History Main / WorkingClassHero

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Homer Simpson may be working-class and a lot of episode plots revolve around his struggle to make ends meet, but many other episodes showcase that he's an InvincibleIncompetent IdiotHoudini who walks away from his work on a constant basis and has done some really, ''really'' crazy things in his lifetime (been an astronaut, won a Grammy...) and he has never lost his financial status when other men have lost it all. Two episodes ("Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "Beyond Blunderdome") revolve around the guest character believing that Homer's incredibly simple tastes represent the common American man and grant him power to mould their projects, only to find out the hard way that [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} that Homer's tastes, while simple, are just too damned weird for anybody else to enjoy]].

* Throughout ''Film/ThePurge'' series, the protagonists are usually working-class people banding together to survive a "holiday" designed to KillThePoor, while the series' GreaterScopeVillain is the plutocratic elite of its [[OppressiveStatesOfAmerica dystopian near-future America]].

But you're still fucking peasants [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech as far as I can see]]
* Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}' "[[Music/BeggarsBanquet Salt of the Earth]]" is sung from the perspective of affluent liberals who lionize the working class as compliant underclasses who they have never have to interact or deal with personally:

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':

Likewise, this character type, for a variety of reasons, [[AlwaysMale tends to be male]]. Poor women when represented are usually wives, sisters, or mothers of the male hero, and their issues are usually seen in gendered dimensions rather than class ones -- such as being a struggling single mother, a SingleMomStripper or in some cases working as [[TheOldestProfession prostitutes]], in spite of the fact, that at least since TheEighties, women [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Feminization_of_poverty#East_Asia represent a disproportionate number of the world's low-income earning population]] and [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triangle_Shirtwaist_Factory_fire were victims of some of the worst workplace disasters]]. Nonetheless, female examples of this trope have become increasingly popular in some media.

Historically, in the vast majority of literature and theater, the heroes and heroines tend to be from a high socioeconomic status group, either because of wealth, education, or aristocratic birth. Lower middle-class and working-class characters are either supporting characters or they are confined to comedies. For a long time, critics and artists regarded aristocratic issues such as fall of a ruling family seriously because it aristocrats were essential to the state as it existed then. Also, realistically speaking, they had better career opportunities to be captains, commanders, governors, and heroes, so artists should not be faulted for reflecting the confined and restricted worldview as it existed then. In authoritarian countries, artists didn't have much of a choice, due to censorship. In the wake of the revolutions of the 19th and 20th centuries, when working classes started uplifting themselves, working-class heroes and artistic modes to represent them gained increasing currency.

This trope is common in the military stories, usually portrayed as the hero has risen UpThroughTheRanks. While a majority of officers tend to come from the upper classes, militaries are by their nature meritocracies, and some talented working-class youth may attain a surprisingly high position.[[note]] In 2010, 82.8% of US army officers had a college degree, which shows that there are some officers without a degree.

Related to FarmBoy. See also BookDumb, AlmightyJanitor. Magical versions may be a BlueCollarWarlock. For a more negative example, see SocialClimber, who is usually regarded as a working-class villain, in that the working-class hero does not deny his roots or forgets about his family and where he comes from. Can overlap with ScienceHero or NerdActionHero (or even both) depending on the job. Contrast CrimefightingWithCash for wealthy superheroes who rely on their income to fight crime, and the LowerClassLout for hard-drinking, lazy and/or even villainous working-class types (though the two can overlap if the working-class hero is also a a particularly dark AntiHero like a SociopathicHero).

* The implication behind ''Freedom of Speech'' (of ''Art/FourFreedoms''). Through his clothes and the clothes of that around him, Creator/NormanRockwell implies that the subject is a blue-collar worker who is the lone voice of dissent in a crowd of white-collar men. The further implication is that because he has freedom of speech, he isn't afraid to speak his mind.

* ComicBook/CaptainAmerica (Steve Rogers) is a notable Superhero of this trope due to his background Irish immigrant family.
* In ''[[ComicBook/{{Savage}} Invasion!]]'', Bill Savage was a lorry driver before the Volgans attacked, and his working-class common sense is frequently what allows him to succeed where the top military see no chance of victory.
* Several observers and Creator/GrantMorrison observe that the original appeal of Creator/{{Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster}}'s ComicBook/{{Superman}} was that of a Working-Class Hero (though as a civilian news reporter he's middle-class) who in the [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness early issues]] tackled the CorruptCorporateExecutive, slum lords, strikebreakers and was a WifeBasherBasher. Morrison specifically compared Superman to ComicBook/{{Batman}} as class opposites, the former grew up on a farm and needs to draw a salary while the latter is filthy rich.

