friends' preference for Pimped-Out Dress. But then she pulls out a Gem-Encrusted smartphone from her pocket, showing that she's actually quite rich herself.
- Double Subverted: The phone isn't hers. A friend simply asked her to hold onto it while she's in the bathroom.
- Parodied: The story's protagonist is an anthropomorphized #1 Dime who lives in a safe-box alongside pure gold bars and other, priceless jewelries / gemstones. The expensive treasures wonder to no end why the old coin is kept in a top security safe like they are when no one would want to steal it.
- Zig Zagged: Alice, dressed in plain T-Shirt and worn-out jeans, is seen hanging out with a group of posh ladies in branded dresses and expensive smartphones... but they are just props for a short film, which Alice is directing, and actually cost less than Alice's current get-up. The actresses themselves are actually very rich, but they are all from out of town, and are not a part of Alice's social circle. Alice's actual social circle, however, consist of high-ranking media execs who are richer and far more influential than she is. Until Alice's film become viral, thus elevating Alice to the same level as her bosses.
- Averted: Alice and her social group all come from the same socioeconomic background.
- Enforced: The work is supposed to be a satire to poke fun of the hypocrisy, entitlement and the general lack of social awareness of the rich by showing them how embarrassingly ignorant their rich-kid antics are in the eyes of the regular Joes.
- Lampshaded: "Sorry, guys. I can't join y'all for the Around the World in 80 Days tour next week. Maybe, when I've finally started earning $500,000 per annum, I'll have enough cash to blow on trips like that."
- Invoked: Alice is tired of being poor, and she's hoping by working among the rich, she could learn a few tricks from them to make her own success.
- Exploited: Alice mooches, or even steals, from her friends, knowing that they won't notice a few missing notes or small trinkets, having too many of them.
- Defied: Alice is offered a scholarship to a prestigious school, but turns down the offer because she refuses to deal with the lifestyle of the rich.
- Discussed: "Alice, how are you? I hope the Mega City have been treating you well. I've heard how badly some of those over-privileged people can behave towards those that are...less rich than they are."
- Conversed: ???
- Implied: Alice is seen hanging with a group of extravagant-looking people, although the exact relationship between the group members isn't made clear.
- Deconstructed: In her desire to better fit in her new environment, Alice often buys more expensive goods than she can really afford, and she gets buried in credit card debt trying to live an unsustainable lifestyle.
- Reconstructed:
- Thankfully, Alice's friends are nice enough to give her some clothes and accessories, so that she could fit in without having to overspend her monthly budget.
- Alice meets some rich classmates who don't spend much despite their wealth. She opts to follow their example, manages her spending, and is well off as a result.
- Played For Laughs: Alice's friends have never seen any non-luxury goods before and react to her stuff and mannerisms as though she is Mundane Made Awesome. Alice thinks they're embarrassing.
- Played For Drama: Alice is treated as an outcast by her rich peers, who take every opportunity to insult and bully her, calling her a fraud/thief/cheat who doesn't belong in their elite circle.
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