Marxist Theory

1. Our Lady of Lourdes Catholic School
Communication Arts Department
English III (English-American Literature)
Sir. Jomar Ferrer Morena
MARXIST CRITICISM
Prepared by: Lance Tolentino
Committee head: Lance Tolentino
Members: Marielle San Juan
Tristan Manalili
Nadine Antido
Edited by:

2. Historical Materialism
We do not study Karl Marx for his biography, but rather for his ideas. Let’s begin with the basics. What is Marxism? Marxism is a philosophy of
history. It is also an economic doctrine. Marxism is also a theory of revolution and the basic explanation for once again; the task of history will be
to “establish the truth of this world.”
Therefore: “ The history of humanity must always be treated in relation to the history of industry and exchange, independence of the existence
of any political or religious nonsense. “Please note that Marx is dismissing political history and political life as “nonsense”. The Marxist term for
such things is superstructure. Although politics and religion are objectively mere distortions of reality—there is no “social contract” anymore
than there is a God, to worry about. But that does not mean that ideas are even religion, for that matter, are unimportant. Both are tools of the
dominant class in society; both are means of controlling the masses. Hence, Marx’s famous dictum:” religion is the opiate of the masses”
Class Struggle
The 2nd basic rule of Marxist analysis takes historical materialism a step further. All of human history can be explained and predict by the
competition between antagonistic economic classes; or as Marx put it, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class
struggles”. Thus the ancient state above all was the slave owner’s state for holding down the slaves, as the feudal state was the organ of the
nobles for holding down the serfs. And the modern state is the instrument of the exploitation of wage-labor by capitalism. Marx argued that the
state exist primarily as an instrument of coercion. Political life is only a veil for the real struggle: Capital versus Labor. THE ‘SPECIALISTS’ and
administrators who were freed from the work of producing the necessities of life played an enormously progressive role in helping develop the
productive forces. However, over a long period of time many of these 'specialists' and their descendants became entrenched in their positions
through the accumulation of wealth, status and tradition.
In many areas they began to become ruling elite, a new class with different interests to others in society. They attempted to make rules in order
to protect their privileged position. The most successful of these new elites established special bodies of servants/warriors that they paid to
enforce their rules within the group, as well as protecting the group from attacks from outside.
This did not happen without resistance. In some groups it appears that an emerging ruling class was blocked from consolidating their grip on
power and collective organization was re-established. However, such groups tended to be weaker than those with a ruling class, where the
productive forces had been developed further. Therefore unless they were geographically isolated from other more developed societies, the
collectively-run hunter-gatherer groups generally became absorbed into them anyway, often by defeat in war and enslavement.

3. Capitalism
Capitalism is an economic system that is based on private ownership of the production and the creation of goods or services for profit. Other
elements central to capitalism include competitive, wage labor and capital accumulation. Here are multiple variants of capitalism,
including laissez-faire, welfare capitalism and state capitalism. Capitalism is considered to have been applied in a variety of historical cases,
varying in time, geography, politics, and culture. There is general agreement that capitalism became dominant in the Western following
the demise of feudalism. Competitive markets may also be found in market-based alternatives to capitalism such as market socialism and co-
operative economics.
Role of Ideas
Marx extended this argument to suggest that individuality really do not think independently at all; rather, the great majority of people simply
repeat the dominant ideas of their time in place of thinking. The production of ideas, of conceptions, of consciousness, is at first directly
interwoven with the material activity and the material intercourse of men, the language of real life… Men are the producers of their . . . ideas…
as they are conditioned by a definite development of their productive forces... [Ideas] have no history, no development; but men, developing
their material production and their material intercourse, alter, along with this their real existence, their thinking and the products of their
thinking. We are told that capitalism is the best way of organizing society; that socialism is impossible. We are told that history is made by
famous individuals like kings, queens and politicians, and that working-class people have no power to change society. We are even told by some
people that there is no way of understanding how society develops: followers of post-modernism, a theory which gained popularity in the 1990s,
believe that there are no general laws that govern the development of society. None of these things are true. The theory of historical
materialism, developed by Marx and Engels, provides a framework for analyzing human society and the laws of its development. It explains that
class societies have not always existed; that in fact the earliest human societies were classless ones based on co-operation not exploitation. This
pamphlet shows how the ruling class today tries to fool people into accepting that there is no alternative to capitalism, but also how the reality
of life forces people to search for an alternative and explains the battle of ideas that this creates. Most importantly, it discusses why the
working-class have the power to overthrow the capitalist system and create a society that abolishes class exploitation altogether; a society that

