“Acceptance to the Cruel Reality: A Marxist Reading on William Blake”

Marxist literary criticism as defined by Peter Barry approaches a literary text through terms introduced in Karl Marx’ and Friedrich Engels’ Communist economic theory. Their jointly written text titled The Communist Manifesto called for a society with “state ownership on industry… rather than private ownership”. The social theory later became known as Marxism. As stated in Barry’s text, “The aim of Marxism is to bring about a classless society, based on the common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange” (156). One of the theory’s main aspects looks to the “exploitation of one social class by another. The result leaves one class alienated.” Central to Marxism is a belief in its ability to change the material world, which it theorizes. According to Marxist theorists, only through conflicts between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, can the status quo positively change (157).

“The Chimney Sweeper” (128): This version of the Chimney Sweeper is very upfront and saddening. The version that is presented in the songs of innocence is much more of a calm town and is not as straightforward, while this version is very short and to the point. In this version its very deep as the narrator basically just calls out the parents/church for doing these horrible things to the children. I really love all three stanzas of this poem because they all have a really deep meaning and Blake transitions through them very well. Reading this poem over and over I don’t know what to make of it other than it is an absolute horrible situation. I think it can be tied in to

This assessment of turning objects and persons into something of value is a fragmented yet archetypical manifestation of Marx’s greater philosophical works. The literary criticism that implements Marx’s theories of socialism and dialectics is the basis on interpreting literary works.

In the words of Karl Marx, the founding father of Marxism, Marxism principally believes that “the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” In essence, Marx asserts that every day is a tale of conflict between society’s upper and lower class. While controversial in the real world, this notion is not far-fetched in the realm of literature. For example, Alice Walker’s short story “Everyday Use” shows prominent signs of tension between classes. When examined from a Marxist perspective, Walker’s characters in “Everyday Use” highlight how each class values items and how survival needs and societal expectations differ among classes.

and to write historical biographies to make the Order better known. The abbot also urged the

In the 18th century, African Americans were mostly slaves. They were treated like the property of whites and had very few rights. However not all whites were for slavery. Two white English writers who created a Black persona to write poems supporting abolition were William Blake, in The Little Black Boy, and William Cowper, in The Negro’s Complaint. In 1788, William Cowper wrote The Negro’s Complaint in support of the ending of the trade in slaves. The poem is criticizes slavery how horrible slavery really was. William Blake's The Little Black Boy is from Songs of Innocence and was published in 1789. The poem is about a little Black boy’s struggle with his identity. At this time in England, slavery was still legal and would not be

Jim Powell’s “Doxology” is a creative twist on religious hymns. These hymns originally praised God. However, Powell deviates from the norm by turning these hymns into a powerful poem. This poem exposes the people who control the world, wealthy capitalists, and the defective nature about how our society is run.These factors that are present in his poem correlate with the same beliefs and ideals of Karl Marx, a German Philosopher who theorized that true social change will occur when the proletariats (working class) rebel against the wealthy owners (the Bourgeoisie). Like Marx theorized, Powell shows a strong sense of inequality between the wealthy bourgeoisie and working class in his poem. From a sociological perspective, Powell’s poem radiates classic Marxist values that make it an important piece of literature for society to comprehend.

William Blake is a twenty-two year old college student about to finish his senior year student teaching in Cheshire, Connecticut. William and his Evangelical Christian college sweetheart plan to embark on careers as traditional public school teachers when William’s advisor introduces him to a network of charter schools launched by a shadowy organization called The Movement. A darkly charismatic leader whose cultish charm promises to fundamentally transform America spearheads The Movement. William’s right wing political beliefs and conservative values make him a perfect recruit for The Movement. The Libertarian chronicles William’s ascension through the ranks of The Movement as a new strain of right wing politicians dominate the American body

Literature, as a crucial part of culture, functions as the reflection of reality. According to Marx, “the mode of production in material life determines the general character of the social, political and spiritual processes of life” (Williams 266). Superstructure, as the product of men’s spiritual processes, containing various ideological forms one of which is literature, is not determined by “the consciousness of men”, but by “the social existence” (266). Concerning working-class literature, it follows this rule as well—“the whole class produces and shapes these out of its material foundation and out of the corresponding social conditions” (267). Thus, working-class literature is created upon the contemporary status quo of the class

The Marxist literary criticism states that “literature reflects class struggle and materialism.” Someone who reads texts through a Marxist lens tries to identify issues that relate to both money and power, and commonly asks questions about how they deal with the struggles for money and power, along with the roles they play in the work. These criticisms stem from the beliefs and perceptions of popular philosopher Karl Marx that human society consists of clashes and conflicts between the oppressed and oppressing; between the proletariats and the bourgeoisie (Delahoyde).

Between the years of 1750-1800 London was known to be an unbearable place. Corruption, Crime, and Death was an ever-present theme throughout these years. The Poet William Blake made these offensives known through his poem “London” (1794). William brings attention to the horrific reality about the conditions citizens lived in, and the corrupted minds of society. During these years The French Revolution was starting to spread fear throughout the United Kingdom. While English radicals like William Blake were under the impression that this war would end the tyranny place on society, others saw this war as an ending of European civilization. The Revolution starting inspiring citizens to think for themselves, and the radical political groups began forming throughout England. The shift in English society began worrying the authorities, so they started to minimize the public’s freedom, and changing society all together.

We can see transcendentalism with William Blake and his poetry. William Blake, who is a pre-romantic poet, handles his themes sincerely with a mind that is not distracted by the existing opinions such as rationalism, suppression and reason of opinions in his society. Although, he favors the morals of love, freedom, brotherhood and equality. Therefore, I believe he is considered one of the best romantic poets of all time. The majority of Blake’s poems show the romantic side of things such as simplicity, nature, transcendentalism, imagination, childhood and freedom. For instance, in his poem "the Lamb", simplicity, nature, and transcendentalism are strong romantic descriptions that we, as readers, can see them easily. Finally, the

Before being good or bad, human beings are just humans who have to live with their own nature, which they sometimes cannot control. Man can do good or evil but he always makes it with a unique purpose, his personal satisfaction, because it is simply in his nature. Thus, human beings aware of good and evil are confronted with conflicting choices but they never act against their will. The poem, “The Human Abstract”, written by William Blake reflects on these characteristics of human beings and demonstrates how they are unconsciously corrupted by their own nature in a selfish way.

William Blake is one of England’s most famous literary figures. He is remembered and admired for his skill as a painter, engraver, and poet. He was born on Nov. 28, 1757 to a poor Hosier’s family living in or around London. Being of a poor family, Blake received little in the way of comfort or education while growing up. Amazingly, he did not attend school for very long and dropped out shortly after learning to read and write so that he could work in his father’s shop. The life of a hosier however was not the right path for Blake as he exhibited early on a skill for reading and drawing. Blake’s skill for reading can be seen in his understanding for and use of works such as the Bible and Greek classic literature.

William Blake was one of those 19th century figures who could have and should have been beatniks, along with Rimbaud, Verlaine, Manet, Cezanne and Whitman. He began his career as an engraver and artist, and was an apprentice to the highly original Romantic painter Henry Fuseli. In his own time he was valued as an artist, and created a set of watercolor illustrations for the Book of Job that were so wildly but subtly colored they would have looked perfectly at home in next month's issue of Wired.