* ''Franchise/SpiderMan'':
** One of the many reasons why Franchise/SpiderMan and Peter Parker was such a fresh character from its beginnings. He very believably came across a poor scholarship boy whose daily pressures (education, being an orphan, having elderly guardians) was already a strain before his superpowers. It's also there in his identity as a "Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man" and a SmallStepsHero. This aspect tends to be toned down some adaptations (with the exception of WesternAnimation/TheSpectacularSpiderMan) and more recent stories, especially when he became CEO of Parker Industries. Realistically, to continue living in New York, Peter ''would'' have to move up the income bracket and persist in the 21st Century.
** Peter's long-term girlfriend[=/=]wife[=/=]LoveInterest, ComicBook/MaryJaneWatson, is also a rare female example. She was born poor, to a broken home, and essentially ran away to live with her Aunt Anna in New York and chose to work for a living. She eventually becomes entirely through her means a successful model and actress, a nightclub owner, and lately, a highly paid member of Stark Industries. Tom Beland's "Web of Romance", a one-shot written during their marriage, has Peter reflecting on how his wife was more impressive than him:
--> '''Peter Parker''': "My wife is strong. My wife is smart. My wife is everything I could never be without that bite from a spider."
* Don Martin's ''Captain Klutz'' (from a Mad magazine paperback book) was impoverished nobody who tried to commit suicide from a high-rise tenement, wound up getting wrapped up in some clothing from a series of laundry lines, and inadvertently thwarts a robbery. The burglar calls him a "klutz" before getting arrested. The policeman asks what his name was and dazed he says "I'm a klutz, Captain." So he became Captain Klutz.

[[folder:Fan Works]]
* Long Haul, the middle-aged trucker hero of ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePony'' novelette ''Fanfic/IGuessItDoesntMatterAnyMore'', is blue-collar through and through.

[[folder:Films -- Animated]]
* ''WesternAnimation/TheSuperMarioBrosMovie'': The Mario Bros. blew their entire life savings starting their own plumbing business and their commercial and van is of low quality. Said investment managed to lead to a series of events where they became heroes in another world [[spoiler:and later their own]].
[[/folder]]

* Creator/MarlonBrando as Terry Malloy in ''Film/OnTheWaterfront'' was the embodiment of a Working-Class AntiHero.
* Creator/HenryFonda as Tom Joad in ''Literature/TheGrapesOfWrath'' and in Creator/FritzLang's ''Film/YouOnlyLiveOnce'' embodied the working-class hero to Depression audiences. Civil rights activist and author James Baldwin noted that he was especially popular among African American audiences because they identified with him more than they did with WASP stars like Creator/GaryCooper or Creator/HumphreyBogart.
* Played with in ''Film/{{Jaws}}''. Quint is a veteran, competent, and savvy seaman who dismisses Hooper's knowledge of sharks outright because Hooper is a college kid. Hooper, treated with contempt, makes some mistakes in his assessment and also calls Quint out using the [[TropeNamers exact term]]. Deconstructed in that Quint's {{pride}} causes him to ignore important advice from Hooper, [[spoiler:and ultimately gets killed for it]]. Hooper, although not exactly effective in his own right, [[spoiler:at least survives at the end]].
* Seems to be the main point of ''Film/Armageddon1998'', where our heroes are oil drillers, none of whom exceptionally intelligent (with the exception of one character who specializes in geology and hides his intellect behind acting like a perv), but who get to save the day by being astronauts and drilling a giant hole in the killer meteor. It is stated, outright, that apparently it's easier to teach drillers to be astronauts than it is to teach astronauts to be drillers. Buzz Aldrin would like to have a word with you.

