Titanic: Class struggle
Karl Marx theory of class struggle is an influential concept and very relevant even in todays society. The movie Titanic (1997) serves as a perfect reflection of class struggle being it shows the division of social classes. Marx’s theory of class struggle focuses on the existence of oppression and inequality in society correlating with Titanic. Titanic is an allegory of class struggle. The boat act as a society divided socially and geographically by classes. Class struggle comes into existence when there is a small percentage of the population that has a great amount of control in society based on the ownership of production. According to Marx, they are two classes of people the Proletarians and the Bourgeoisies. The Proletarians are the working class who are exploited by the ruling class and the Bourgeoisie is the ruling class, owners of production and the decision makers. The Bourgeoisie had a great deal of control over the Proletarians. Marx believed that social classes restricted individuals. Those in higher social classes discriminated against the lower class, which made it difficult to change social status. The movie Titanic is about the sinking of the Titanic ship. It is based on a true story of a ship that sailed from Europe to New York on April 15th 1912 more than 1,500 people died and only about 700 survived. The main characters Jack Dawson and Rose Dewitt Bukater were both from different social classes who fell in love with
Marx begins by writing, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles. (Jones, 219)” The existing society was divided between the Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat, as I stated before. The Bourgeoisie consisted of the social class who owns the means of production. The Proletariat consisted of wage-laborers who have no means of production of their own and they are reduced to selling their labor power in order to live (Jones 219). As you can see the bourgeoisie had the upper hand because they were the people who were mainly in charge of the proletariat. Marx believed that the
in popular culture, such as Cameron’s 1997 Titanic which focuses largely on the folly in placing trust in technology.
Marx 's conflict theory has a very distinct ideology, it is stated that it mainly focuses on the causes and effect of class conflict between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. The Bourgeoisie represented the members of a higher society which held onto the majority of the wealth and means also known as the owners of the way of manufacture and the capitalistic. While the proletariat class was constructed by individuals who belong to the working class or the poor. While they would focus on the economical, societal, and governmental implications of the rise of the capitalist economy in Europe. With the rise of the capitalist economy, it was theorized that the bourgeoisie,
Marx perceives society made up as two classes, the powerful and exploitive higher class known as the bourgeoisie and the industrial wage earners that must earn their living by selling their labor known as the proletariat. The bourgeoisie is known as the private property owners and the proletariat works for the bourgeoisie. There is an inequality between these two
In The Communist Manifesto, Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels attempt to explain the reasons for why there is class struggle and suggest how to prevent class separation. According to Marx there are two different types of social classes: the bourgeoisies and the proletarians. The bourgeoisie are capitalists who own the means of production and the proletarians are the working classes who are employed by the bourgeoisies. Due to their wealth, the bourgeoisies had the power to control pretty much of everything and the proletarians had little or no say in any political issues. According to Marx, the proletarians population would increase and they would
Marx viewed society as a conflict between two classes in competition for material goods. He looked at the history of class conflicts and determined that the coming of the industrial age was what strengthened the capitalist revolution. Marx called the dominant class in the capitalist society the bourgeoisie and the laborers the proletariat. The bourgeoisie owned or controlled the means of production, exploited laborers, and controlled the goods produced for its own needs. He believed that the oppressed class of laborers was in a position to organize itself against the dominating class. He felt that it was the course of nature, that is, it is the way that society evolves and that the communist society would be free of class conflict, "the free development of each is the condition for the free development of all." (Marx & Engels 1948, 37)
The Communist Manifesto discusses class and class struggle as a vital part of the capitalist system. Marx and Engels state that class is made up of people who are in the same position in relation to the ownership and control of the means of wealth production.(cite) For Marx and Engels the class struggle between the upper class, or bourgeoisie class and the working class, or the proletariat class is the epitome of modern social change. Marx identified three classes: wage for labor, profit for the capitalist and rent for the landowner (Knox, 1988: 160). Since capitalism succeeded in absorbing the landlord class, which left society with only two social classes: capitalists and workers. The Marxist theory of class is opposed by those people who explain class not in terms of ownership or lack of ownership, but in terms of prestige and
The Titanic movie begins with a salvage crew looking throughout the debris of the huge ship, in the hope to find a blue shiny diamond that is called “the heart of the ocean”. They instead find a photograph of a young lady wearing the diamond around her neck. That lady was Rose Dawson; while she was watching Tv, she sees her photograph and sets off to find the man who found it, then she joins them on their ship and the story of the Titanic ship begin. The story starts talking about two fictional characters, Rose and Jack, and their brief love affair aboard the ill-fated ship. Rose is an upper-class woman born into high society; Jack is an aimless drifter of much lesser means. While their love story, and the ship's sinking, are the main plot, this film depicts the glaring differences between the social classes both in how they live and how they are treated. The author mentioned that the Titanic displays in a dominated ideology since it is not focused on one audience but, it concerns about many audiences, which includes lower, middle and upper classes. Basically, the movie shows how the lower class struggle against with upper class and love overcome everything eventually. Even though this movie is a love and romantic story, the presentation of racial discrimination, and race throughout the movie. In this movie, I will argue two sociological themes. Social satisfaction and race play a big role in the movie Titanic. The Titanic movie demonstrates the ideology of race and class.
