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Essay on marxist literary theory
Essay on marxist literary theory
Essay on marxist literary theory
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Executing a close reading of the short story, The Lesson by African-American author, Toni Cade Bambara, there is solid evidence that the narrative represents a Marxism. The plot of the story constantly addresses financial possessions or the lack thereof with a number of mentions of the social economic status of each character although they are categorized within one race. Furthermore, one can argue that the narrative also displays a relationship between the psychological mentality of the characters as well as a biographical connection to the author. Evidence within the short story confirms that Toni Cade Bambara’s The Lesson expresses the existence of power and social class categorizations through the controlling of an individual’s emotional …show more content…
Miss Moore has been to college and she feels responsible for the teaching of the important issues to the young people in her community. However, the fact that she resides in the same neighborhood as the children displays that she too has missed some opportunities in life to advance herself as far as living situations and finances although she ha This sentence sounds a little weird. You might want to say "despite having" instead of "although she has" s a college degree. Mercedes shows that she is most well off financially when she expresses how she wishes to revisit the toy store, F.A.O. Schwartz when she receives her birthday money. The other characters including Sylvia, Sugar, Flyboy, Big Butt, Q.T., Junebug and Rosie Giraffe are more categorized into a low class society which satisfies the reason that they reacted the way that they did What is the reason they acted the way they did? Include a little more context clues. when they were outside of the toy store. Because of the social economic status, the children, especially Sylvia and Sugar felt very uncomfortable to enter into the expensive toy
Charles Johnson, in his philosophical fable “Exchange Value” traces the cause of social inequality by illustrating two African American brothers, Cooter and Loftis’ fateful tragedy. Influenced by James Coleman, Jonathan Little, and Asraf Rushdy’s previous work, Linda Ferguson Selzer draws Karl Marx’s theory of commodity fetishism in her analysis of Johnson’s short story. In “Charles Johnson’s ‘Exchange Value’: Signifying on Marx” (2001), Selzer explains that under capitalism, the society praises the “exchange value” of an object over its “use value”, thus compelling one to prioritize his pursuit of objects at the expense of freedom, morality, or even life (Marx 126). Likewise, in Lauren Berlant’s “Cruel Optimism”, the brothers become excessively obsessed with the “promises” of wealth, so that instead of spending the money for the betterment of life, they “hoard against death” (Berlant 41).
The transition of being a black man in a time just after slavery was a hard one. A black man had to prove himself at the same time had to come to terms with the fact that he would never amount to much in a white dominated country. Some young black men did actually make it but it was a long and bitter road. Most young men fell into the same trappings as the narrator’s brother. Times were hard and most young boys growing up in Harlem were swept off their feet by the onslaught of change. For American blacks in the middle of the twentieth century, racism is another of the dark forces of destruction and meaninglessness which must be endured. Beauty, joy, triumph, security, suffering, and sorrow are all creations of community, especially of family and family-like groups. They are temporary havens from the world''s trouble, and they are also the meanings of human life.
One of Miss Moore's defining qualities is her intelligence. Her academic skills and self-presentation is noticeable through her college degree and use of “proper speech” (Bambara, 385). Miss Moore also makes her intelligence evident from the methods she uses to teach Sylvia and the other children. Unlike planting them in classrooms, she takes them out on trips to show them the real world. Despite all the insults she receives from th...
In the autobiography Black Boy by Richard Wright, Wright’s defining aspect is his hunger for equality between whites and blacks in the Jim Crow South. Wright recounts his life from a young boy in the repugnant south to an adult in the north. In the book, Wright’s interpretation of hunger goes beyond the literal denotation. Thus, Wright possesses an insatiable hunger for knowledge, acceptance, and understanding. Wright’s encounters with racial discrimination exhibit the depths of misunderstanding fostered by an imbalance of power.
Fannie Lou Hamer and Malcolm X, like most civil rights activists, were exposed to the horrors of racism on a daily basis. These two leaders in particular, recognized a recurring theme of conscious oppression of Black Americans on the part of white Americans and identified the ways in which the “dominant” social group benefited from such oppression. Fannie Lou Hamer’s experience sharecropping and within the justice system helped her to develop an ideology of civil rights that centered on the empowerment of Black Americans. When Hamer was six years old the owner of the plantation on which her family lived and worked encouraged her to pick cotton. Making it seem like a game or challenge, the owner offered her a reward of food, knowing that the young girl was going hungry as a result of the limited amount of food he supplied to her family. Just like that, Hamer was tricked into picking cotton to earn minimal rewards.2 This anecdote from her life parallels the struggle of many sharecroppers at the time. Released from slavery, Black me...
According to Parson (Hale 1995, 390), families are not prepared to help their children succeed in the working world, for family morals and values sometimes conflict with those of the workplace. A primary function of the school is to prepare the children for the transition from the family life to the competitive and tough labor world. Parson also mentions that the majority of elementary school teachers are women due to their nurturing and caring personality. Children tend to see them as mother figures which may lead to a special teacher-student bond and an overall better student success rate. In the play Stanley finds out that Blanche did not take a leave of absence from work but in reality was fired because she got intimate with one of her seventeen year old students. As a teacher, Blanche has certain limits and to get involved with one of her students is not only against the school's policies but against societies moral standards. She has crossed the line of the student-teacher relationship and can no longer be seen as a mother figure and has therefore lost her role within the society and the school system.
