Using material from Item A and elsewhere assess different Marxist views of the relationship between crime and social class. Traditional Marxism sees capitalist society as divided into two classes: the ruling capitalist class (or bourgeoisie) who own the means of production, and the working class (or proletariat), who’s alienated labour the bourgeoisie exploit to produce profit. Marxism is a structural theory. It sees society as a structure in which the economic base (the capitalist economy) determines the shape of the superstructure, which is made up of all the other social institutions, including the state, the law and the criminal justice system. Their function is to serve ruling-class interests and maintain the capitalist economy.
Krystal Brooks September 17, 2012 AP Literature (M1): 12th Grade Mrs. Horton In Fay Weldon’s reflective short story, “Ind Aff”, the narrator struggles to understand her love affair with a married man and realizes that she does not have inordinate affection for him as she thinks when her life is compared to the murder of an Archduke. The narrator ultimately realizes that it was Princip’s fate to kill the Archduke because he had two chances to shoot him and when she sees the attractive waiter at the restaurant, she feels as though it’s fate for him to help her realize she’s trapped and can do a lot better than this “man with thinning hair” (Walden pg. 206). The “black clouds swishing gently all over Europe” (Weldon pg. 202) foreshadow the approaching conflict between the narrator and Peter, her professor.
Marx predicted that capitalism within a socioeconomic system would inevitably create internal tensions between social classes leading to its demise and replacement by a new system, communism. For Marx, the concept of class has always existed in society. Historically, a society has always been arranged into various orders of social rank. A defining characteristic of capitalism however, is that “it has simplified the class antagonisms. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat” (Marx and Engels 1848).
Her innocence is destroyed along with her morals, her dreams, and anything human like. Her salvation was Mr. Zachanassian who removes her from the brothel, changes her name to Claire Zachanassian, and gives her wealth. Unfortunately, the time she spent in the whorehouse affected her lifestyle, behavior, and attitude. “The world made a whore of me, now I’ll make a whorehouse of the world” (72) were Clara’s thoughts as she became the ruthless Claire. Now changed and wealthy, Claire believes that “with financial power like [hers], [one] can afford a new world order” (72) and with no remorse offers the money for Alfred’s death.
Outline and evaluate marxist explanations of crime (45) The Marxist theory in general splits society in half, the rich and the poor. With the poor being exploited by the rich. This theory appears to be the basis for all Marxist perspective including the Marxist explanations of crime and deviance. Karl Marx stated that crime was the product of poverty and the traditional Marxist view regarding the cause of crime amongst the working classes is competition and the desire to become wealthy and live a middle class life. The working class want the ‘things’ that they see the middle classes with but they can't afford them so they resort to crimes such as stealing as a means of getting what they want.
Heckerling caters to the radical social and cultural changes from conservative Regency England to a much more liberal late 20th century American society by shifting the emphasis from Regency determinants of class as inherited wealth to modern values of beauty and appearance. For instance the close up shot of Cher’s mother’s painted portrait juxtaposed with Cher’s voiceover explaining that her mother “died in a freak accident during a routine liposuction” highlights the modern social fixation and emphasis on beauty. The extreme close ups of Cher applying makeup and Amber’s excuse her “plastic surgeon” did not want her playing tennis because of her “nose job” satirises the ludicrous significance of superficial façade in determining social status in 90’s America. Social mobility in the American society is also far more permissible and accepted than in Regency England, as class could now be achieved through a transformation of appearance where it once had to be inherited. This appropriation of Regency values is reflected by Tai’s dramatic status improvement after her “makeover”, emphasised by a panning camera over the school cafeteria revealing vector lines created by students leaning toward the central figure of Tai.
For whereas American democracy is based on the idea of equality among people, the truth is that social discrimination still exists and the divisions among the classes cannot be overcome. Myrtle's attempt to break into the group to which the Buchanans belong is doomed to fail. Taking advantage of her vivacity, her lively nature, she seeks to escape from her own class. She enters into an affair with Tom and takes on his way of living. But she only becomes vulgar and corrupt like the rich.
This concept is shown by Daisy, in the novel The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, who personifies this trait extraordinarily well. Human relationship are impacted by materialism, because the wealthier someone is or isn’t, determines, subconsciously, how one acts towards them. Daisy, the most desired person in the story, looks at the world through very materialistic eyes. Nick, Daisy, Tom, Jordan, and Gatsby were in a very LAVISH hotel room in the plaza hotel; where Tom and Gatsby were having a fight over Daisy. Gatsby said, “She only married you because I was poor and she was tired of waiting for me,” (130).
In An Inspector Calls, the central theme is responsibility. Priestley is interested in our personal responsibility for our own actions and our collective responsibility to society. The play explores the effect of class, age and sex on people's attitudes to responsibility, and shows how prejudice can prevent people from acting responsibly. Priestley believed in the idea of the Welfare state, where everyone was supported by each other. He was a supporter of socialism - his play promotes social responsibility and criticises the problems caused by the class divide.
Dickens and Bronte both have expressed their views on class segregation and the effect that it has on people. The protagonist in each Novel shows how both sides of wealth affect them in different ways. Class ultimately plays an underlining role in expressing the moral of each novel. In this essay I aim to look at how Dickens and Bronte have expressed the role and importance of class through their novels Great Expectations and wuthering heights. In Great Expectations we see our protagonist Pip go from poverty to riches.