* A deconstructed take on this appears in ''Film/GranTorino'' with Creator/ClintEastwood's character Walt Kowalski. He's implied as not being a terribly intelligent or academic fellow, but he has lots of common sense wisdom and is totally effective at dealing with young gangsters. However, he is incredibly racist toward the Hmong, has a massively restrained relationship with his kids such that they want little to do with him (and appeared to have raised their ''own'' kids to resent him), and his attitude makes him lonely and miserable.
* The ultimate everyman is John [=McClane=] of ''Film/DieHard'' fame. He learned everything he knew from on-the-job honest policing in the NYPD. Then becomes a generic SuperCop in ''Film/LiveFreeOrDieHard''.
* Brothers Bifur, Bofur, and Bombur appear as these in the film adaption of ''Film/TheHobbit''.
* Silent comedians Creator/CharlieChaplin and Creator/BusterKeaton created comedies where the heroes were poor and struggling. Keaton even moreso, since he played technicians -- projectionist, train operator, navigator, cameraman -- that were embodiments of working-class technical know-how and competence. Keaton noted that this was what made him different from Chaplin, in that while the latter's films were about the "common man" and the vagabond they also had a "bum's philosophy of life", whereas Keaton's own films were about people who worked for a living.
* The title character of ''Film/HappyGilmore'' is referred to as this without irony, and it's supposedly the reason why fans flock to his tournaments (of course, the fact that he can launch golf balls several hundred feet doesn't hurt either).
* In ''Film/BackToSchool'', Rodney Dangerfield's character, Thornton Melon, is a college dropout who's nevertheless become incredibly wealthy with his chain of "plus-sized" men's clothing shops. Despite his fortune, though, he's a genuinely NiceGuy. When Thornton finds out that his son is considering dropping out himself, he enrolls in the same college (thanks to a generous donation that leads to a new business school being built) to inspire the boy. The trope is at its apex when Thornton enrolls in an economics class. The snobby professor speaks in pure theory, while Thornton, who has actual business experience, offers his own practical knowledge of the economy (such as setting aside money to pay off the teamsters and other kickbacks for the mob's involvement in construction). It's so effective that the students start taking notes from ''him.''
* ''Film/TheConfirmation'': Walt, the protagonist, is an out-of-work contractor.
* The titular replacements in ''Film/TheReplacements2000'' eventually win the fans over by virtue of being these instead of "superstars who want $8 million a year instead of $7 million."
* William Foster in ''Film/FallingDown'' is a {{deconstruct|edCharacterArchetype}}ion, or at the ''very'' least (depending on how one views him and the film in general) an AntiHero and WellIntentionedExtremist. While he ''is'' an educated man, he made his bones as an aerospace engineer working for a paycheck rather than a scientist or an academic. When he snaps after being laid off, he is the AngryWhiteMan personified, raging at a society that left him and others like him behind and treading a very dark path that leaves nothing but destruction. For every [[VillainHasAPoint cogent point he raises about the world he, the other characters, and the viewer live in]], he then proceeds to cast a very dark shadow over it through his increasingly horrifying actions and his [[ArsonMurderAndJaywalking pettier and more questionable]] concerns.
* The titular protagonists of both the [[Film/Ghostbusters1984 original 1984]] ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'' film and its [[Film/Ghostbusters2016 2016 reboot]] start out as scientists and parapsychologists, but after getting fired from their university jobs, they spurn the academy by taking their ghost-hunting technology and entering the world of private business (together with a blue-collar, street-smart new recruit), becoming the supernatural version of vermin exterminators. This proves to be a far more lucrative and fulfilling career path.
* All three film versions of ''ComicBook/SpiderMan'' have this going for them to some extent.
** The version appearing in Creator/SamRaimi's ''Film/SpiderManTrilogy'' is probably the best example, as a lot of his actions in the first two movies are either motivated or affected by his financial concerns. Even in the third film, his landlord can't stop bugging him for rent, despite the fact that Peter's apartment is significantly beneath standard.
--->'''Symbiote Peter''': You'll get your rent when you fix this ''damn'' door!
** The version seen in ''Film/TheAmazingSpiderManSeries'' is probably the most downplayed example; this version of aunt May has to work two jobs after Uncle Ben's death, and Peter himself earns some cash on the side with the Daily Bugle to cover costs, but on the large and by this aspect of his character is OutOfFocus in favour of worldbuilding and the MythArc.
** Lastly, the version seen in the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' applies the DeconReconSwitch to this trope. The movies have a significantly more realistic take on how Peter and Aunt May's living conditions in the modern, expensive New York, as the two live in a small apartment. While Peter is enrolled in an exclusive school for gifted children, the movies also deliberately contrast Peter, who got there on merit, with a PrivilegedRival who got there because of his family's wealth. He is also introduced as a literal dumpster diver in order to supply his intellectual work and gear as Spider-Man, wearing a "[[BetaOutfit costume]]" that is visibly a refashioned onesie. On the other hand, from his introduction onward the Avengers and Shield hook him up with gear, thereby preventing his life as Spider-Man from seriously affecting his civilian life financially. [[spoiler:The events of ''Film/SpiderManNoWayHome'' [[YankTheDogsChain body-slam him]] right back into this role fully - after becoming an UnPerson to the whole world, Peter's resources are whatever he can get from odd jobs and a Spidey suit he sewed together.]]
* Throughout ''Film/ThePurge'' series, the protagonists are usually working-class people banding together to survive a "holiday" designed to KillThePoor, while the series' GreaterScopeVillain is the plutocratic elite of its [[OppressiveStatesOfAmerica dystopian near-future America]].
* Margot Mills in ''Film/TheMenu''. She's an AudienceSurrogate who grew up poor with a StrugglingSingleMother in a TrashyTrailerHome, she's more sensitive than anyone else to the class implications of the meal that's being served, and its revealed later in the film that she's [[spoiler:not actually Tyler's girlfriend, but an [[HighClassCallGirl escort]] he hired to take to the dinner. The fact that she and the villain Julian Slowik share a blue-collar background winds up saving her life, as it allows her to connect with him and break through his elitist shell, causing him to [[YouWillBeSpared spare her]] from his plan to kill himself and everybody else at the dinner (and make her a damn good cheeseburger on the way out).]]
* A running theme throughout the ''Franchise/{{Alien}}'' series, especially the first two films, is that the protagonists are working-class people who are routinely abused and manipulated by their bosses at the Weyland-Yutani Corporation, which sees them as expendable. In [[Film/{{Alien}} the first film]], the human characters are {{Space Trucker}}s who brought a xenomorph onto their ship because Weyland-Yutani wanted a sample for their own purposes, and didn't care about it killing their workers one by one. In ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', meanwhile, the protagonists are Ellen Ripley, the SoleSurvivor of the first film, and TheSquad of implicitly blue-collar {{Space Marine}}s around her, while the main human villain Carter Burke is a [[SmugSnake sleazy corporate suit]] sent by Weyland-Yutani to once more retrieve a xenomorph sample.

* Étienne Lantier, Maheu and Souvarine in Emile Zola's ''Literature/{{Germinal}}''.
* Sam Vimes from the Literature/{{Discworld}} books is just a beat cop in the town watch who moves up through the ranks to become Captain and has a Duke-ship thrust upon him against his will. The ruler sends him as a diplomat/ambassador where he uses street smarts to beat the bad guys.
** In more recent books we have Harry King, who built an empire on collecting and recycling garbage, after starting out as an urchin. However, he does recognise that fancy book learnin' can be useful at times. He is also impressed that William de Worde knows what a tosheroon is due to his love for the written word.
** ''Unseen Academicals'' is a {{deconstruction}}, exploring how an actual Working Class Hero may end up being [[TallPoppySyndrome criticised for their achievements]].
* Creator/JosephConrad's titular hero ''Literature/{{Nostromo}}'' is the Capataz de Cargadores, the foreman of the stevedores for the Gould Mining Concession of the fictional South American city Sulaco.
* [[Literature/XWingSeries Wedge Antilles]] never went to an Imperial academy, and New Republic military academies didn't form until well after he became a serious AcePilot. Just in general his education isn't detailed (his parents ran the spaceship equivalent of a gas station/garage), but it can be inferred that he got a lot of it on the job. He doesn't look down on people who were trained by the Empire, though, since so many of his friends and comrades are ex-Imperial.
* Sam Yeager in [[Creator/HarryTurtledove Turtledove's]] ''Literature/{{Worldwar}}'' series. A minor-league ballplayer with an interest in science fiction [[spoiler:who eventually becomes an Army colonel and the military's chief advisor on dealing with the Lizards, ultimately traveling to Home]] certainly qualifies.

