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compare socialism and capitalism
socialism vs capitalism
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Germinal
In a period heavily influenced by Karl Marx and the quest for realistic portrayals of life in literature, Emile Zola wrote Germinal. This book realistically depicts the lives of the miners, as well as the beliefs that they turn to. The miners, following in Etienne’s footsteps, condemn capitalism and the bourgeois. Zola condemns capitalism and shows its power of corruption among the bourgeois, the miners, and in Etienne. It is safe to say that the bourgeois and the miners did not collaborate. The bourgeois lived an easy life supported by capitalism: “Since 1789 the bourgeois had been living on the fat of the land, and so greedily that they didn’t leave … even the plates to lick” (Zola 45). The image of this carnivore eating up all of the food is capitalism in the extreme.
No longer are the bourgeois satisfied with making a decent income; they have become animals with large appetites, willing to kill anything for the extra profit. Although the miners despise the bourgeois for the capitalistic animalism, they too are capitalists, when the mine decides to lay off a few of the miners, it auctions off the available work. “It’s come to this now, that workers have to fight their fellow workers” (Zola 148). In the choice of work and eating or do not and die, the miners become desperate to keep their jobs. They become like animals, fighting over scraps of food that zookeepers throw in to them. They do not like this competition because it reduces their wages significantly – and they had been on a subsistence-level beforehand.
So when Etienne offers the miners a view of socialism, they jump on it. This socialist, however, is plagued by capitalism more than anybody realizes. After having had a taste of leadership, Etienne was accused of trying to take control: “The two men had now given up shouting at each other and were coldly bitter and spiteful in their open rivalry” (Zola 234). Like two competing male animals, Etienne and Rosseneur are vying for the attention of the crows. They each take extreme positions, trying to influence the people to follow them.
John Sayles' movie Matewan offers an alternative to the norm when thinking about the development of class and economic systems in the modern world. Upon first glance, it seems as though the coal miners in the town of Matewan were the subjects of a cruel feudal system, sentenced to spending their lives slaving away for a company
Before the industrialization movement began, there was more of a blend between the classes, and now there is a distinct separation between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. Because of the industrialization of the countries, the replacement of manual labor with the use of machinery and the division of labor, the work of the proletarian has become homogeneous. It does not contain the individuality or charm of the laborer as handmade goods do. The worker instead becomes part of the machine and is reduced to performing menial, repetitive tasks. Thus, the workman's pay rate reflects his work, and is reduced to minimum amount needed to barely sustain them. Therefore, as the skill needed to perform the job reduced, so does the amount of the wages. Also, as industrialization increases, so does drudge and toil. The worker become, in the eyes of the bourgeois in control, a part of the machine and as expendable and as easily replaced as any part of the machine. This is in the forms of prolonged work hours, amount of work done in a certain time, or by the increase of the speed of the machinery, which wears down and drains the workers.
...he strongest arguments against capitalism is the quote “It was a monster devouring with a thousand mouths, trampling with a thousand hoofs; it was the Great Butcher – it was the spirit of Capitalism made flesh.”(334), the description of monster depicts capitalism as barbaric instead of those under the influence of capitalism being barbaric. This quote lends itself to the idea that people must fight for what they believe in, the parallel between capitalism and trampling hoofs alludes to the idea that without fighting a man could simply be stomped out.
Marx states that the bourgeoisie not only took advantage of the proletariat through a horrible ratio of wages to labor, but also through other atrocities; he claims that it was common pract...
Coined by Marx, the bourgeois are “the exploiting and ruling class…”, and the proletariats are “the exploited and oppressed class” (Marx, 207). These two classes are separated because of the machine we call capitalism. Capitalism arises from private property, specialization of labor, wage labor, and inevitably causes competition. “The need of a constantly expanding market for its products (…) chases the bourgeois over the whole surface of the globe” (Marx, 212) and creates a world that cannot exist without the separation of workers and owners and competition for the lowest price. The struggle between the
The Ladies Paradise by Émile Zola Zola's portrayal of men and their attitudes towards women may be the relation between that of, the controller and the controlled. One is made to believe that it is the men who control the women, and although this is the case in most instances of the Ladies Paradise, there are two people who ensue in resisting against all odds, at being run over by the machine that captivated and engulfed the late nineteenth century bourgeois household unit. They are the elegant Mademoiselle Boudu and the brushy eye-bowed Monsieur Bourras. One of the main characters, Monsieur Mouret ("governor" of the Ladies Paradise), spectacularly uses the lower classes as a tool to increase the perception of happenings in his store. So as to invoke middle class ladies of France not only to enter his palatial trap set for the nineteenth century consumer, but as well to create their desire of acquiring greater material possessions than they may actually need.