Everyone knows the story of the Titanic. The ship was on its maiden voyage when it hit an iceberg and sank, leading to the death of more than 1,500 people (“Titanic” A+E Networks). It was a horrible event, but it may have all been planned by the company that owned the ship. White Star Line owned both the Titanic and its sister ship, the Olympic. The
Quite clearly, Marx is concerned with the organization of society. He sees that the majority of society, more specifically, the proletariat, are living in sub-human conditions. Marx also sees that the bourgeoisie have a disproportionate amount of property and power, and because of that, they abuse it. He writes of how the current situation with the bourgeoisie and proletariat developed. "The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles." There has always been struggles the between two classes, an upper and lower class. However, Marx speaks of the current order saying,
When researching movies for my paper, I decided that the Titanic was the perfect option. Being that the movie was based on the true event of the RMS Titanic sinking, I knew I could also find a lot of research during the time of the Titanic to help strengthen my paper. The movie Titanic took place in the early 1900’s, a time rich in sociological issues. Their way of life was a lot different than ours today. Some major sociological concepts that were shown several times in the movie were, social stratification, gender inequality and sexism, inequality of income, and discrimination. During this time period people faced huge gaps in wealth, gender, class, and race. Gaps between the rich and poor were extreme. The wealthy were rich and the poor were in poverty. The “middle class” was not a common standing within society: you were either upper or lower class. It was very difficult to rise above the lower class standing, and easier to fall below the upper class line (Prezi web). Men dominated in almost all social standings; voting, ownership of land, professions, wealth, etc. Women were still viewed as “property” and in most ways, treated as such. The gap between the upper and lower class caused discrimination amongst them. Lower-class was treated poorly by the upper-class and seen as less worthy. In my paper I plan to include all of these sociological issues, and clearly connect them within the movie, Titanic.
Although the relationship between the classes was based highly on economic standards set by society, Marx described the class relationships as social exploitation rather than an object of the labor market.5 Marx’s class relationship is described “in these two ways the worker becomes a slave to his object: firstly he receives an object of labor, that is he receives labor, and secondly, he receives the means of subsistence.”6 Marx believed that the Bourgeoisie would eventually lose its power to the working class, which would rebel against its exploitation and eventually bring about the creation of a middle class.
puts a story on the screen and into life so that people can see it.
Human societies have been class based in some way and the class factor has been the most basic dividing or differentiating factor between broad social groups. In the economic sphere that Marx’s theory focuses on, there is a class that own and control means of economic production which could be referred to as the upper class, and there is the class that maybe own nothing, but their ability to sell their labor power in return for wages which could be referred to as the middle or low class. From that understanding, and based on the conflict theory, one might argue that unequal distribution of resources and access
Titanic is one of the outstanding/ phenomenal movie ever created. It is a best romantic film ever produced. Titanic is filled with love, romance, drama, excitement, etc. It is by far the best romantic movie I have ever seen. Although I saw the movie on the 60 inch Samsung in my room while eating popcorn. It was quite and dark. I really feel like it was the best experience that I ever had because there was no one around me. There was no noise of crying baby, there were no people behind you whispering to each other. It was calm and relaxing.