** Travis Alvarez from ''Pump Six'' is the most shining example. He's the most intelligent and competent person in the entire city of New York... by the virtue of being a pipe repairman doing his duty and keeping the city sewage system running, while everyone around him is [[StupidFuturePeople a complete imbecile]].
** Lalo in ''The Tamarisk Hunter'' is a DeterminedHomesteader, hunting down the titular tamarisks and gaining his water bounty. He's smart enough to not only earn his share, but also to make sure tamarisks won't go completely extinct, fully knowing exterminating them all would make him jobless and, more importantly, without access to water.

* ''Literature/{{Sharpe}}'': Richard Sharpe is a great officer because he fought his way up from the ranks, defeating prejudice from the aristocrat-dominated officer corps who know far less about what warfare is like for the common soldier. Because of this Sharpe focuses on what he knows is important from his battlefield experience instead of getting hung up on theory like the book-taught officers. However, this trope is subverted in one way--Sharpe has great respect for the upper-class William Lawford, who taught him how to read while they were imprisoned together in India.
* The ''Literature/SixteenThirtyTwo'' series has many main characters who are partially this trope. All of these characters are excellent at improvising with what they have, but very few of whom have higher education by the standards of the 20th century from which they were plucked by AlienSpaceBats. However, these characters do not underestimate the value of education and knowledge. In fact, that is the primary asset the small Virginia town brings to 1632 Europe.
* In Creator/GeorgeRRMartin's ''Literature/ASongOfIceAndFire'' the feudal class divisions place a rather tough glass ceiling on the lower classes. But despite that, the series has a few genuine examples in Ser Davos Seaworth and Ser Gendry of Hollowhill, and ambiguous ones in Lady Melisandre and Ser Bronn of the Blackwater. Flea Bottom, TheCityNarrows of King's Landing is especially prone to this, one of the greatest knights in the history of Westeros, Ser Duncan the Tall started as a mere StreetUrchin. His adventures are chronicled in ''Literature/TalesOfDunkAndEgg''.
* In ''Literature/TheMigaxCycle'', most of the main protagonists are this:
** Summer comes from a lower-class background, which ends up giving her an advantage when it comes to not being noticed by authority.
** Leafsong is tough due to her lower-class background and it makes her more alert and suspicious than others.
* Creator/HermanMelville's ''Literature/MobyDick'' has an interesting example in Captain Ahab. He's TheCaptain of a whaling boat but he began as a simple fisherman who steadily rose through the ranks, from crewman to his current position. He's regarded as a rare example of a working-class TragicHero.
--> ''"Bear me out in it, thou great democratic God! who didst not refuse to the swart convict, Bunyan, the pale, poetic pearl; Thou who didst clothe with doubly hammered leaves of finest gold, the stumped and paupered arm of old Cervantes; Thou who didst pick up Andrew Jackson from the pebbles; who didst hurl him upon a war-horse; who didst thunder him higher than a throne! Thou who, in all Thy mighty, earthly marchings, ever cullest Thy selectest champions from the kingly commoners; bear me out in it, O God!"''
* Tanner Sack from ''Literature/TheScar'', a felon sentenced to what was basically death by hard labor in the colonies, ultimately ends up being the man to turn Armada around, saving it from destruction.

* In Creator/JRRTolkien's ''Literature/TheLordOfTheRings'', Sam is the only member of the Fellowship who doesn't come from either royalty or nobility: Aragorn is a king to be, Legolas is a prince and Boromir might as well be one for all practical purposes, Gimli is a relative of Dwarven kings, and among the {{Hobbits}}, Frodo, Merry, and Pippin all come from wealthy and influential families. Sam, on the other hand, is Frodo's gardener. Gandalf also technically isn't royalty or nobility, but his status as a [[OurAngelsAreDifferent Maia]] means that he's not exactly working-class either.
* ''Literature/TrusteeFromTheToolroom:'' Keith Stewart started as a fitter. He is fond of his sister, a former chorus girl who married an aristocratic naval officer but never envied her rise in social and financial status. He loves his job as a writer for ''Miniature Mechanic'', but knows he could have earned more as a factory foreman or as an instructor at a technical college.

* ''Series/GameOfThrones'': Davos Seaworth is a competent commoner who learned his trade on the seas before he was knighted.
* ''Series/TheWire'' has working-class AntiVillain Frank Sobotka, a union head for a group of stevedores working at Baltimore's dying docks. Sobotka, seeing the gradual death of the Baltimore docks and other local industries, has made a desperate deal with an international crime syndicate. Frank and his men smuggle their goods into the country, and Frank uses the payoffs to lobby the local politicians into rebuilding the docks and turning it back into a center of commerce. All Frank wants is to be a working-class hero, and he essentially makes a DealWithTheDevil to allow it to happen not just for himself, but his longtime coworkers and the future generations of Sobotkas that he imagines will still be working the same trade when he's gone. He sums up the slow death of the working class hero with the following, mournful quote:
-->'''Frank Sobotka:''' We used to make shit in this country, build shit. Now we just put our hand in the next guy's pocket.

