Higher Ground: Marxism in DeLillo's White Noise Essays

Principles of Marxism are seen in this piece of literature through the portrayal of the Bourgeoisie, the Proletariat and characters of wealth. A negative view of the affluent is demonstrated in the text by the elder

Marxism is a critical perspective based off of the ideas of Karl Marx, with Marx’s most famous work being the Communist Manifesto. This book illustrates

▪ Marxism – fundamentally anchored on the work of Karl Marx, Marxism is a dominant critical theory born in the middle of the 19th century and flourished tremendously throughout the twentieth century. Marxism identifies social and economic factors as crucial denominators of relationship in society. This short story has very strong social problems. The people of the Marxist time are afraid of new technologies

For the Marxist critic, literature is in of itself a social institution, with a particular ideological function based on the experience and beliefs of the author, and a material product to be comprehended in broadly historical terms, emphasizing class and ideology as they are illustrated, distribute, and contest the social order of the period in which it was written. Terry Eagleton, in his book Marxism and Literary Criticism, describes Marxist application to literature

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.

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' .

Karl Marx (1818-1883) was one of the most influential thinkers and writers of modern times. Although it was only until after his death when his doctrine became world know and was titled Marxism. Marx is best known for his publication, The Communist Manifesto that he wrote with Engels; it became a very influential for future ideologies. A German political philosopher and revolutionary, Karl Marx was widely known for his radical concepts of society. This paper give an analysis of “The Manifesto” which is a series of writings to advocate Marx ‘s theory of struggles between classes. I will be writing on The Communist Manifesto, published in 1848, which lays down his theories on socialism and Communism.

Reading a text through a Marxist lens can expose one to another layer of depth not initially seen by the average reader. Marxism is a methodology used to analyze class conflicts, especially in capitalism. In Marxist thought, the upper class, the bourgeoisie, is oppressing and using the working class, the proletariat, for their own profit. This strife between the classes will eventually lead to a revolution, bringing a socialist or communist economy. In Khaled Hosseini’s The Kite Runner, the main character, Amir, struggles with the issue of class, specifically when dealing with the son of his father’s servant, Hassan. Throughout the novel Marxist ideology can be applied but it’s especially relevant in Amir’s perception of Hassan and their

In this paper, I will analyze the Marxist connections between Angela’s Ashes and a quote by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The memoir written by Frank McCourt, focuses on social class and economic issues endured by his family in America and Ireland. While analyzing McCourt’s memoir, I will pay attention to Marxist concepts including: alienation, religion, and revolution.

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).

I intend critically to examine, from the standpoint of Marxist theory, the arguments for race, gender and class studies offered by some of their main proponents, assessing their strengths and limitations and demonstrating, in the process, that Marxism is theoretically and politically necessary if the study of class, gender and race is to achieve more than the endless documentation of variations in their relative salience and combined effects in very specific contexts and experiences.

“Whoever controls the means of production in society controls the society.” (Martin) Marxism can be used to explain and inspect actions, characters, settings, and ideas in a multitude of texts. In the novel The Kite Runner written by Khaled Hosseini, the Marxist views on the class system, religion, and the ownership of goods are prominent and introduce an interesting and captivating perspective to the story.

There is deep substance and many common themes that arose throughout Marx’s career as a philosopher and political thinker. A common expressed notion throughout his and Fredrick Engels work consists of contempt for the industrial capitalist society that was growing around him during the industrial revolution. Capitalism according to Marx is a “social system with inherent exploitation and injustice”. (Pappenheim, p. 81) It is a social system, which intrinsically hinders all of its participants and specifically debilitates the working class. Though some within the capitalist system may benefit with greater monetary gain and general acquisition of wealth, the structure of the system is bound to alienate all its

Karl Marx, also a philosopher was popularly known for his theories that best explained society, its social structure, as well as the social relationships. Karl Marx placed so much emphasis on the economic structure and how it influenced the rest of the social structure from a materialistic point of view. Human societies progress through a dialectic of class struggle, this means that the three aspects that make up the dialectic come into play, which are the thesis, antithesis and the synthesis (Avineri, 1980: 66-69). As a result of these, Marx suggests that in order for change to come about, a class struggle has to first take place. That is, the struggle between the proletariat and the capitalist class, the class that controls

            Marxist literary criticism remains a very rational, pragmatic endeavor at its core. "If  ideology were merely some abstract set of notions...society would be very much easier to move and change than in practice it has ever been or is" (Williams 3). Though aware of  their own inability to comment from outside the bounds of hegemony, Marxist critics seem to express a tacit hope that by providing knowledge of hegemonic