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Charles Phil Mr. Nettesheim Honors English III 23 December 2011 Marxism and its Application in Nineteen Eighty-Four Despair upon the human race, a haunting of an uncertain future of authoritarian governments and societies, such travesties were only but the main problems George Orwell had feared above all else. Yet these uncertain and unclear matters of civilization did not have any answers to respond to their threats. In spite of this, George Orwell provided his response to the dreadful calamities that lay ahead for the next generation. Through Nineteen Eighty-Four, George Orwell leaves a blueprint and a message for the next generation, a warning to those who would readily accept the frailties of the human condition. The rise of totalitarian ideologues like Joseph Stalin, whose brand of communism greatly differed from traditional doctrine, only gave credence to Orwells paranoia, as he was very much wary of the dangers of such regimes (Davis 248). However, George Orwells socialist and Marxist convictions helped to shape his reply to the state of the world. As such, a Marxist interpretation of Nineteen Eighty-Four conveys a more substantial reading of the common tenants of the Marxist literary theory that George Orwell had promulgated and to make known the true nature of authoritarian governments, while countering the de facto standard of Marxism in his day. Marxist literary criticism involves the application of communist economic thought originally authored by Karl Marx and Fredrick Engels into literature. Oftentimes, themes of class warfare, materialist greed, and the failure of unbridled capitalism are common viewpoints on which literature is judged and evaluated upon by Marxist criticism. In terms of class struggle,

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distinctions are made between the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, in which two classes have existed eternally in human history: the proletarian masses of the oppressed and the bourgeoisie elites of the oppressors. To visualize in simpler terms, examples of an oppressed and oppressor power struggle include: patricians and plebeians of ancient Rome, lords and serfs of feudal England, and slave masters and their slaves (Marx, Engels 3). Marxist literary critics make use of this theme of the struggle between the burdened majority and conquering few alongside proletarian theory of gender, age, and other social equalities. As the bourgeoisie continue to accumulate capital, Differences of age and sex have no longer any distinctive social validity for the working class. All are instruments of labor, more or less expensive to use, according to their age and sex (9). This theme of class calamity, the foremost topic of Marxism, is inseparable from the communist ideology and its use in literature. Therefore, it is not surprising that various Marxist critics would utilize such philosophical thought in the evaluation of various literary texts. In addition to class infighting, the amount of consumer perversion in capitalistic societies is another subject in which literature is scrutinized through the Marxist lens. Marxist theory, in itself, advocates for an abolition of private property (Marx, Engels 14). Material possessions is commonly used as a gauge of corruption by the privatization of property among Marxist literary critics, especially Gyrgy Lukcs, author of Geschichte und Klassenbewusstsein, or otherwise known as, History and Class Consciousness. As fetishism for commodity became more prevalent in society, Gyrgy Lukcs observed how it produces the alienation of cultural and organic objects, including human beings and the fostering in people of passivity and a sense of personal and social fragmentation (Marxist Criticism 368). In other words, the reification of material goods by the masses cuts off human connection between their fellow man. The

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reification theory by Gyrgy Lukcs greatly advanced literary thought, and is now a standard part of Marxist literary analysis. Yet one final pillar of Marxist literary criticism remains. Rick Wolff, a professor of economics at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst noted how For Marx, the crux of the issue is that capitalism entails exploitation (Anti-Slavery). The exhausting burden and labor of the proletarians is one that is derived from mistreatment and abuse from the bourgeoisie class. For change to occur in capitalistic nations, the proletarians must rise above the bourgeoisies after becoming conscious of their own immense majority. It can only be through an open and violent revolution that the proletarians can lead the way towards a stable world commune after the dissolution of the bourgeoisies (Marx, Engels 12). Applied to Marxist literary criticism, this means that any mention of revolutions and rebellious behavior in literature plays a key role in the Marxist interpretation of characters, settings, and plot. Through the evaluation of these modes of conduct within the working class, Marxist critics can describe the solidarity and collective nature of these literary characteristics. By utilizing these three tenants of Marxist ideology, one can disseminate George Orwells emphasis on Marxist values from Nineteen Eighty-Four. In the world of Nineteen Eighty-Four, there are three separate class distinctions: the Inner Party, the Outer Party, and the Proles. Although there are three class discrepancies, both the Inner Party and the Outer Party comprise the bourgeoisie, as both groups of people contribute to the oppression of the Proles through the fabrication of history and manipulation of public information (Orwell 41). In fact, one could say George Orwell deliberately derived the name Proles from proletarians in order to emphasize the connections between the lowest caste of society in his novel and the oppressed class of the masses described in Karl Marxs and Frederick Engels Manifesto of the Communist

