It determines ones success in society, obviously it’s not a necessarily fact or universal statement, but society views some jobs as higher, causing them to be looked at as higher
The mood that these words help create is one of despair and difficulty. Clearly the narrator is struggling, he actually uses the words "difficult" and "struggling" clearly within his paragraph. Other words that contribute to this mood of despair are "fear", "faint", and "hungry". A person usually only feels these things and discusses them when they are in a place that is dangerous and that they have no real hope of getting out of.