** Rose Tyler from the 2005 revival is one of the more well-known ones due to being more recent; in contrast with most prior British Companions, she speaks with a lower-class London accent, and before she jumped into the TARDIS, is a low-level "shop girl" (retail worker), who was raised by a single mother in lower-class housing. Cassandra, when possessing Rose in "New Earth", even refers to her as a "chav" which if you know anything about British slang, says that even to snobs from the year 5 Billion, she reads as Working Class.

** She and Mickey are predated by Ace, a Companion of the Seventh Doctor; Ace was a boisterous lower-class tomboy who got kicked out of school for having been a little too good at making [[AndSomeOtherStuff her own signature homemade explosives]] and then somehow [[ItMakesJustAsMuchSenseInContext wound up on an alien space station because of some weird portal thing]]. As a character, she was [[CoolPeopleRebelAgainstAuthority inspired somewhat]] by the '80s Punk movement (which often embraced Working-Class Heroes to some extent), and the [[Creator/SophieAldred actress]] and producers have stated in the past that if they [[ExecutiveMeddling could have gotten away with her speaking a lower-class dialect in an '80s BBC production]], they would have. Like many Working-Class Heroes, Ace had a very... ''direct'' approach to problem-solving; more often than not her solution to a problem was to [[ThereIsNoKillLikeOverkill chuck an explosive at it]], and she's the first Companion with the privilege of getting to attack a [[spoiler:Dalek of all things]] with a ''baseball bat''. [[spoiler:As befitting this trope's tendency to embrace The Direct Approach, it actually ''works'', since the Dalek wasn't expecting an attack from behind; Sophie Aldred has indicated that this was basically the Crowning Moment of Awesome for her whole career]].
** PlayedWith with the later Companion Clara. The first time we meet her [[spoiler:by that name anyway]] she's working as a barmaid, where she speaks with a blatantly lower-class dialect, and it seems like she'll definitely 100% fit this trope... but she also [[spoiler:is LivingADoubleLife as a part-time governess for a well-off family, because it turns out she can fake a posh enough accent to gain employment that way, too]]. Later episodes, after [[spoiler:we meet the ''original'' version of her]] show Clara job-hopping a bit, working alternately as a nanny, a teacher, etc. That last one ''should'' imply a middle (rather than lower) class upbringing or at least some decent education, but we don't see enough to know how she got said jobs or education due to the Doctor popping in and out of her life at such intervals. [[spoiler:It seems probable that some of her "echoes" were lower and/or Working Class too, though - at least for the culture they appeared in; for example, even the one on Gallifrey appears to either be working Security or in the Repair Shop proper, since she's the one who directs him to the "right" TARDIS.]]
** The show's first ''attempt'' at this was back in the 60s with the companion Dodo Chaplet, who was introduced with a working-class Mancunian accent. ExecutiveMeddling made her start speaking RP pronto. A more successful example work be Ben Jackson, a sailor with a broad Cockney accent, contrasted with his middle-class ImpliedLoveInterest Polly.
* ''Series/Daredevil2015'': Matt Murdock, Karen Page, and Foggy Nelson all have working-class backgrounds.
** Matt was born and raised in Hell's Kitchen by his father, a boxer, until he was murdered for refusing to take a dive for the mob. Then he spent his pre-teen and teenage years in St. Agnes, during which he got trained by Stick, and then got a full-ride scholarship to Columbia Law.
** Karen was born and raised in Fagan Corners, Vermont, where her parents ran a struggling diner on the outskirts of town.
** Foggy's family has run a butcher shop out of Hell's Kitchen since 1957, though Foggy opted to go be a lawyer rather than help his brother Theo run the shop. This disconnect actually comes to bite him in season 3, as Foggy's disconnect from his family in recent years allows Wilson Fisk to trick them into committing fraud as a means to blackmail Foggy, and it's over a year before Foggy even finds out that Fisk is blackmailing them.
* ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}:'' The miners refuse to be intimidated into joining the rescue operation ("You haven't got enough bullets for all of us"), but when the minister ''explains'' why their help is necessary, they willingly take part, despite knowing the danger.
* All of the guys shot up in space from ''Series/MysteryScienceTheater3000'' are these. Joel was a janitor, Mike was a temp, Jonah was basically a space trucker and Emily was a rigger.

* Martok from ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'' is a Klingon example. He comes from a low-ranking house in the Ketha lowlands and was initially denied an officer's commission by the aristocratic ''Dahar'' Master Kor. He would eventually earn a battlefield commission due to sheer badassery and rise up to become a general...and then ''Chancellor'' of the Klingon Empire.

