Summary Of Marxist Reading Of Octavia Butler's Dawn

This novel begins by going back and forth between meeting characters and challenging the reader to understand the setting. Readers are introduced to a woman named Lenina who has only been seeing one man for many months, so she must venture out and experience the known epigrammatic expression “everyone belongs to everyone else” (multiple sources in the book) She decides to join a fellow alpha plus on his visit to a savage reservation. The gentleman's name was Bernard Marx, A troubled man who never really knew how to fit into the “civilized” world. When Bernard goes to get his paperwork signed; to leave for the reservation, readers find out that The Director had lost the women he traveled to New Mexico with many years before, and hasn't seen her since.

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).

In Octavia Butler’s Dawn the idea of gender is deconstructed and reformed from the typical human’s definition. Often people do not consider the role of gender in society today. Usually the first thing one notices when meeting someone new is their gender or their presumed gender. However, there becomes a problem when the person whose gender we perceived identifies as a different gender. Butler forces the reader to examine how they judge and perceive gender. While the ooloi are actually “its” their personalities seem to imply a certain gender. The transgender community often brings up this issue because these assumptions of gender based on our judgments of what defines a male and what defines a female can skew how a transgender person is treated and addressed. In Chapter One of Gender Through the Prism of Difference by Anne Fausto-Sterling, the idea of expanding the number of genders based on one’s biological differences is examined through the five sexes theory. By now the concept of gender being defined solely by one’s biology has mostly been left in the past but the question remains of how do we truly define gender? How does being outside of the social norms that Michael Warner talks about cause us to feel shame when discussing our gender and our perceptions of gender? In this essay, I will argue that preconceived notions of gender create shame when a person’s own perception of their gender does not fit the social norms. This stigma around the limited and strict definitions

The literary element of Marxist feminism focuses on the idea in which women are oppressed through capitalism and private property. Starting from the Harlem Renaissance the Hurston’s work focuses on issues presenting on the turmoil of African-Americans from American literature in the nineteenth century on. Zora Neal Hurston’s work entitled “Sweat” is a prime example of how culture is affected by its cultures standards of economic “base”. The story was published in 1926 during a time of trial and error considering the obstacles that faced many female authors at the time. Hurston’s story “Sweat” overlaps with her novel “Their Eyes are Watching God” which also supports the idea that culture

Authors of fiction often write about the human condition as a way to connect with a broad range of readers. Unlike factual textbooks, fiction gives characters feeling and emotion, allowing us to see the story behind the basic details. In many cases, readers gain a new perspective on a period of time by examining a fiction novel. In Kindred, by Octavia Butler, the near death experiences of Rufus Weylin transports a 20th century African American woman named Dana to the ante bellum South to experience exactly what it’s like to be a slave. Through her day-to-day life on the Weylin plantation, the reader begins to understand just how complex slavery is and how it affects both the slaves and the plantation owners; thus, giving new

Octavia Butler’s Dawn explores a world of the unknown after humans nearly destroy their kind along with Earth, causing an extraterrestrial species to intervene. The protagonist, Lilith, finds herself in a predicament as she is captured and locked in solidarity for a long. The extraterrestrial species that intervenes, Oankali, strip her of her clothes, mysteriously cut her and then tell her it is her role to mother a group of humans and prepare them for a return to Earth. In the novel Lilith is conflicted, she knows she has no control of her body and that humans have been “enslaved” by the Oankali but begins to trust and connect with them, especially Nikanj. Through the relationship of Lilith and Nikanj side by side with Humans and the Oankali, Octavia Butler explores the monstrous aspects of people and acts within the cultures.

If this sounds suspiciously like Marxism, it is Marxism gone post-modern: a tool for the

Mr. Butler represents capitalistic society taking advantage of the common people: Mr. Haskins and his family. After Mr. Haskins had worked towards purchasing the farm from Mr. Butler, he is met with resistance in the form of an unexpected price increase, to which he rebuts, “But you’ve done nothing to make it so. You hain’t added a cent. I put it all there myself, expectin’ to buy” (Garland 761). Garland, as if to emphasize the element of naturalism, writes, “Butler laughed” and has Butler respond to Mr. Haskins, “The law will sing another tune” (Garland 761).

Should Octavia E. Butler’s “Bloodchild” be classified as a slave story? The author claims that “Bloodchild” is not a tale of slavery, but rather a love story and a coming-of-age tale. Does “Bloochild” conform to the conventions of the slave stories, love stories, or coming-of-age tales with which you are familiar? What other classifications—in terms of literary genre, form, or mode—apply to “Bloodchild”?

Butler’s work majorly discuss problems of race, gender and power relations along with self-determination that she transfers from the human society within communities of the aliens, as well as vampires. On the contrary this essay, would present the in depth evaluation of separate forms as well as reasons about oppression, towards that protagonist within Fledgling has been exposed. On the contrary, this would show in which manner protagonist has been empowered along with therefore, showing resistance, change as well as future of equality (Stewart).

What he seems to be saying in this extraordinary novel is not only that the 1911 revolution has come to a dead end, but also (and more important) that, given man’s nature, Marxist solutions are facing the same blank wall. He proposes an existentialist way out, but his sense of courage is greater than his suggested submission to man’s apparent destiny. (Adams)

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.

Patricia Hill Collins’ piece, Defining Black Feminist Thought, sets out to do exactly that: to determine what Black Feminism is, who is a Black Feminist, and who can become a Black Feminist. While not always specifically stated, her argument and analysis arises from the historical context of the role of Black women in feminist and activist spaces, as well as the social reality of differing lived experiences of African American women from traditional white female feminists. Created in 1990, Collins’ work is well situated in the time period of Third Wave Feminist thinking, incorporating strong themes of the need for intersectionality and altering opinions within feminism, as well as proposing that multiple versions of feminism can be

“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.

Johannes Hans Bertens identifies a description of Marxism in his work “Literary Theory: The Basics”, by inferring the idea of choice within our world is in fact an illusion and that we are much more limited by circumstance than we care to admit. He further eludes that, as we disillusion ourselves with false potential, then we ourselves are alienated from the world in which we live. This is evident within the novel when Nick states, “life is much more successfully looked at from a single window, after all”. The metaphor suggests naivety and arrogance within society, reminiscent of Bertens feelings, whilst further raising light to the fact that much of the