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Party. Although Karl Marx mentioned the feature of an social equality as being a quality of the working class, George Orwell demonstrates how the ruling bourgeoisie could also be united in oppression, as there is not any racial discrimination, or marked domination of one province by another. Jews, Negros, South Americans of pure Indian blood are to be found in the highest ranks of the party (214). Orwell describes how members of the ruling party can also be united Apart from class separation, Nineteen Eighty-Four demonstrates how unfiltered capitalism leads to a detrimental outcome for the enslaved proletariats of the nation of Oceania. Akin to the ideas of Gyrgy Lukcs, Erich Fromm writes in the afterword of the novel how unless the course of history changes, men all over the world will lose their most human qualities, will become soulless automatons, and will not even be aware of it (Fromm 324). As explained by Marxism, through the medium of commercialism, the belief was that people would become driven apart from each other and from what makes them human. However, instead of becoming gripped by commodity fetishism, the laborers themselves become the commodity fetish of the three superpowers of the world. Unrestrained capitalism yielded perpetual war between Oceania, Eurasia, and Eastasia for the control of cheap labor within disputed territories that lay between the different super-states (Orwell 192). Once again, the common majority is controlled by only but a few people in a position of power, for the benefit and capital gains of the bourgeoisie. On the matter of rebellious behavior and revolutionary thought, the actions are not instigated by the Proles, but by members of the Outer Party, namely Julia and Winston Smith. Winston Smith, the protagonist of the novel, falls in love with Julia, a dark haired and young woman who seduces him and becomes his lover. Together, they destroy many principles set by

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the party, but mainly the principle against having sexual relations between members of the party (Orwell 67). When asked if their actions would enable the next generation to carry on their rebellion, Julia states that she is only interested in their relationship in the present, to which Winston Smith declares, Youre only a rebel from the waist downwards (159). As members of an intermediary class of people, their actions are not one of true revolutionary intent, but one of shallow rebellion against the class of people who they felt suffocated by and existed without the rights to govern them. It is also a demonstration of dissatisfaction against the strict rules imposed upon them, and is indicative of their subconscious desire to abolish the rules of the Inner Party, and subsequently become the new ruling class in their place (207). Regardless of this behavior, Winston Smith and Julia continue to conform to the conservative system that is still in place to control them. Yet, like Marx and Engels, Winston Smith recognizes that If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there, in those swarming disregarded masses, eighty-five per cent of the population of Oceania, could the force to destroy the Party ever be generated (Orwell 71). Sadly, this realization will never become reality, due to the machinations of capitalist selfinterest regulating the Proles activities, and exemplified when Winston Smith observes a gigantic scuffle between women around a street market stall due to a shortage of saucepans (72). As Kathleen Fitzpatrick writes in her criticism of Nineteen Eighty-Four, the impossibility of a proletarian uprising presents itself to him at every turn. Echoing Marx, Winston writes: Until they become conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious. And, unfortunately, he is right (Fitzpatrick 245). As much as Winston Smith wills for it, no true revolution will ever be wrought, and this only solidifies the reification of the senseless self-pleasure of the human race.