* Ironically, the {{Trope Namer|s}}, Music/JohnLennon's song "[[Music/JohnLennonPlasticOnoBand Working Class Hero]]", is a {{Deconstruction}} in which the working class are duped into feeling like heroes but at the end of the day remain in "the working-class" and never break the glass ceiling:
-->[[BreadAndCircuses Keep you doped with religion and sex and TV]]\\
And you think you're so clever and classless and free\\
But you're still [[PrecisionFStrike fucking]] peasants [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech as far as I can see]]
* Name-dropped [[ArcWords repeatedly]] in Music/GreenDay's ''[[Music/TwentyFirstCenturyBreakdown 21st Century Breakdown]]'', in what is probably a ShoutOut to the John Lennon song (which Green Day covered a few years prior). The trope wouldn't be noticeably present otherwise.
-->My generation is zero\\
I never made it as a working-class hero

* Music/{{The Rolling Stones|Band}}' "[[Music/BeggarsBanquet Salt of the Earth]]" is another subversion. It's sung from the perspective of affluent liberals who lionize the working class as compliant underclasses who they have never have to interact or deal with personally:
-->Let's drink to the hardworking people\\
Let's drink to the lowly of birth\\
Raise your glass to the good, not the evil\\
Let's drink to the salt of the earth...\\
\\
When I search a [[FacelessMasses faceless crowd]]\\
A swirling mass of gray and black and white\\
They don't look real to me\\
In fact they look so strange...

* "Working Class Man" performed by Jimmy Barnes (of [[Music/ColdChisel Cold Chisel]]) and written by Jonathan Cain (of [[Music/JourneyBand Journey]]) tells the story about an archetypal working class man and paints him (and by extension working class men generally) in a very noble way. In particular it extols the virtues of this man; referring to him as "a legend of his kind", "running like a cyclone" and with "a heart of gold".
* Practically any song by Music/BruceSpringsteen will feature one of these. Though he admits to never having worked a nine-to-five in his life, he based many of his characters on the people of the factory town of Freehold, New Jersey who he grew up around, notably his father, and his sister and brother-in-law. Some of his heroes race cars or turn to drugs to cope with the boredom of their blue collar jobs, others are forced into a life of crime to make ends meet, while others find fulfillment in their career and learn to embrace who they are.
* Music/{{Eminem}}'s persona (as himself) is a high school dropout who worked degrading jobs and struggled with poverty, abuse and discrimination all his life, but was able to use his incredible rapping skills to escape poverty and ToBeAMaster at his art. However, he also likes to blend this with his AntiRoleModel persona of Slim Shady, a LowerClassLout who embodies all the negative stereotypes of the white working class, an extremely violent AngryWhiteMan who is high and drunk all the time and abuses his girlfriends.

* In the Greek Pantheon, Heracles was often invoked as this. While a demigod (an illegitimate son of Zeus with a mortal human), he grew up on a farm, and unlike other demigods such as Perseus, Achilles, and Theseus who were associated with the military and nobility, Heracles was on the margin of government and treated as a mercenary and freelance adventurer, reflecting the itinerant and uncertainty of common people in the Ancient World. Heracles is likewise famous for his "12 Labours". Cults of Heracles were always popular among the common people in Greece and Rome, and during UsefulNotes/TheFrenchRevolution, Jacobins invoked him as a Republican symbol as part of their classical fetish.
* In UsefulNotes/{{Judaism}}, Samson is invoked as a hero of the common man for reasons similar to Heracles, in that he had qualities closer to that of a common man: great physical strength, love of activity and danger, and also his tragedy is his inability to think and reflect and be easily manipulated.

* In UsefulNotes/{{Hinduism}}, Lord Krishna is very close to this. Although he would become ruler of Mathura and Dwaraka, and in later traditions, be regarded as an Avatar of Vishnu, a great deal of his childhood was spent as a village boy who participated in local games, flirted and teased with the local girls, protected the village from rain and generally spent most of his time performing pranks on elders. Festivals associated with Krishna's childhood, his foster-parentage with village communities are highly popular in India largely because it involved a much more common and earthy tradition than that of other figures in the Pantheon.
* UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} is one of the few, if not the only major religious figure who is explicitly defined as coming from a background as a carpenter/itinerant laborer. He went about challenging the more aristocratic gods of classical religions and the more intellectual scholar-based traditions of the Sadducees and Pharisees. He also identified with the outcasts of society such as the disease-afflicted, vagabonds, prostitutes, and affirmed that rich people have a hard time getting to heaven and his only violent action was driving away merchants that were doing business inside the part of a temple meant for orienting prospective converts.
** In fact, one of the reasons why Greek Philosopher Celsus and possibly others living in the Roman of his time were against Christianity was that it was inconceivable to them that the son of God could have been born as a peasant to a lowly common woman who in turn surely would not have been important enough to be recognized by the Lord. Celsus' admonishment of Christianity was that it was for the lower classes while an educated upper class person would have been against its theology, and as it turned out, [[ForegoneConclusion Christianity's appeal to the common masses helped give it some traction and widespread adoption.]]

* Most Everyman Hero types in ''TabletopGame/FengShui'' are this in a nutshell.
* ''TabletopGame/HunterTheVigil'': [[WeirdTradeUnion The Union]] are made of blue collar workers who hunt monsters, contrasting the scholarly bent of [[AgentScully Null]] [[ScienceHero Mysteriis]] or [[TheAtoner The Loyalists of Thule]].

