Analysis # 4- Marxist Theory

            Throughout my education I have heard the name Karl Marx but never really knew what he was about.  This weeks reading helped with that. In many ways, Marx’s theory is relevant today. I see him as being realistic, even though what he says can be a little unsettling to someone who wants to be an individual and critiqued by their own merits. In Marx’s world, a person is only worth as much as the product they put out. This sounds harsh, but it’s actually true. Jobs work in this sort of structure, where the people that society views as producing the most get the raises. It is the people at the lower end who don’t get a chance to show their value. Look at Hollywood for instance. Our society is obsessed with celebrities, but what about the people that made them famous. Their agents, writers, make up team. None of them get acknowledged because it is only the celebrity that matters.

            In my American Literature class we have been discussing Karl Marx in relation to Thoreau. We talked about the use value, what people are willing to pay for certain things. The value of an object is based on the amount of time it takes to get it. Thoreau says “but lo men have become the tools of their tools” relates to this idea because it is the idea that you are what you own. In the Communist Manifest Marx talks about class struggles. The lower class is the base because they provide the necessities to enter the superstructure, where the rich take over. The idea of an equal society sounds ideal in theory but is unrealistic.  There is always going to be a hierarchy in our society because that is how we survive. It is unfortunate but true. 


Works Cited


Leitch, Vincent B. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. 2nd ed. New York: W. W. Norton &, 2010. Print.