Communist Manifesto Feminism

Karl Marx’s “The Communist Manifesto” deals with the rise of a new belief system that is caused by the history of class struggles in society. This belief is catalyzed by the fear of the oppressors obtaining full control of the oppressed. The oppressors, which Marx terms as the bourgeois, are exploiting the feudal system for their own selfish gains and the oppressed eventually accept their fate. He argues that this rise in the power gap is a direct result of colonization and industrial production. Comparably, postcolonial theory has noted that as a result of colonization the cultures and traditions of the colonized nations has shifted significantly. These ideas are seen in Karen Russell’s “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” in which

A loss of identity and sense of being is seen as a result. In Dennis Wadler’s theory titled “History”, where he describes the consequences of colonization, he concludes that “colonialism was a denial of all culture, history and value outside the colonizer’s frame; in short ‘a systematic negation of the other person’” ( Wadler 1088) and that this lead to “an identity created by others, by Europeans like Columbus” (Walder 1076). The nuns attempt to convert the girl’s characteristics to various characteristics they deem appropriate. Therefore, the nuns could be thought of as the colonizers bringing “civilization to the beasts” and the girls as the colonized. Similar to the stages of colonization, there are systematic stages in the school, which causes the students to slowly distance away from their own cultures lifestyle and customs. The first major attempt at deviation from the girls’ original culture by the nuns is with the introduction of new human names for the girls essentially giving the girls a blank canvas on which they can create their new identity. The names chosen for the girls are Jeanette, Mirabella and Claudette. Multiple attempts are made initially to maintain their way of living such as sleeping on newspapers and marking their territory, only to find it to be destroyed when they returned to the room; unable to mark their territory they eventually gave up. Claudette, the narrator of the story, notes that even their own scent had become foreign in the school indicating a lost sense of belonging. Mirabella struggles immensely in giving up her habits and culture and is reprimanded multiple times by the nuns and is ordered to be more obedient. On the other hand, Jeanette has made significant achievements in assimilating. “Her real name was GWARR!, but she wouldn’t respond to this anymore…she delicately extended her