Sylvia’s being poor influences the way in which she sees other people and feels about them. Sylvia lives in the slums of New York; it is the only life she knows and can realistically relate to. She does not see herself as poor or underprivileged. Rather, she is content with her life, and therefore resistant to change. Sylvia always considered herself and her cousin as "the only ones just right" in the neighborhood, and when an educated woman, Miss Moore, moves into the neighborhood, Sylvia feels threatened. Ms. Moore is threatening to her because she wants Sylvia to look at her low social status as being a bad thing, and Sylvia "doesn’t feature that." This resistance to change leads Sylvia to be very defensive and in turn judgmental. Sylvia is quick to find fl...
Wright, R. (2001). The ethics of living Jim Crow: An autobiographical sketch. In P. Rothenberg (Ed.). Race, class, and gender in the United States: An integrated study. (5th ed. pp. 21-30). New York: Worth Publishers.
Throughout Hughes’ Not Without Laughter, we see the long-term effect of generations of prejudice and abuse against blacks. Over time, this prejudice manifested itself through the development of several social classes within the black community. Hughes’, through the eyes of young Sandy, shows us how the color of one’s skin, the church they attend, the level of education an individual attained, and the type of employment someone could find impacted their standing within the community and dictated the social class they belonged to. Tragically, decades of slavery and abuse resulted in a class system within the black community that was not built around seeking happiness or fulfillment but, equality through gaining the approval of whites.
In his work, “A Talk to Teachers,” James Baldwin poured out his point of view on how he believed American children should be taught. Throughout the essay, Baldwin focused on a specific race of school children: Negros. Perhaps this was because he himself was an African American, or even for the mere idea that Negros were the most vulnerable for never amounting to anything — according to what the American society thought during the twentieth century, specifically the 1960s when this piece was published. With the focus determined, the reader is able to begin analyzing Baldwin’s main appeal through the essay. At first glance one could argue that the essay has no credibility with Baldwin’s lack of not being a school teacher himself; however, when further evaluated one could state that whether or not he was a school teacher has nothing to do with the fact that he establishes his credibility, he appeals to morals, emotions with authority, and values, which thus outweighs the possible negativities associated with his argument.
There is an inextricable relationship between race, capitalism, and property and how it perpetuates the notion of whiteness through the exploitation of Africans and Native Americans. Property is a relationship of a person and an object; slaves were considered as objects. Race is constructed and produced from white workers’ ideology of whiteness and labor wage. Racism has been long constructed through the production of race and its relations to property, and we can see it through the notion of capitalism and the idea of whiteness.
Different social classes come with different perspectives and challenges, usually the belief is that higher society is much happier than those in the lower rank, but not including race into the education does not give all sides of that story. By evaluating parts in Cane by Jean Toomer, Quicksand and Passing by Nella Larsen, and Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston story of class and race is being told. Color and classism have gone hand in hand for many years and evaluating the lives of characters that are considered the lowest of the low and yet made it up the totem pole brings up an important discussion. The conflicting ideas of race and class actually encourage racism and ruin the lives of characters in the black bourgeoisie.
Bambara wrote it from this point of view that people can see what it is like to grow up without a formal education and hardships these kids have to overcome. She wanted to also show the distinct personalities, characteristics, and habits that are a result from their environment. She uses it to contrast different social classes. Bambara also included Sylvia’s resentment towards Miss Moore to show how people of a lower social class are disrespectful towards educated people. But at the end, she felt confident that she can achieve her goals no matter where she came from, even if she did not expect Miss Moore to teach her a lesson.
In our current society, it is acceptable to talk about race or gender. However, when it comes to the subject of class, people tend to tense, and are uncertain as to where they stand. At one time in history money afforded prestige and power, however now, money is a large part of our society and tends to rule many peoples lives. In the book Where We Stand: Class Matters, by bell hooks, she describes a life growing up in a family who had nothing, to now becoming one of America’s most admired writers. She wrote this book because she wanted to write about her journey from a working class world to class-consciousness, and how we are challenged everyday with the widening gap between the rich and the poor. In her book, hook’s describes a life dominated by the haunting issues of money, race, and class.
Generally speaking, the two most frequently used genres in literature are fictional and non-fictional. Having said this, fictional and non-fictional literature are distinct regarding their purpose as well the literary devices they use. Literary devices are specific language methods which writers use to form text that is clear, interesting, and unforgettable. Fictional literature, for instance, is something that is made up; however, non-fictional is factual. Furthermore, non-fictional works of literature such as literary essays usually convey a message using literary devices that differ than those used in fictional literature such as short stories, which are meant to amuse its readers. Literary essays uses literary devices such as description,