Gabriel García Márquez is arguably Latin America’s most well known writer and socialist with Marxist ideals. His short story, Balthazar’s Marvelous Afternoon, is one that well exemplifies a few ideals of Marxism, without enforcing a political agenda, something only the greatest writers can achieve. One concept of Marxism is that capitalism can only thrive on the exploitation of the working class. This leads to economic conflict which creates class tension, this type of disputation is prevalent within Balthazar’s Marvelous Afternoon. To begin, the setting of the story is not clear, it is assumably in a small town since everyone is familiar with one another and the titles and careers of the characters are exposed in the story. One can also assume …show more content…
The politics range from the leftist movement of The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) to the very conservative right-winged Colombian government at the time this story was written. In this story, García Márquez sheds light on “the class conflict between the greedy bourgeois and the courageous workers and peasants” (Bloom, 65). Balthazar is a lower class, uneducated carpenter, he is requested by Pepe, the son of Mr. José Montiel, a wealthy man within their town, to make a bird cage. Balthazar ends up making the most beautiful bird cage in the world, a symbolism of the work of art. The beginning of the story states that it took him two weeks to create the cage, and during that process he neglected his carpenter shop, slept uncomfortably, and did not share his beard. His passion and devotion to his craft is what makes him a true artist. His partner, Ursula, has been upset with him because he had neglected his shop, therefore he has not been making money. She sees the final product of the cage and she immediately changes her attitude. She claims that the cage is worth fifty pesos, then raises the price to sixty …show more content…
Montiel paid for the bird cage. García Márquez does not leave it at that, Balthazar gives into capitalism and tells everyone that Mr. Montiel paid him 60 pesos for it. This, in a way is another Marxist concept, once coming into power, power referring to the respect Balthazar got from the other townspeople. There is a shift in power were in the eyes of the working class, Balthazar brings down the man in power and of wealth, Mr. Montiel, and with this gain of power he becomes greedy. The selling of the cage is an illusion of freedom, because of this he enjoys a marvelous afternoon living like a rich man. Up until this moment Balthazar was a complete human, but money and power dehumanize people and also interfere with artistic expression. He goes to a bar, buys drinks for everyone and eventually becomes extraordinarily drunk. Balthazar ends up left for dead in his own vomit, a punishment for lying about the financial reward that he did not receive. Before he was a hero that made a beautiful bird cage. The birdcage in itself also has symbolism. The cage represents the working class and how it is locked in this capitalistic society. Only the rich are able to appreciate and buy art in
Thesis Statement: Mary Aprarico Castrejon’s essay “The Fighter Bird” reveals her family’s poor living situation and the grit which members of her family, like herself and her papi, have despite of their situation.
In Peter Winn's Weavers of Revolution, a factory in Santiago, Chile fights for their independence against the Chilean government of the 1970's. While this rebellion is going on, presidential elections are taking place and Salvador Allende is the presidential candidate which represents the common people. The relation between Allende and the people he represents is a unique one because at first this class, the working class, helps and supports Allende to become president, but then both parties realize their different plans for the future and the working class actually contributes to the downfall of Allende's presidency.
In “A Caged Bird”, it is made clear that this bird has never experienced the freedom of flying with the other species or perching atop the highest building. All it has ever known is the cage in which is has been kept and fed plentifully, yet not punctually, and nurtured with the love of an owner and proper care.
Coming from an “unconventional” background, George Saunders is readily able to relate to the circumstances the everyday working laborer goes through (Wylie). However, Saunders has an advantage to spread out his ideas and concerns about life in the U.S. via his short stories and novellas. Because of neoliberalism and capitalism and its correlation to the huge wealth gap in the U.S. Saunders focuses his protagonists’ view from a proletariat standpoint, allowing the reader to see the life of consumerism has impacted our society. Saunders does not use conventional methods to portray this reality. Instead, Saunders emphasizes on the “absence” of certain moral human characteristics in order to take the reader away from viewing into a hero’s looking glass— to set a foundation of a world where our morals become lost to our materialistic and inherent need of money (Wylie).
Growing up poor in the Dominican Republic strongly influenced the choices Yunior makes later in his life. In “Aguantando” Yunior recalls about how poverty was a part of his life. Díaz writes, “We were poor. The only way we could have been poorer was to have lived in the campo or to have been Haitian immigrants…We didn’t eat rocks but we didn’t eat meat or beans either” (Díaz, 70). This depiction of Yunior’s early childhood sets the stage for what is to come. Yunior’s choices as an adolescent proves that he either chooses not to or cannot better his situation instead he turns to drugs and alcohol. Yunior’s decision to partake in drugs and alcohol shows that people in poverty have nothing to live for and just live for the next best thing.
