Alienation - Essay

The term alienation refers to the isolation of one’s self from a belonging society. When a person is alienated they no longer feel as if they belong or have the same views as the group or society they live in. How does one become alienated from something that they once belonged to? This is a question many have discussed throughout history. In Voltaire’s book Candide, Marx’s book The Communist Manifesto, Hoffer’s The True Believer, and Memmi’s The Colonizer and the Colonized, all these authors address man’s alienation in modern society and come up with solutions for man’s alienation within each book.

This story represents both physical and emotional alienation as the separation of the younger brother was detrimental to both. In the story it states “For 20 years the little family I left behind wondered if I was alive, where I was and what I was like.” (81) showing that the family was deprived and missed the physical presence of the younger brother. They had no clue on what kind of a person he was and little to no recollection of his existence. The same thing can be said about the younger brother having no recollection of his family as he was taken away from a very young age. It was after twenty years, that the older brother was able to track the younger brother home; however the damage was already done. The older brother became quieter and more refined as he was deprived from a healthy brother relationship as stated by the author “It was hardest on my brother”(81). Also, the younger brother was completely isolated from his true family from an age of four, thus affecting him dearly as the author writes “… we don’t get that much time to visit anymore … brothers who never had the chance to age together” (82). The author also writes “At first it was tentative … we didn’t talk much” (82) showing how the isolation of the younger brother resulted in minimal conversations and alienated

In the Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts of 1844, Karl Marx identifies a dichotomy that is created and bolstered by the capitalist mode of production. In this mode of production, the dichotomy presents itself in a division of labor that forms of two kinds of people: capitalists, the owners of the means of production, and laborers, those who work under the domain of the capitalist. Marx harshly criticizes this mode of production, arguing that it exploits the laborer and estranges him from himself and his fellow man. According to Marx, this large-scale estrangement is achieved through a causal chain of effects that results in multiple types of alienation, each contingent upon the other. First, Marx asserts that under capitalism, the laborer is alienated from his product of labor. Second, because of this alienation from his product, man is also alienated then from the act of production. Third, man, in being alienated both from his product and act of production, is alienated from his species essence, which Marx believes to be the ability to create and build up an objective world. Finally, after this series of alienations, Marx arrives at his grand conclusion that capitalist labor causes man to be alienated from his fellow man. In this paper, I will argue in support of Marx’s chain of alienations, arriving at the conclusion that laborers, under the capitalist mode of production, cannot retain their species essence and thus cannot connect with one another, and exist in a world

This means that a man is alienated from the substances that he produces, alienated from the process of production, alienated from the community that he comes from and alienated from himself (his own humanity). He has the idea that economic alienation that occurs under capitalism is involved in the daily activities of man. Capitalism allows us to be entirely disconnected from the works that we produce and buy into. We work FOR things, no longer for ourselves. Things that would normally be in harmony are antagonized while the actions we would normally be against, we buy into.

Alienation can be defined as a state of being cut off or separate from a person or group of people. There are many factors that cause people to become alienated: race, political views, social status, etc. The texts “The Great Gatsby”, “The Catcher in the Rye”, and the play “Death of a Salesman” all portray characters who are cut off from the rest society. Despite the character's best effort to fit in, they ultimately fail. The authors argue that one's ideology can cause them to be alienated.

Alienation is when someone is being isolated from a group or an activity to which one should be involved. Throughout The novels Ordinary People by Judith Guest, Frankenstein by Mary Shelley, and the play Oedipus at Colonus by Sophocles, alienation is shown. In Ordinary People, Conrad suffers from depression. His brother Buck died in a Boat accident which Conrad feels responsible for. Ever sense that Conrad and his family have never been the same. Conrad falls apart and struggles with everything from school to just life. He does not want to be around anymore. He alienates himself from his friends, family, and just his life goes down hill. His depression causes alienation which results in him wanting to end it all and commit suicide. In Frankenstein, The Monster that Victor Frankenstein creates is alienated right from the start. Doing this to the monster effects him in a very bad way. As a result the monster looks and others perceive him as a terrible beast while really he just wants people and victor to treat and think of as a human. He is alienated from society which leads to him causing many problems and wanting to get revenge by ruining his creator, Victor Frankenstein’s life. Oedipus in Oedipus at Colonus, alienates himself from everyone as a result of the curse he proposed in Oedipus Rex. Oedipus feels that he has to follow through with the curse because it is the noble thing to do. He leaves Thebes and wanders for years in exile until he comes upon the holy ground of

Throughout the novel “House of Sand and Fog” by Andre Dubus III, the recurring theme of alienation takes its toll on the lives of the two main characters: Kathy and Behrani. We see how the isolation of both characters not only has an effect on them, but also on the lives of others who matter most to them. Alienation is the act of being withdrawn or isolated from a life in which one is accustomed or should be accustomed to. The incidents of alienation demonstrated in the novel include, the relationship between each character and their families, Behrani and his family being forced out of their home country and living in America, and Kathy getting evicted from her family house. As we see these events occur throughout the book, we also learn that both characters will do whatever it takes to claim ownership of what they both call home. This drawn-out battle over a piece of property ends up putting Kathy along with Lester behind bars, and with Behrani losing his son in the process.