* Parodied [[OlderThanYouThink all the way back in 1607]] in the play ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knight_of_the_Burning_Pestle Knight of the Burning Pestle]]'', along with ChivalricRomance with a heaping side order of NoFourthWall.
* Creator/ArthurMiller's Theatre/DeathOfASalesman was an attempt to make a working-class or a lower-middle-class man a TragicHero, dramatizing the fatal pursuit of UsefulNotes/TheAmericanDream on the part of Willy Loman as a TragicDream. His son is a more straightforward example especially when he tells his father, "I'm dime a dozen, Pop, and so are you."
* ''Theatre/{{Woyzeck}}'' by Georg Büchner is considered the earliest known major dramatic work featuring almost entirely working-class characters.
-->'''Franz Woyzeck''': Us poor people. You see, Cap’n – money, money. If you don’t have money. Just try to raise your own kind on morality in this world. After all, we’re all flesh and blood. The likes of us are wretched in this world and in the next; I guess if we ever got to Heaven we’d have to help with the thunder. [Translated by Henry J. Schmidt]

* Atlas in ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}''. [[spoiler:His real identity is anything but.]] Bill [=McDonagh=] on the other hand is described as an actual working-class SelfMadeMan and represented what Rapture was meant to have become. His disillusionment with Ryan and Rapture itself as everything began falling apart would lead to his death.

* In ''[[VideoGame/PokemonDiamondAndPearl Pokémon Diamond, Pearl and Platinum]]'', a Worker on Iron Island refers to himself as a working-class hero when he challenges the player and after being defeated.

* Ryo of ''VideoGame/{{Shenmue}}'' very briefly does a stint as a forklift driver at the harbour. Eventually, he sticks up for his workmates against the bullying antics of the local biker gang, winning a fight against them and driving them away for good, but costing his job in the process.
* Barney Calhoun in ''VideoGame/HalfLife'' and ''VideoGame/HalfLifeBlueShift'' is a humble security guard without the fancy education of Gordon Freeman or the advanced military training of Adrian Shepherd.
* ''VideoGame/ScrapMechanic'' features, as its protagonists, an assembly of [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin mechanics]], male and female, sent to an automated [[OneProductPlanet agricultural planet]] to maintain the robots and machines thereon. Of course, the planet happens to have had a little RobotUprising, and mechanics have to {{MacGyver|ing}} together vehicles and weapons [[SurvivalSandbox to protect themselves]]. [[GadgeteerGenius And hoo boy, are they good at it]].
* Rex, the main protagonist of ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'', ekes out a living as a salvager, in a ScavengerWorld where people live [[GeniusLoci on the backs of Titans]] that swim on a boundless sea of clouds, at the bottom of which lie the remnants of long-lost technology. Salvagers dive into the Cloud Sea, braving submerged monsters to retrieve these trinkets and sell them at market exchange points. Rex himself makes a point of not getting mixed up in salvaging weapon-based technology, in spite of the growing military tensions between the Ardanian Empire and the Kingdom of Uraya making this a particularly lucrative option for salvagers, out of a [[TechnologicalPacifist sense of idealism and refusal to support armed conflict]], although he eventually gets reminded that armies need far more than just weapons to function.
* Corvo in ''VideoGame/{{Dishonored}}'' was born a son of a Serkonos tradesman and rose UpThroughTheRanks to become Jessamine and later Emily's Royal Protector. His class remains an issue with some people in ''Dishonored 2'' where Mortimer Ramsey laments taking orders from someone so lowborn. [[spoiler: Delilah]] taunts Emily by reminding her that the former is also a bastard child of a commoner and royalty, just like Emily.
* [[PlayerCharacter Sam]] from ''VideoGame/DeathStranding'' is stated to be one by WordOfGod. He works as a [[{{Courier}} porter]], delivering cargo between settlements. After the prologue, he's also responsible for connecting them to the chiral network, allowing them to communicate much better. [[SilkHidingSteel Fragile]] also works as a porter, although she works for an independent company, while Sam works for the [[DisasterDemocracy the UCA]]. [[MauveShirt Igor]], who we briefly meet in the prologue, is a member of the Corpse Disposal unit, responsible for taking the bodies of the dead to the incinerator outside of town (if the body isn't incinerated, it will essentially turn into a dark matter bomb).
* The {{Player Character}}s in ''VideoGame/DeepRockGalactic'' are a group of working-class miners, JustForFun/{{IN SPACE}} They're constantly in opposition to the cushy jobs everyone above them holds; sometimes their paycheck is in scrip, a-la 19th century mining towns which did likewise to force employees to stay dependant on working at the mine; and the job requires a ton of heavy lifting and physical labor.
* ''VideoGame/MagicalTetrisChallenge'': The good guys all have lower-class jobs, except for Minnie, who seems to be a stay-at-home woman. Mickey works at a factory, Donald works at a harbor, and Goofy runs a farm. This is in contrast with the villainous Pete, who is a [[AristocratsAreEvil rich man]].
* ''VideoGame/PizzaTower'' has Peppino, who is basically [[VideoGame/WarioLand Wario]] if you replaced Wario's greed with the fear of his humble little pizza place going under.

%%* Website/TheOnion: Joad Cressbeckler

* ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons'': Subverted with Homer Simpson. He may be working-class and a lot of episode plots revolve around his struggle to make ends meet, but many other episodes showcase that he's an InvincibleIncompetent IdiotHoudini who walks away from his work on a constant basis and has done some really, ''really'' crazy things in his lifetime (been an astronaut, won a Grammy...) and he has never lost his financial status when other men have lost it all. Two episodes ("Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou?" and "Beyond Blunderdome") revolve around the guest character believing that Homer's incredibly simple tastes represent the common American man and grant him power to mould their projects, only to find out the hard way that [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} that Homer's tastes, while simple, are just too damned weird for anybody else to enjoy]].