Marx states that the bourgeoisie not only took advantage of the proletariat through a horrible ratio of wages to labor, but also through other atrocities; he claims that it was common pract...
In Trifles, the use of the canary bird symbolizes Minnie’s state of being, and the freedom that her husband takes away from her. The fact that the bird’s neck was snapped, shows the demeaning relationship that...
The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1920 shows an insightful exploration of social class and the inability to change ones social class no matter how hard they attempt to. Fitzgerald was a great author in his ability to take himself out of reality in the 1920’s and write in The Great Gatsby the dangers of social climbing by comparing characters with regards to their social class. The desperation to achieve but ultimately failing the American Dream was explored through the characters of Jay Gatsby and Myrtle Wilson. I am going to investigate the inability to change one’s social class in 1920s America.
Throughout his novel, Don Quixote, Miguel Cervantes effectively uses the transformation of reality to critique and reflect societal and literary norms. In three distinct scenes, Don Quixote or his partner, Sancho, transform reality. Often they are met with other’s discontent. It is through the innkeeper scene, the windmill scene, the Benedictine friar scene, and Quixote’s deathbed scene that Cervantes contemplates revolutionary philosophies and literary techniques. The theme of reality transformation does not even stop there. Sometimes the transformations of reality scenes act as mimetic devices. Ultimately, Miguel Cervantes’ use of transformative scenes acts as a creative backdrop for deeper observations and critiques on seventeenth-century Spanish society.
The birdcage represents how Mrs. Wright was trapped in her marriage, and could not escape it. The birdcage door is broken which represents her broken marriage to Mr. Wright. It also represents Mrs. Wright escaping her marriage from Mr. Wright. When the door is open it allows Mrs. Wright to became a free woman. At one point in time the cage door use to have a lock that locked the bird inside the cage. This represents how Mr. Wright kept Mrs. Wright locked up from society. Mr. Wright knew that by keeping Mrs. Wright locked up, she would never be able to tell anyone how he really acted. Mr. Wright was very cruel to his wife.
Pablo Neruda is from Chile and gives a voice to Latin America in his poetry (Bleiker 1129). “The United Fruit Co.,” the poem by Pablo Neruda that will be analyzed in this essay, is enriched with symbolism, metaphors, and allusions. These allusions have great emphasis to the Christian religion, but some allusions are used to evoke negative emotions towards the United States (Fernandez 1; Hawkins 42). Personification and imagery along with onomatopoeia and metonymy are also found in “The United Fruit Co.” Neruda’s use of these literary devices makes his messages of imperialism, Marxism, and consumerism understandable (Fernandez 4). In this essay each of these literary devices with its proper meaning will be further analyzed in the hope of achieving a more complex understanding of Neruda’s message.
The "American Dream" supposedly allows everyone to climb the "social/economic ladder," if they wish to do so. Anyone that works hard is supposed to be able to move to a higher class. However, society often prevents social mobility. Social classes dictate who moves to a higher class and who does not. In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, this issue was especially prevalent. The rigidity of classes was often an underlying theme in many novels during this time period. For example, The Age of Innocence and The Great Gatsby both feature the exclusive nature of social classes as a motif. In both The Age of Innocence and The Great Gatsby, the rigidity of social classes and the desire for social mobility leads to the downfall of several
Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s short story, “One of These Days,” describes the disparity between everyday working class people and higher class politicians. The story focuses mainly on two contrasting characters: a humble dentist, Aurelio Escovar, and an aggressive and abusive mayor who takes advantage of his townspeople. Deep in this piece, the situation between the two characters symbolize the corruption of power and the negative influence it can put on society. Though the mayor owns all of the dominance out of everyone in the town, the dentist receives influence for a period of time, taking advantage of it at all cost. We learn at the end of the passage that no matter the identity nor class of an individual, the excess of power can lead to corruption.
Throughout the three books which compose the series it is easy to see examples of class struggle, ruling class ideologies, and revolution. I intend to focus on these
Several months prior to the opening of the story, the Colonel’s son, Agustín, had been killed at a cockfight for distributing secret political literature. The Colonel is torn between his desire to keep his son’s prizefighting cock in order to enter it into the cockfights in January and his need to sell it to provide food for himself and his wife. The story focuses primarily on the Colonel’s pride in trying to conceal his poverty-stricken state and his ironic and humorous outlook to his situation. The central metaphors in the story are the pension, which never arrives, but for which the colonel never ceases to hope, and the fighting cock, which also represents hope, as well as his son’s, and therefore the whole village’s, political rebellion. Although at the time, he was under political oppression he keeps his pride and dignity.