Marx’s theory of alienation is concerned primarily with social interaction and production; he believes that we are able to overcome our alienation through human emancipation.

Alienation, a term used to describe the feeling of no connection with others or the separation from former attachment. When it comes to sociologist aspect, especially on Marxism, this term describes the stage of losing one’s identity. To Karl Marx’s belief, Alienation means the loss of control over the process and product of work (Bell, 1959). Thus, under the capitalism, workers are alienated by the production system.

The concept of alienation plays a significant role in Marx's early political writing, especially in the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts of 1848, but it is rarely mentioned in his later works. This implies that while Marx found alienation useful in investigating certain basic aspects of the development of capitalist society, it is less useful in putting forward the predictions of the collapse of capitalism. The aim of this essay is to explain alienation, and show how it fits into the pattern of Marx's thought. It will be concluded that alienation is a useful tool in explaining the affect of capitalism on human existence. In Marx's thought, however, the usefulness of alienation it is limited to explanation. It does not help in

THE TERM "alienation" in normal usage refers to a feeling of separateness, of being alone and apart from others. For Marx, alienation was not a feeling or a mental condition, but an economic and social condition of class society--in particular, capitalist society.

Topic: One of the essential elements to Marx’s alienation concept is that of people or workers being alienated from each other under capitalism, it is still relevant in explaining the problems of the modern world.

Before the industrial revolution, people were defined by their work. For example, a bread maker. They were in charge of the process of making bread, selling the bread and the profit. According to Marx, under capitalism the proletarian experienced “alienation.” This is where an individual is isolated from society, work and sense of self. Marx discussed four different types of alienation: alienation from product, process of labor, from species and of man from man (Murray, Lecture 3). The first being alienation from the product. In Marx’s time and today’s world, we engage in a lot of mass production in our capitalist system. People often are placed in positions where they are responsible for making a small part of the product or engage in a very specific task. Going back to the bread example, under capitalist system, a person may only be in charge of adding the flour to the machine and the rest of the work is done by the machine. The person is not involved in any other aspect of the work. Today many people work to make a produced that they do not own for other people to consume with the purpose of being to sell of that product and make the maximum amount of profit. But in today’s world, the profit is owned by the capitalist owner who is in charge of the production, and distribution of the product. The second type of alienation is the alienation from one’s own labor. Making products in the capitalist system puts people in a repetitive position. The laborers end up going through the motions they have one highly specialized job in production the whole product. The labor does not give input into the purpose design distribution or marketing of the product. Simply, the worker is a small piece of the puzzle. The third is the alienation from others. To Marx, this human essence was not separate from activity or work, but being separate from other human species. The fourth is alienation from man to man where the worker can’t connect to other worker. Workers compete with each other. A capitalist system sees the labor of the worker to a commercial commodity that can be traded in the competitive labor-market. It does not view labor as a constructive socioeconomic activity that is part of the collective common effort performed

Alienation refers to the prospect of isolation in existentialism. It is a part of existentialism because for one to have an existential mindset, they must differ from the rest of the common thoughts and formulate them on their own. This results in an unavoidable isolation from everybody else. Before Andy asked Red for a rock-hammer, Red knew, “Andy had no cell-mate, and … that was just the way he wanted it” (King 27).

In the short story “Stephen” the boy’s lack of close companions results in his current state of alienation; this ultimately results in suffering. Stephen is a foster child, abused by his foster mother and his art teacher. In school, Stephen has no friends, and the adults in his life make his situation worse. While in school, “He talks to himself. He moves his mouth as if he were talking”(40). Stephen gets very lonely in school causing him to act out, and therefore gets punished by his art teacher. Furthering his misery, Stephen has no one to explain his abuse to. His classmate in school describes him coming in one day; “He lied to me first when I asked him how his eye got so battered”(40). Without friends in his life, Stephen does not feel comfortable expressing his problems to anyone; the lack of companionship has isolated him so that he lacks the skills needed to interact and express himself to others.  Ultimately this is the reason for the continuation of his suffering. The pain he has to endure would not continue if Stephen had someone close in his life he could trust and elucidate his abuse to.