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The importance of Marxist literary criticism
The importance of Marxist literary criticism
Two kinds of literary analysis
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Marxism is one of the schools of literary criticism that regards the production of literary texts based on the socioeconomic system. In simple terms, it is used to identify texts that shows examples of wealth, and how it controls the communication of thoughts and values in the society. In Dr. Seuss', "How the Grinch Stole Christmas", there are many examples alluding to the conclusion that Marxism is the correct school of criticism in which to analyze this poem. The first piece of evidence lies in the fact that the main character, The Grinch, resides in a cave North of Who-ville, which shows that he lives a lower-class lifestyle. From this, it's easy to determine that there are two socioeconomic classes in this poem. One being the poor (the Grinch) and one being the wealthy …show more content…
(the Whos). As the Whos are wealthy, they control the communication of thoughts and values.
In this case, they control the thoughts and values of how to celebrate Christmas. The other socioeconomic class, which is the Grinch, can't enjoy the same tradition because he is penniless, which is how he developed the character of being rude and vindictive. One example is, "Then the Whos, young and old, would sit down to a feast.... Which was something the Grinch couldn't stand in the least!" In this quote, it shows that the Grinch is quite jealous of the Whos because they are joyously feasting, while he can't experience it because he's financially broke. As the plot continues, the tensions between the two classes had made the Grinch too furious that he wanted to destroy Christmas. Soon, after he stole all the gifts, he still see the Whos all enjoying the festivities. He then realized that it wasn't the toys or the food that brought them happiness, it was the songs and the joy of being a well-connected society. After that, he learned his lesson, and then joined the Whos and their socioeconomic class. It is shown in the last few lines of the poem, "And he brought back the toys! And the food for the feast! And
he... ...HE HIMSELF...! The Grinch carved the roast beast!” In essence, "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" written by Dr. Seuss, is a literary piece that uses the literary criticism of Marxism to develop the plot, characters, and themes. Because of this literary criticism, this poem turned out to be one of the best well-known stories, as it teaches kids of how socioeconomic classes doesn't affect the happiness of an individual.
Seuss, The Grinch is the main protagonist in this tale, but not much background is given on this green fellow. In the story, The Grinch is accompanied by his dog, Max, throughout most of the movie. Max acts as a sidekick that helps the Grinch, but is somewhat of an underdog. But puns aside, Max wasn’t treated the best by the Grinch in most of the movie. The Grinch made him pull an entire sleigh which held the Grinch and all of the Whos’ Christmas food, gifts, and decorations. While Max is pulling the sleigh, The Grinch is continuously yelling at him to make him move faster despite the extremely heavy weight on his shoulders, and expects him to carry all of it on his lonesome. To add onto that, The Grinch makes Max help, treating Max almost like a slave, which is extremely unethical and should never be done. But The Grinch doesn’t really even treat Max like a worker, Max just does what he’s told, and doesn’t get much out of the things he’s done for the
Scrooge was and owner of a factory and made a whole bunch of money, but he did not care about anyone else. “Merry Christmas said his nephew, what right do have to be merry you are poor enough”. This shows that scrooge is mean to family and does not care about Christmas.
Attitude Toward the Poor in Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol Dickens encourages readers to change their views by showing what scrooge is like before, during and after the ghosts have visited him. " A Christmas Carol" is about a horrid old accountant and how people react around him on Christmas Eve. He is visited by 3 ghosts and they try and change his wicked ways. Dickens knows what it is like to work in factories because, as a child. he used to work in one, putting labels on shoe polish bottles.
small its as if it only has one coal. Being so cheap and not wanting
In Charles Webb’s “The Death of Santa Claus,” the speaker describe how a story of how Santa Claus died to him once he found out Santa Claus is not actually real. In the first half of the poem, Webb tells the story of how Santa Claus was feeling kinda sick and the sickness turned into his death. At the end of poem the 8 year old kid telling the story about Santa Claus gives the reader some details but not many, on how his mom had to tell him Santa Claus was not real.
Marxism is a method of analysis based around the concepts developed by the two German philosophers Karl Marx and Fredrich Engel, centered around the complexities of social-relations and a class-based society. Together, they collaborated their theories to produce such works as The German Ideology (1846) and The Communist Manifesto (1848), and developed the terms ‘’proletariat’ and ’bourgeois’ to describe the working-class and the wealthy, segmenting the difference between their respective social classes. As a result of the apparent differences, Marxism states that proletariats and bourgeoisie are in constant class struggle, working against each other to amount in a gain for themselves.
Dr. Seuss Throughout Dr. Seuss’s life, he has written dozens of books with over one hundred million copies sold, and still being produced to this day. Theodor Seuss Geisel is a well-known author that had many inspirations for his works that are still read by millions today, such as Yertle the Turtle, The Sneeches, How the Grinch Stole Christmas. His inevitable fame and fortune came with a lot of pressure; pressure of his readers as well as pressure of his producers. Dr. Seuss was born in Springfield, MA on March 2, 1904 as Theodor Seuss Geisel (Dr. Seuss At Work). He attended Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire.