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Apart from the literary merits of Marxist criticism, George Orwell also wrote with an intent to critique the Marxist norm and ideology in a post World War II era. Although Nineteen Eighty-Four is commonly, and rightfully, referenced as an antiauthoritarian work, by calling it an anticommunist treatise, as was marketed to the American public during the 1940s, it is to forego the true intent of the author (Pynchon viii). After all, George Orwells politics was often positioned as Leftist, but also, not only of the Left, but to the left of Left (ix). However, this did not mean that George Orwell readily adhered to socialist and communist doctrines of his time. If anything, Orwell was highly skeptical of the leftist policies and institutions that were in place during the post World War II era. What had been an honorable struggle against the incontrovertibly criminal behavior of capitalism had become shamefully institutional, bought and sold, in too many instances concerned only with maintaining itself in power (xi). Indeed, Orwell had absolutely detested the fakery of Marxist and socialist values, most notably after the election of the British Labor Party in England (xii). If anything, the values that George Orwell had stood for were stolen by those with different ambitions than him. This does not mean, however, that George Orwell turned a blind eye upon the horrid situations and events occurring within other nations around the world. For George Orwell, the definitive disillusionment came from the Soviet Union and its many supporters among the socialist and Marxist Left. In particular, he found it appalling that the Left were to be frequently found allied to Stalinist principles, especially when evidence surfaced in which the Soviet government was sending its own citizens to concentration camps and deporting them at massive rates. Such behavior was unjustifiable and contemptible to George Orwell, as its spirit and practice are quite alien to anything that is meant by Socialism (Pynchon xi). Only after the culmination of disenchantment and outrage against supposedly Marxist policies and the

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governments that were supposed to represent those values did George Orwell write Nineteen Eighty-Four in order to expose the tremendous distortion of leftist standards and its infusion with authoritative power. Through the means of Nineteen Eight-Four, George Orwell was able to express his displeasure of the failings of socialist and Marxist governments of the time. The administration of the British Labor Party is embodied within the novel as Ingsoc, the governmental system of Oceania in the dystopian world that is later revealed as the corrupted adaptation of English socialism that George Orwell vehemently opposed (Orwell 37). Unfortunately, the English socialism that embodies the political ideology of Oceania is one that rejects and vilifies every principle for which the Socialist movement originally stood, and it chooses to do this in the name of Socialism (222). George Orwell repeatedly makes a distinction between true socialist dogma and the hijacked and fraudulent version that many countries of his day had practiced, exemplified by the ruling party of Ingsoc. Moreover, several smaller details in Nineteen EightyFour provide allusions to the Soviet system of communism, most prominently through Big Brother and Emmanuel Goldstein. The mystical and god-like Big Brother of Oceania exemplifies Joseph Stalin, who was dictator of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in Orwells time, while Emmanuel Goldstein can be comparable to the Soviet dissenter Leon Trotsky (Pynchon viii). On top of connecting well-known figures of the Soviet Union to characters in his novel, George Orwell also provides illustrations of the atrocities of their Marxist ideology. The mass deportations of the Soviet populace are analogous to the displacement of Proles into the nether regions of Oceania. It is there they live the remainder of their insignificant lives in poverty and misery, never to rise against the injustices of the government that sent them there (Orwell 85).