As the citizens of Matewan attempt to break free of their feudal chains, they are not only attempting to change their economic situation, but also their current social state as well. Rebelling against the all-powerful Stone Mountain Coal Company, the workers are fighting against a socially and culturally accepted norm- a feudal economic system professed as "right" and "just" by their oppressor. The clash between the company and the striking, pro-union workers is but one historical conflict that attempted to bring about positive social change. As the miners struggle to break free from thier economic oppression and form a union, they push forward a preferred economic state of capitalism.
It goes on to show how gradually the old feudal division of classes has disappeared, and how modern society is divided simply into two classes, that of the capitalists or bourgeois class, and that of the proletariat; of the expropriators and expropriated; of the bourgeois class possessing wealth and power and producing nothing, of the labor-class that produces wealth but possesses nothing. The bourgeoisie, after using the proletariat to fight its political battles against feudalism, has used the power thus acquired to enslave the proletariat. (Ormerod, 2-3)
Since the worker’s product is owned by someone else, the worker regards this person, the capitalist, as alien and hostile. The worker feels alienated from and antagonistic toward the entire system of private property through which the capitalist appropriates both the objects of production for his own enrichment at the expense of the worker and the worker’s sense of identity and wholeness as a human being.
While Herman Melville’s “Bartleby, the scrivener” and Franz Kafka’s “The Metamorphosis” have unrelated plots, they both contain Marxist undertones that address alienation in the workplace as a result of capitalism. The protagonists, Gregor and Bartleby, are examples of how the working class is treated when they do not conform to the conventions of capitalism. Gregor and Bartleby alike are working class men who, through some turn of events, stop working and are deemed useless to those around them. Both of these stories end in the death of the protagonists, as these men are seen as unproductive and discarded by their capitalistic societies.
This, however, leads to a rise in the level of unemployment in the society which causes a significant fall in the workers’ wages and therefore the businessmen can start exploiting the workers again. Marx justified that capitalism to be unfair. Marx was also an additionally an incredible admirer of capitalism. Among the documentary's numerous astonishing disclosures, Stephanie Flanders demonstrates how The Communist Manifesto contains paeans of applause to capitalism and all it has accomplished. Marx opposed requires a prompt outfitted transformation of the specialists. Rather he accepted that just when we had got all that we could out of capitalism might we be able to bear the cost of the revolution.
... between the classes becomes more apparent, eventually, a social revolution is anticipated. Eventually this revolution would result in socialism, where there is no dominating class; rather, socialism consists of cooperative production. In “A Bug’s Life”, the ants begin to be skeptical of the system and start to plan a revolt. Together, the ants, which are symbolic of the proletariats, band together to overthrow the grasshoppers’ dominion. In the end, they all live as equals, which is representative of socialism. This self-emancipation of the working class is consistent with the ideology of Marxism and social movements that struggle to overcome domination and exploitation.
Most of us own neither the tools and machinery we work with nor the products that we produce--they belong to the capitalist that hired us. But everything we work on and in at some point comes from human labor. The irony is that everywhere we turn, we are confronted with the work of our own hands and brains, and yet these products of our labor appear as things outside of us, and outside of our control.
Karl Marx was a polarizing figure of the mid-19th century whose writings remain relevant today. Some of his main ideas include the relationship between the workforce and the ‘ruling class’ which owns the means of production. Marx refers to the working class as the proletariat and the ruling class as the bourgeoisie. Themes of Marx can be found today in popular culture, namely in books and movies. One example of this is the series The Hunger Games, which correlates with many of Marx’s ideas and writings.
The capitalist is motivated by being rewarded wealth. Capital can only multiply by giving itself in return of labor power. This exchange is based on specified percentages. For example, after a long 12 hours of weaving the worker is only compensated two shillings. They attain residual wealth by taking advantage of workers. These workers are being compensated less than the value of their work. The workers endure great deals of exploitation. Workers put their labor power into effect to acquire means of survival which makes existence possible. The amount of commodities is based on the cost of life and the workers’ work ethic. Marx foreseen that class conflict between the bourgeoisie and proletariat would result in the collapsing of capitalism. The motivations of the capitalist and the workers create conflict because the capitalist attempt to uphold capitalism by advocating their principles, beliefs, and fabricated perceptions that prevent proletariats from rebelling. Once the two classes conflict with one another the cla...