With her justification, of the Whoville law, that all Whos should be able to attend not because of their outer appearance. As the mayor, Maywho objectifies the crowd believes in what Cindy Lou says. However, the mayor does not want that to happen as argues if he is not here I will accept the award. Cindy Lou was able to break the law of not speaking about or to the Grinch as well as have the people in the town agree to invite him to the celebration. When the Grinch goes mad because of the razor gift he received Cindy Lou and her family were all shamed and looked down upon by everyone in Whoville for what they did and it was their fault for breaking the norm (not inviting the Grinch). Later on, because the Grinch took all the presents the people in the town were able to see the true meaning of Christmas and that is family so in an indirect way the Grinch also broke the norm of just accepting gifts on that day. The Grinch proved that although his appearance and personality were he truly knew what the Charismas spirit was and it wasn’t all about the gifts, lights, or celebrations but family was the key part in it
Scrooge was always mean to everyone. They did not like him. He was visited by three ghosts that taught him a lesson. He started being nice. “Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all. . . He was a second father. . . [to Tiny Tim] His own heart laughed.” (Dickens 64). Doing nice things for people can make people happier too. The Grinch, as well as Scrooge, hates Christmas and he expresses it. The Whos hate him for it. He takes the presents of all the Whos, he is about to throw it off the mountain. The Grinch hears a sound. It is them. They are singing, despite the fact their Christmas is ruined. He returned all their gifts and celebrates Christmas with them. He is finally loved by the Whos. Doing nice things for people can make a person happy as well. Although, Scrooge was helped by spirits, The Grinch was held by people. Recent books can be seen using traditional story’s themes.
Charles dickens classic novella “A Christmas Carol” endorses the notion that “Generosity involves more than the giving of money, it’s also about the giving of one's goodwill, compassion, sympathy, empathy and kindness. By taking his seemingly irredeemable protagonist Ebenezer Scrooge on a supernatural journey, Dickens’ intends to convey to all of society the importance of generosity. He proclaims that generosity of the spirit defines Christmas, and goes a large way towards defining true humanity for him as well.
Dr. Seuss I took an unconventional approach in the topic I chose for my reading assignment – whereas most groups selected single novels, my partner and I opted to read a collection of short stories by none other than the notorious Dr. Seuss. Were I writing this essay on a “normal” book, I would be able to pose a question about the book itself and answer it in an ordinary sort of way. However, given the subject matter I have chosen, an essay on an individual book, though possible, would be a very tricky thing to do. It would be wiser, and probably easier, to respond to the man himself. My decision to respond to the man himself makes many more choices – what facet of Dr. Seuss shall I ask myself questions about? I think perhaps I first need to give some brief biographical information on the man to understand the background he’s coming from. In 1904, Theodore Seuss Geisel was born in Massachusetts, USA. I have not been able to find too much documentation about his childhood, but he certainly did not come from a terribly poor or terribly unsuccessful family… in fact, his family had owned a local brewery in their home town of Springfield for several years. Ever since his childhood, Geisel had dabbled in the fields we all know and love him for today… for instance, during bible recitals, he read the verses to a rhythm and often in rhyme. In High School he wrote many short essays and drew cartoons for the school paper, and even then he had adopted a pseudonym for himself – “Pete the Pessimist”. Upon graduation, Geisel began studying literature at Oxford university, as his original intent was to become an educator… even then, he punctuated his time at Oxford with his job editing and contributing to the “Jack-O-Lantern”, ...
unhappy man whose only wish is to make the rest of the world as sad as
During stage seven, the Grinch is battling problems of generativity vs. stagnation. Generativity is giving optimism about humanity to the next generation(where all of Whoville is terrified and this is great if he gives it to them). Stagnation refers to the failure to find a way to contribute. The Grinch has always felt uninvolved with their community because he isn’t a Who. Throughout his life, the Grinch was curious with the concept of Christmas. He would watch all of Whoville celebrate. When there was a 99% Christmas sale going on, the Grinch wore a cloak and a mask so people wouldn’t try to distinguish him. He told his dog Max “The city is a dangerous place” as they explored. As an adult, he is feeling worthless and bored living in a cave with his dog. He talks to the walls and listens to their echos. He scares teenagers away when they arrive to the door because social interaction is all new to him. He yells who he hates from the phonebook one by one. Yet, deep down he has a heart. The goal is to value others and ensure future generations. Whoville is scared that a genocide is going to happen. He ensures them peace when he carves the roast-beast. Therefore, he has success by becoming involved with their
Truman Capote’s story A Christmas Memory, is about Capote’s childhood memory of a particular holiday season and how he enjoyed that moment in time with a special friend. Capote is illustrated by the main character, Buddy. Buddy and his distant cousin have a bonding friendship and tell of their exploits during that Christmas. They pick out a very special Christmas tree, make each other presents, and make fruitcakes.
Marxism is an economic and social system developed by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels during the mid-1800s (What is Marxism). A Marxist literary criticism deals with class consciousness and ideology.