Social Class In The Film Taxi Driver

As Marx’s states in his theory, when the working class becomes aware of their exploitation, this will result in a revolt lead by the proletariats. The major theories studied by Marx can be used to analyze the characters and situations presented in the film.

▪ 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

The working class in this film are forced to endure agonising labour in extremely dangerous environments whilst the upper class, the ‘sons’ are free to live at their will. The dystopic setting of the ‘depths’ becomes evident through Lang’s use of symbolism when the dictator’s son, Freder, journeys to the depths and starts to see the workers being eaten up by the machines in the scene ‘Slaves of the Means of Production” (14.58-17.52). This symbolises the dystopic society in which workers do not have the right to be safe. This idea forms a contextual connection to the 1920’s Weimar Republic where there were two distinct classes, the conservative elite, who were free to live at their will, and the workers who were forced to endure labour with no guarantee for safety. Through the contextual connections of political reform and the shared perspectives of dystopian societies the quote “the object of power is power” is strongly supported by George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and Fritz Lang’s ‘Metropolis’.

No matter where you go in the world people are divided. They can be divided by their wealth or state of living these are social classes. In the novel “The Outsiders” by S.E. Hinton social classes a very apparent the rich and the poor. In The Outsiders, social classes create a divide in the community. The isolation of these two groups lead to the tension and violence that is seen in the book.

He accepts isolation and you can see this intensity and insanity conveyed in the rearview mirror shots where we see his bold and struggling brown eyes. He’s the lonely man of the night wondering as an indirect psychopathic cabbie weirdo. He watches pornos for regular movies and loathes around in his lonesome so cut off from the outside world in his own head. There are numerous times in the film where Travis can’t seem to hear what people are saying; trying to ask him a question or something, he’s just that isolated. He has seen everything, emphasis on everything despising the scum of the city, and filth of the streets. He spectates’ amongst this day in and day out. Among prostitution, hatred, lowlifes, scum, drunks, criminals, drug dealers, the lowest of the low. He believes this has got to be cleaned up and that good has to be done yet doesn’t have a good ground on any particular political party or politics in general. In fact, his only motive in my opinion to assassinate Palantine is to tear the heart out of Betsy like she did to him earlier in the film. This is

In proving the failed rebellions of the employees can be explained by The Communist Manifesto, it must first be proven that the movie accurately represents the struggle between the proletariat and bourgeoisie classes. In this movie the employees at Initech and their upper management represent the continuation of the

1. Describe how Marx’s concepts of alienation and exploitation are present in the documentary. Who is subjected to this alienation and exploitation? How does this take place in the film? Does resistance to this take place? If so, how? Draw on the readings and lectures, while also providing specific examples from the film.

He presumes that this act of violence will give him a title of a hero and also give him an identity that he lacks. Travis also discusses with Palantine in the taxi cab that someone should clean up the city because it is “like an open sewer” and is “full of filth and scum” (Scorsese, Taxi Driver). Travis realizes that he should be the one to clean up the city of its’ repulsiveness because the ones in authority are not doing an adequate job of removing it themselves. By obtaining these two ideas that assassination will permit him to be a hero and his vigilantism is justifiable, he is convinced he will be considered important and desired. With him convinced he should clear the filth, it urges him to assassinate the Presidential candidate and rid the city of the scum himself, thus forming him to be a hero and receiving Betsy as his prize.

First off, the machines at the begining of the movie represent the industrial revolution, and that is what brought forth the modernism movement/mentatlity. Karl marx was also brought forth because of the modernism movement. The assembly line represents the industrial revoltuion and the people looked alienated and look like robotic slaves. The dancing styles within the movie, and even the movie itself having text and sounds used instead of a voice represent the startup of the movie industry. Within the movie itself, the men in power(they are just men, not women) and they are wearing business suits. The movie also points out the negative effects of capitalistic greed. The son asks his father where the people who built the city are? The father

The characters in the movie are living in the poorer streets of England. Our main character is going to school, and I think his mother has a job. The group that fills up the other roles in the movie are young rebellions, and I am not sure if they have a job or not. The characters can whatsoever classifies as working class due the British social class system.

Off the screen, he has a reputation for being rather illusive and hard to get a hold of. These qualities just happen to be things that accurately describe Travis’ character in the film. De Niro and Martin Scorsese, the director, were fully aware of this on-screen and off-screen mythology. They embraced it with this character in full force. Both being New York City natives, the two understood the effects that living in the city could have on an individual’s psyche, and they utilized this knowledge to great effect.

Marxism is the critical lens theory used to evaluate economics and class in a piece of literature. Marxism is a concept explored in Shakespeare's Hamlet, and a prominent idea in the book 1984 by George Orwell. In the following paragraphs I will analyze the roles and differences of characters and the social classes. I will also answer the questions: Who is supposed to have power, who actually has it, what does having power look like?; Which class (bourgeoisie or proletariat) does the writer seem to want us to sympathize with?; How much does money, and worrying about having too little of it, figure into the overall story?

This psychoanalysis approach adopted by Andy wood proves to be essential as it provides a more detailed and novel insight into how individuals within a class feel as it reveals the hidden anxieties and emotions of individuals whose lives are grounded by exploitation. This psychohistorical approach not only helps to understand the affects that of the existence of class in a given society as well as to highlight how vital it is for there to be a sense of collective identity and meanings amongst masses.

Travis lives alone, without his family, any friend and lover, so he doesn’t talk to anybody, but he spent watching porn and thinking about himself. He seems to be alienated from others and the society, at the same time he has already noticed his lonely situation. In Taxi Driver, Travis feels loneliness which ruins him gradually and finally makes him almost kill himself.

Karl Marx believes that the capitalist system spawns the concept of class and the struggles these classes face within this systematic ideology. In order for one to understand Marx’s conceptualisation of class struggle, one needs to first understand the definition of capitalism, which may be defined as ‘’ an economic and political system in which a country's trade and industry are controlled by private owners for profit, rather than by the state’’ (Hornby, 2016). Marx believes that there are triggers that provoke the idea of class struggle; these triggers include exploitation and alienation.