An Argument That The ' Bloody Code ' Essay

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).

“I done a bad thing. I done another bad thing (91).” In the novel Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck these “bad things” happen continuously. Do each of these instants prove that Lennie is violent? In this novel, Lennie is not a violent person because he doesn’t have mental stability, he doesn’t realize his strength, and he has never shown intentional violence.

“There are too many people, and too few human beings.” (Robert Zend) Even though there are many people on this planet, there are very few civilized people. Most of them are naturally savaged. In the book, Lord of the Flies, by William Golding, boys are stranded on an island far away, with no connections to the adult world. These children, having no rules, or civilization, have their true nature exposed. Not surprisingly, these children’s nature happens to be savagery. Savagery can clearly be identified in humans when there are no rules, when the right situation arouses, and finally when there is no civilization around us.

“People were forced into all sorts of tricks and expediencies to survive, all sorts of shabby and humiliating compromises. In thousands and thousands of homes fathers deserted the family and went on the track (became itinerant workers), or perhaps took to drink. Grown sons sat in the kitchen day after day, playing cards, studying the horses [betting on horse racing] and trying to scrounge enough for a threepenny bet, or engaged in petty crime, mothers cohabited with male boarders who were in work and who might support the family, daughters attempted some amateur prostitution and children were in trouble with the police”.

Robert Hewes role changed over time, “He was a nobody who briefly became a somebody in the Revolution and, for a moment near the end of his life, a hero”, (Young, 5). Hewes throughout his life learned that violence put on other people wasn’t the answer, “What was lost to the public was that Hewes was at odds with the

The bloody code was the name given of an era in English legal history, where there was a rise in the number of people given the death penalty. In 1688, the number of offences which resulted in death sentence was fifty. This rose dramatically to over two hundred offences in the 1800s. Offences include cutting down trees, stealing horses or sheep, pickpocketing, murder and rape. The reasons why the bloody code may have come to prominence, is because an increase socioeconomic activity and landownership. In the book entitled Albion’s Fatal Flaw’s the author’s mentions that as the decades passed, the maturing trade, commerce and industry of England spawned more laws to protect particular types of property. Once property had been officially deified,

In England, many colonists are caught, “...often pilfering and thieving and other lewdness...” (Document 1D4) Due to the lack of jobs, there are numerous homes with no source of income. Without income, it becomes impossible to obtain food and resources needed in order to survive. This leads to drastic measures from the people in despair. In order to survive, many people have to resort to crime regardless of the consequences.

This paper attempts to offer a Marxist reading of Conrad 's Heart of Darkness (1899) and Defoe's The Life and Strange Surprising Adventures of Robinson Crusoe (1719) . Specifically , this paper highlights how the concept of commodification helps us to understand the dialectic struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat which are both considered the products of their socioeconomic and material circumstance with an emergent capitalist culture. By depicting how capitalists in the two novellas commodify objects or humans and by investigating the struggles between the 'haves' and the 'haves-not' .

England has a reasonable repute for cruelty. A mutual awareness of the Middle Ages is that society was abused by continuous violence and social indifference against fatalities by the insistent dignity of the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse continuously pushing back and forth across Europe.

The novel, Lord of The Flies wrote by William Golding is based on the survial of young boys stranded on a island with no adults. The tv show, Lost is based on the survial of plane members traveling after a brutal crash. Through both of the plots, it shows the brutalness of being stranded and the push to survive in the same type of conditions. In both situations the characters are battling with “something” in the jungle and also inner demons they are battling within themselves. They are forced to make disitions that humans shouldn’t have to, or have the power to. So was the deaths of some of these characters accidently ? needed? Or harshley planned?

Lord of the Flies, an allegorical novel by William Golding, holds truths about mankind’s true nature of existence. The novel explores the savagery in all men that lies dormant, yet when society’s rules cease to exist, the boy’s innocence perishes along with it. The boys attempt to band together and mock the society that they came from, but not understanding the complexity of the situation, results in their society falling into ruins. On the island the boys are returned to man’s primitive nature, without rules or discipline, and they slowly drift into anarchy. Without proper guidance, the boys resort to cloaking their innocence with body paint to survive. With the body paint coating their skin, the boys bury their old personas within and allow themselves to commit acts that society would frown upon. When Jack’s tribe uses the facade of body paint to dissociate themselves from civilization’s morals, they denote that hiding one’s true identity liberates them from the constraints of society.

To a large extent, the extract from the Report by Samuel S. Scriven, Esq., on the Employment of Children and Young Persons in the Collieries of a Part of the West Riding of Yorkshire; and on the State, Condition, and Treatment of such Children and Young Persons, 1842 confirms the charges of class bias contained in Jane Humphries article "Protective Legislation, the Capitalist State, and Working Class Men: The Case of the 1842 Mines Regulation Act." This is shown in Humphries description of how the ruling class viewed the working class, the bias contained in the testimony and written reports by the sub-commissioners, and finally tying in Scriven’s words to Humphries’ conclusions. Under the Unit 3 Commentary, found in the Industrial Revolution Study Guide Humphries herself asserts that readers of the testimony need to read carefully and “assess the extent to which class bias may have coloured the analysis that is provided”(48), which will be employed in confirming the charges of class bias.

Derived from opinions and views of the Father of Communism and adapted to fit literature both modern and classic, the Marxist lens is a particular way to view literature in relation to a powerful bourgeoisie that abuses a less powerful or economically prevalent proletariat. Upon viewing a text through this lens, common themes such as said abusement and commonly struggles for power become commonplace. Through these lens, one can view Shakespeare’s Hamlet and find social classes set in the book and desires for power within and between them. While viewing Hamlet through the Marxist lens, one could identify the tragedy as a struggle for power and a lesson on retaliation and violence overall.

In the sociopolitical novel, A Tale of Two Cities, Charles Dickens analyzes the events of one of the bloodiest revolutions in history, the French Revolution, characterized by its violence after no less than 40,000 people were sentenced to death. The violence of the revolution put irreversible change into motion, helping to bring greater equality between French citizens as a result of the upheaval, and causing political changes that affected millions. Through his changing tone, Dickens conveys that rebellion is necessary to amend the ever-growing divide between the social classes, but the mindless nature of the violence, as a result of mob mentality, is excessive, and blood is unnecessarily spilled.

I stood between the two bodies, looking into their lifeless, glassy eyes. Crimson blood pooled around their stiff bodies. More blood ran down the blade of the knife I clutched in my hand, gathering at the point and slowly dripping on my leg. What had he done?