4. combines the democracy, equality and freedom seen in early societies with the advantages of modern economic, scientific and technological
developments: a socialist society.
The working-class - 'gravediggers' of capitalism
Marx and Engels showed that capitalism was only the most recent form of exploitative class society. They also explained that as capitalism
developed it was also creating the seeds of its own destruction. The central role that the growing working class played in the production process
produced a class that could not only challenge the rule of the capitalists but was also capable of building a new and more progressive society.
From a historical viewpoint, capitalism's most important achievement was to develop the productive forces to a level where a socialist society is
possible. Without the material basis for abolishing hunger, poverty and illiteracy worldwide, a socialist society is impossible. Capitalism has
achieved this material basis. According to the United Nations: "It is estimated that the additional cost of achieving and maintaining universal
access to basic education for all, basic health care for all, reproductive health care for all women, adequate food for all and safe water and
sanitation for all is roughly US $40 billion a year . . . This is less than 4% of the combined wealth of the 225 richest people." (UN Human
Development Report, 1997.) Yet under capitalism even this relatively minor redistribution of wealth will never happen. The private ownership of
industry, transport and communications is holding the productive forces back. The modern globalised world economy is continually trying to
overcome the limits of capitalism, for instance: national boundaries and the inability of workers to buy back the goods that they produce
because they are not paid the full value of their labor. But time after time these limits plunge the system into crisis. The parasitic nature of
modern capitalism is shown by the massive growth in financial speculation as opposed to investment in real industry. The incredible
communications systems that have been developed could allow a socialist society to democratically plan a modern economy in detail to meet
people's needs. But under capitalism they are monopolized by the biggest multinationals to ensure they squeeze every extra drop of profit out
of both their workers and the buying public. A socialist society could end the wastage of resources on weapons of mass destruction, huge
military machines, the duplication and distortion of scientific research, the wastage of food to keep world prices high etc. But in order to achieve
this private ownership of the major industries and financial institutions must be removed and replaced by common ownership and workers'
democracy
Literary text: Horton hears a who by Dr.Seuss
The book tells the story of Horton the Elephant who, in the afternoon of May 15 while splashing in a pool located in the Jungle of Nool, hears a
small speck of dust talking to him. Horton discovers that the speck of dust is actually a tiny planet, home to a microscopic community
called Whoville, where the Whos reside. The Whos are led by a character known as the Mayor.
The Mayor asks Horton (who, though he cannot see them, is able to hear them quite well, because of his large ears) to protect them from harm,
which Horton happily agrees to do, proclaiming throughout the book that "even though you can’t see or hear them at all, a person’s a person, no
matter how small." In doing so he is ridiculed and forced into a cage by the other animals in the jungle for believing in something that they are

5. unable to see or hear. His chief tormentors are Vlad Vladikoff, the Wickersham Brothers and the Sour Kangaroo. Horton tells the Whos that, lest
they end up being boiled in "Beezelnut Oil", they need to make themselves heard to the other animals. The Whos finally accomplish this by
ensuring that all members of their society play their part in creating lots of noise so they are heard by the jungle folks. In the end it is a "very small
shirker named JoJo" whose final addition to the volume creates enough lift for the jungle to hear the sound, thus reinforcing the moral of the story:
"a person’s a person, no matter how small."
Now convinced of the Whos’ existence, Horton’s neighbors vow to help him protect the tiny community.