The man was always aware, sometimes proudly and sometimes

IMO, usage of "him" is wrong here. It should be "he..."

So we are left with C & E. I'm going with "E".

Nandan,
"...a world dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and people more polished ..."
This red part coming later is causing uneasiness to me

If usage of him is incorrect then E is the best option.
But Vivek, could ypu please explain why the usage of him is wrong?
Kindly give me few examples.

Thanks,
Brajesh

Hey Brajesh,

Here is an example,

"I am taller than him" -----> Incorrect
"I am taller than he is" -----> Correct

This rule is slightly difficult for non native English speakers (like us) to digest

- the sequence should be 'wealtheir, better-educated and more polished'
We can discard C as it is not parallel.
We can also discard B and D becuase it results in the redundant use of 'more' when a simple wealthier would have done the job

- 'he' is the correct pronoun to use.
We can discard A.

E is the best choice. To read more about whether to use the subject or object pronoun after 'than', read this link: https://www.grammarbook.com/grammar/pronoun.asp

hai guys, the answer is E. The explanation is as follows

In comparative expressions (such as "more than" or "better than" or "smarter than") followed by a
pronoun, the case, again, is important. In everyday speech, most people use the objective case
when they should use the subjective case.
Faulty Usage
I liked it better than her.
She does it more than me.
My sisters are smarter than them.
Tip: As a guide to correct usage, in your mind, add the verb that is understood but not stated: I
liked it better than she ["did" is understood]. She does it more than I ["do" is understood]. My
sisters are smarter than they ["are" is understood]

It is E - "Than he" is correct, guys.

Here is the complete (E):

The man was always aware, sometimes proudly and sometimes resentfully, that he was a small-town Midwesterner who was thrust into a world dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people than he.

Getting rid of the stuff that doesn't matter:
The man was always aware, sometimes proudly and sometimes resentfully, that he was a small-town Midwesterner who was thrust into a world dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people than he.

So now we have:

He was thrust into a world dominated by more polished people than he.

Which implies:

He was thrust into a world dominated by more polished people than he was.

The second was is implied because we're using the comparison signal "more polished than" to compare two clauses. When you compare clauses, you can often use the elliptical construction (except with some comparison signals, most notably like/unlike which are restricted to comparing nouns). Because "he" is a subject pronoun and "him" is an object pronoun, "he" is actually preferable here.

A similar (legal) construction would be the following sentence:

She is more accomplished than I.

There are other issues with the other answer choices here, but I wanted to point out that "he" is just fine in (E).

This is what I do to solve the ambiguity. Put a verb after the pronoun.
1) Paula is a better shooter than he is .... ?
2) Paula is a better shooter than him is .... ?

Which one of the above do you think is correct?

Others might have something better to add.

I know this is an old thread but I could not stand a side and not trying to explain this:

the subject in the second clause of the question is "he" so when you compare the subject to someone else it has to be to "he" ex. "he was a small-town ........ dominated by x , y , and more polished than he"

@galafgon,vivek123
If I get rid of extra elements, the sentence to get base sentence
S1:"he was a small-town ........ dominated by x , y , and more polished than he"
S2:"he was a small-town ........ dominated by x , y , andmore polished than he"
S3:"he was more polished than he"
I am really not liking this sentence. It is hard for me to digest that the last "he" in E.

I understand that "I am taller than he" is acceptable owing to ellipsis but as per my perception we are not comparing subjects here.
The comparison is between objects of this sentence(Sub+Verb+obj).
In a parallel eg.: I love chocolates more than candies. Since, here the comparison is happening within objects than subjects.
When I say objects, I mean comparison between more polished people and object version of he(i.e. him).

I would have accepted "he" in sentence: He was better than he [is].
But accepting "he" in sentence is bothersome to me: Small Town Midwestener is was thrust in a world dominated by smarter people than him

Please let me know if I am missing anything here and how to accept this subject version of he than object version of he(him).

Hi Joshnit

vis-a vis your request

In essence both usages are correct technically; It all depends upon whether you use than as a conjunction or preposition. If you are using ‘than’ as a subordinate conjunction, joining a main clause and a sub clause, then ‘than he (than he + the elliptical verb) is acceptable.
On the contrary, if you are using ‘than’ as a preposition, then what follows cannot be a clause but simply a noun or pronoun or noun phrase. Now let’s see the topic in question.
The man was always aware, sometimes proudly and sometimes resentfully, that he was a small-town Midwesterner who was thrust into a world that was dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people than him.