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* Atlas in ''VideoGame/{{BioShock|1}}''. [[spoiler:His real identity is anything but.]] Bill Mc Donagh on the other hand is described as an actual working-class SelfMadeMan and represented what Rapture was meant to have become. His disillusionment with Ryan and Rapture itself as everything began falling apart would lead to his death.

* Mario from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' remains highly original as a video game hero. Despite being the first major video game star, and living in a fantasy world that is not realistic, he stands out as a stocky, mustached plumber in working overalls whose real powers are his ability to move with his hands and legs, as opposed to video game heroes who are elites -- soldiers, warriors, super-soldiers, etc. ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'', as well as the marketing for ''VideoGame/SuperMarioMaker'', also depict him as a construction worker, and several early games had him and Luigi work jobs like demolition, pest control, or bottling.

'''Hooper:''' All right, all right. Hey, I don't need this... I don't need this working-class hero crap.

* Several observers and Grant Morrison observe that the original appeal of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's Franchise/{{Superman}} was that of a Working-Class Hero (though as a civilian news reporter he's middle-class) who in the [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness early issues]] tackled the CorruptCorporateExecutive, slum lords, strikebreakers and was a WifeBasherBasher. Morrison specifically compared Superman to Franchise/{{Batman}} as class opposites, the former grew up on a farm and needs to draw a salary while the latter is filthy rich.

* Margot Mills in ''Film/TheMenu''. She's an AudienceSurrogate who grew up poor with a StrugglingSingleMother in a TrashyTrailerHome, she's more sensitive than anyone else to the class implications of the meal that's being served, and its revealed later in the film that she's [[spoiler:not actually Tyler's girlfriend, but an [[HighClassCallGirl escort]] he hired to take to the dinner. The fact that she and the villain Julian share a blue-collar background winds up saving her life, as it allows her to connect with him and break through his elitist shell, causing him to [[YouWillBeSpared spare her]] from his plan to kill himself and everybody else at the dinner (and make her a damn good cheeseburger on the way out).]]

* Rex, the main protagonist of ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'', ekes out a living as a salvager, in a ScavengerWorld where people live [[GeniusLoci on the backs of Titans]] that swim on a boundless sea of clouds, at the bottom of which lie the remnants of long-lost technology. Salvagers dive into the Cloud Sea, braving submerged monsters to retrieve these trinkets and sell them at market exchange points. Rex himself makes a point of not getting mixed up in salvaging weapon-based technology, in spite of the growing military tensions between the Ardanian Empire and the Kingdom of Uraya making this a particularly lucrative option for salvagers.

* Several observers and Grant Morrison observe that the original appeal of Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster's Franchise/{{Superman}} was that of a WorkingClassHero (though as a civilian news reporter he's middle-class) who in the [[EarlyInstallmentWeirdness early issues]] tackled the CorruptCorporateExecutive, slum lords, strikebreakers and was a WifeBasherBasher. Morrison specifically compared Superman to Franchise/{{Batman}} as class opposites, the former grew up on a farm and needs to draw a salary while the latter is filthy rich.

* Mario from ''VideoGame/SuperMarioBros'' remains highly original as a video-game hero. Despite being the first major video game star, and living in a fantasy world that is not realistic, he stands out as a stocky, mustached plumber in working overalls whose real powers are his ability to move with his hands and legs, as opposed to video-game heroes who are elites - soldiers, warriors, super-soldiers, etc. ''VideoGame/DonkeyKong'', as well as the marketing for ''VideoGame/SuperMarioMaker'', also depict him as a construction worker.

Related to FarmBoy. See also BookDumb, AlmightyJanitor. Magical versions may be a BlueCollarWarlock. For a more negative example, see SocialClimber, who is usually regarded as a working-class villain, in that the working-class hero does not deny his roots or forgets about his family and where he comes from. Can overlap with ScienceHero or NerdActionHero (or even both) depending on the job. Contrast CrimefightingWithCash for wealthy superheroes who rely on their income to fight crime, and the LowerClassLout for hard-drinking, lazy working-class types (though the two can overlap if the working-class hero is also a a particularly dark AntiHero like a SociopathicHero).

** Lastly, the version seen in the ''Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse'' applies the DeconReconSwitch to this trope. The movies have a significantly more realistic take on how Peter and Aunt May's living conditions in the modern, expensive New York, as the two live in a small apartment. While Peter is enrolled in an exclusive school for gifted children, the movies also deliberately contrast Peter, who got there on merit, with a PrivilegedRival who got there because of his family's wealth. He is also introduced as a literal dumpster diver in order to supply his intellectual work and gear as Spider-Man, wearing a "[[BetaOutfit costume]]" that is visibly a refashioned onesie. On the other hand, from his introduction onward the Avengers and Shield hook him up with gear, thereby preventing his life as Spider-Man from seriously affecting his civilian life financially.

Figuring everything out themselves gives them initative, common sense and folk wisdom that makes them to solve problems.

This character, at times, tends to be disdainful and negative to characters who learn things through books and/or display conscious and unconscious elitist class assumptions. In other places, [[ChummyCommies for instance communist nations]], a Working Class Hero reads books, learns about ideas, and generally isn't anti-intellectual -- this character type is more common in [[SocialistRealism socialist and communist literature]], which usually averts WorkingClassPeopleAreMorons.