Norma Rae: Southerner Reuben Warshowsky

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The movie, Norma Rae, presents a female Southerner named Norma Rae who forms a platonic relationship with northerner Reuben Warshowsky, a labor union organizer. Norma Rae is a widow who works to the bone at a textile mill in a small southern town and lives with her parents and her two young children. The conditions of the workplace are loathsome. There is no respect for employees. All the workers, including Norma, are underpaid and overworked. Rae's parents also worked at the mill and it took a great toll on both of them. So in addition to working hard, she had to take care of her sick parents. Norma becomes frustrated and appalled by the treatment of the workers at the mill and the sickness which it bestowed on her parents. Out of nowhere, a labor union organizer Reuben Warshowsky shows up and suggests that a union should be formed. Warshowsky was willing to help the textile workers do whatever was necessary to help them form a union to better their conditions. However, he first needed a leader that was opinionated, action-oriented, and hardworking to start the unionization process. Reuben realizes that he …show more content…

Under capitalism the class struggle was between the bourgeoisie (owners) and the proletariat (workers). He argues that capitalist society is only interested in money and the only way to profit in this type of economic system was by controlling and exploiting the proletariat. Marx predicts that under capitalism, the class struggle will reach an all time high, and the workers will no longer be able to sustain their terrible conditions. In response, the workers will begin to unionize to decrease the amount of exploitation they undergo. But for Marx, this itself does not remove the source of their oppression, but only reforms it. As the workers grow more and more conscious about their conditions, they seek more radical approaches to protect

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