(A) who was thrust into a world that was dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people than him
(B) who had been thrust into a world that was dominated by more wealthy, educated, and polished people than him
(C) who had been thrust into a world dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and people more polished than he was
(D) thrust into a world dominated by more wealthy, educated, and polished people than him
(E) thrust into a world dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people than he
Here in my opinion, you are comparing wealthier, better and more polished people with some other human being. Now the crux is that wealthier, better educated and more polished people are objects of the preposition ‘by’. So you have to compare wealthier, better educated and more polished with another object namely ‘him’.

Here is yet another way to ascertain this; the reversal test. Let us now interchange both the words and see whether we can get the meaning rightly.

1. dominated by him than by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people
2. dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people than he( was)
3. dominated by he ( was ) than by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people
4. dominated by him than by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people

You see choices No 1 and 4 retain the meaning, while 2 and 3 do not

There is yet another view that in sentences, where the verb is originated from the base verb ‘be” such as to be, is, was ,are, were, , will be and the like, and also in the case of verbs such as seem, appear, look, then you use ‘than’ only as a preposition and not as a conjunction

Ex; I am taller than him
I look/ appear/ seem to be taller than him

Hence, by all counts, I would prefer -than him- over other choices.

There are three choices A, B and D. A can be dropped because the past tense 'was' is not as appropriate as 'had been' to describe something that happened deep in the past.
But D is still better because, it is concise.

By the way, technically I do not see much difference between wealthier or more wealthy except that more wealthy is less common.

Meaning

The man was always aware of his situation. He knew he was a small town midwesterner thrusted into a world. This world was dominated by people who were wealthier, better educated and more polished than him.

Error analysis
The man was always aware, sometimes proudly and sometimes resentfully
that
he was a small-town Midwesterner
who was thrust into a world ---- No error
that
was dominated by wealthier, better-educated- No Error
,and more polished people than him. he /him, In spoken english we always use Him for subject pronouns "He", but in formal english subject pronouns are always to be written as they are

He loves Gmat more than her----Object pronoun her, this creates ambiguity, He loves GMAT vs He loves her, He loves GMAT vs she loves GMAT. The correct formal form would be He love GMAT more than She.

The world is dominated by more polished people than him- The world is dominated by polished people vs the world is dominated by him---This is the ambiguity

POE
(A) who was thrust into a world that was dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people than him- As discussed in error analysis
(B) who had been thrust into a world that was dominated by more wealthy, educated, and polished people than him - Same error as A
(C) who had been thrust into a world dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and people more polished than he was - Parallelism error People more polish is not parallel to wealthier, better educated.
(D) thrust into a world dominated by more wealthy, educated, and polished people than him -Same error as A
(E) thrust into a world dominated by wealthier, better-educated, and more polished people than he- Correct answer choice

I don't think this concept is tested on GMAT but still good to know.

There is something weird about Choice E.



First, if than is being used a conjunction, then there should be a clause after He; We might say the verb is elided after the subject he—but the vital question is—what is the elided verb .When you elide, the actual word should be present verbatim earlier. It cannot be ‘dominated’ because ‘dominated’ is not a verb here; it is a past participle.
For that matter, we cannot use an action verb here, after ‘he’ as there is no action verb in the prior part of the clause but for only a linking verb ‘was”
That is the reason we have to surmise that ‘than’ is used as preposition here, in which case, we cannot use ‘he”

1. We have a comparison. So it has to be "he", not "him". A, B, D are out.
2. How can we use past perfect here? There are no actions before. C, B are out.
It leaves us with E,the correct option.
Moreover.
3. Why "he was" in C? He is now. In general. C is out.
4. "Wealthy" has 2 syllables and ends with "y" so it will be "wealthier", not "more wealthy". D is out.
5. "who was thrust" seems redundant.

1. There is no action in the past before another action in the past, so past perfect does not fit ---> B, C are out.
2. Too many "was" ---> we can go without it ---> So A is out.
3. "Wealthy" is disyllabic word, that ends in "y" ---> the rule for comparative form is "wealthier".
"More" is not used in this case. D is out.

E

C breaks parallelism. (people more polished than him)

‘he’ is the correct pronoun to use in A, not ‘him.

B and D both use ‘more wealthy’. This is a less efficient phrase than simply using the comparative form. So E is the best choice.

Isn't the usage of "had been" correct here?
Can anybody help?

I believe that the action of "thrust" happened before he was aware of the fact that "he was a small-town Midwesterner".