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However, Room 101 relays the starkest example of Soviet injustice in Nineteen Eighty-Four, located within the confines of the Ministry of Love. As concentration camps were used to reeducate and punish civilians who opposed the policies of the ruling party in the Soviet Union, Room 101 also draws notions of reeducation and punishment (269). It is the embodiment of fear, a terror that none of the prisoners of the Ministry of Love wish to experience. Winston Smith suffers the torture and hellish conditions the room entails, becoming emaciated and mentally destroyed. As OBrien, his interrogator, tells Winston, You are rotting away, you are falling to pieces. What are you? A bag of filth. Now turn around and look into that mirror again. Do you see that thing facing you? That is the last man. If you are human, that is humanity (282). George Orwells demonstration of Smiths demoralization and physical ruin is reflective of the circumstances that occurred in the Soviet gulags of his time, and this portrayal should have been sufficient enough to disgust any supporters of the Soviet variety of Marxism. Through the application of Marxist fundamentals, Nineteen Eighty-Four yields an insight to common Marxist ideals in addition to disclosing the disparities between the Marxism of George Orwells era and the ideology of true Marxism. The tenants of Marxism, the ideas of class warfare, the demise of capitalism, and of revolutionary overthrow, appear once the text is scrutinized through the Marxist lens. It is by these values that George Orwell expresses his disgust and contempt for the governments that appeared to perpetuate his political values, when in reality their authoritarian propensities were anything but socialist. The additional disaster of the violation of human rights only further motivated Orwell to communicate his antiauthoritarian message. All of these messages are typified within Winston Smith. However, Winston Smith also personifies humanity, and what could when confronted with an overwhelming evil. Society bears the capacity to succumb to corruption and despair. After all, he came to love Big Brother.

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Works Cited Davis, James. "Criticism." Novels for Students. 7. Detriot: Gale Cengage Learning, 2009. Print. Contains a literary criticism of Nineteen Eighty-Four written by James E. Davis in order to discuss the importance of keeping the novel in the high school curriculum. There are profiles of fourteen novels commonly read by students, including "The Accidental Tourist," "Candide," and "Native Son," each with an introduction, a plot summary, character descriptions, thematic analysis, and historical context. Fromm, Erich. Afterword. Nineteen Eighty-Four. Centennial ed. New York: Harcourt Brace, 2003. Print. Provides a review of the reasons Orwell wrote the novel, accompanied by evaluations of symbolism in the book. Kathleen, Fitzpatrick. "Criticism." Novels for Students. 7. Detriot: Gale Cengage Learning, 2009. Print. Contains a literary criticism of Nineteen Eighty-Four written by Kathleen Pitzpatrick in order to discuss the ability of the state to control its people. There are profiles of fourteen novels commonly read by students, including "The Accidental Tourist," "Candide," and "Native Son," each with an introduction, a plot summary, character descriptions, thematic analysis, and historical context. "Marxist Criticism." Twentieth-century literary movements dictionary : a compendium to more than 500 literary, critical, and theatrical movements, schools, and groups from more than 80 nations, covering the novelists, poets, short-story writers, dramatists, essayists, theorists, and works, genres, techniques, and terms associated with each movement. Detriot: Omnigraphics, 2000. Print.

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Documents the writers, works, and techniques associated with more than five hundred literary movements around the world.

Marx, Karl, and Engels Frederick. "Manifesto of the Communist Party." Marxists Internet Archive. Marxists Internet Archive, 2000. Web. 20 Dec 2011. <http://www.marxistsfr.org/archive/marx/works/ download/manifest.pdf>. A pamphlet that embodies the principles of Communism, drawn from a public domain source. Orwell, George. Nineteen Eighty-Four. Centennial ed. New York: Harcourt Brace, 2003. Print. Describes life under a totalitarian regime through the life of the protagonist, Winston Smith. Examines the breakdown of human principles and the fallibility of man. Pynchon, Thomas. Foreword. Nineteen Eighty-Four. Centennial ed. New York: Harcourt Brace, 2003. Print. Provides a brief introduction to George Orwells personal background and on his motivations of authoring the novel. Wolff, Rick. "Anti-Slavery and Anti-Capitalism." Logos: A Journal of Modern Society & Culture. 5.1 (2006): n. page. Web. 20 Dec. 2011. <http://ic.galegroup.com/ic/ovic/ ViewpointsDetailsPage/ViewpointsDetailsWindow?displayGroupName=Viewpoints&dis ableHighlighting=false&prodId=OVIC&action=e&windowstate=normal&catId=&docum entId=GALE|EJ3010623209&mode=view&userGroupName=fran44299&jsid=b6745efe 41bbe541abed12b6c5a09aaa >. An argument proposed by professor of economics at the University of MassachusettsAmherst. Describes how capitalism entails exploitation of the working class.

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