Comparing Wealth In The Communist Manifesto And The Necklace

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Have you ever wondered what your life could’ve been if you were born rich or in a different time period? In The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and The Necklace by Guy de Maupassant the authors describe the lives of two distinct classes found in modern society, the bourgeoisie and the proletariats, the have and the have-nots if you will. Both texts have conveyed wealth as a dividing factor in society. Wealth allows those who have it to hold an advantage over the rest of society. It also causes the less fortunate to feels envious and perhaps disheartened about not being able to enjoy a carefree life.

In The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx the author shows that wealth is detrimental to society because it divides people based on material …show more content…

Mathilde Loisel was born into a family of clerks but feels that she was born for the high life. She gets a once in a lifetime opportunity to impress at a party attended by the wealthiest people in town. At the party, Mathilde is the most beautiful woman in attendance, and everyone notices her. She is intoxicated by the attention and has an overwhelming sense of self-satisfaction. However, things don’t go as planned when she loses her friend’s diamond necklace and it leads to her downfall over the course of a decade. On page 5 Maupassant wrote "What would have happened if she had not lost that necklace? Who knows? Who knows? How strange life is and changeful! How little a thing is needed for us to be lost or to be saved!" Mathilde appears to regret nothing about the night except losing the necklace. She fails to realize that it was her desire to appear to be someone other than herself that led to her demise. Despite her hardships, Mathilde has failed to learn from her mistakes and instead be asking herself what would have happened if she hadn’t borrowed the necklace in the first

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