Oil is Thicker than Blood In the film There Will Be Blood, the discovery of oil transforms Daniel Plainview’s life. By drilling holes into the earth and extracting fossil fuels, oil is no longer a part of nature, but a commodity that is intended to create profit. Karl Marx argues that commodities become more powerful than people themselves in a commodity based society and says that material relations take the place of social relations. Relationships between people begin to be treated like relationships between objects. Plainview treats people like objects; coming from a Social Darwinist perspective, this unjust behavior leads to his success and ability to thrive. The film critiques Social Darwinism because the fittest person, which is Daniel, …show more content…
The main focus of Plainview’s life shifts from his son to oil and it’s profit. Daniel Plainview is one of the few men who make thousands of dollars per week just from collecting and trading the oil they come upon. An oil fetishism, an extreme liking of oil, is evident in this time period and thus Daniel is attracted to the wealth it brings him. The competition to find oil pushes Daniel to become more ambitious and he develops a power-hungry mindset in which he feels he has to be victorious in every situation, even in his social relations. Oil takes over his life and his relationship with his son plummets due to his neglection to realize that his relationship with H.W. is not something that can be …show more content…
Although he makes an effort to reconnect with his son after the accident, there is no time for sentiment or worry. He drowns his sorrows and suppresses his feelings subconsciously through drilling and profiting off of oil. The oil business becomes his safe-haven where he can escape the reality of his son’s sickness and their broken relationship. In example, when he forces H.W. to sleep when he clearly wants to spend time with his father and then continues to work, he is suppressing his sadness by working. This leads to a gradual decline of attention and time he puts into rebuilding this relationship. He realizes that ignoring his son can only hurt the relationship and he chooses to do so anyway. Daniel continues to build his empire of material wealth which sabotages his social relationship with H.W. Daniel focuses on his career rather than the vital interaction that he needs with his son. He uses his line of work as a way to block out the effect of his severed relationship with his child because he knows that their is no time to spend with people when it could be spent with oil and its possible
During the final conversation between Reb Saunders, Danny, and Reuven, Reb Saunders defends his method of raising Danny by noting that, “...I did not want my Daniel to become like my brother...Better I should have no son at all than have a brilliant son with no soul” (285). Reb Saunders assumes that if Danny were raised in silence, then he would obtain a soul unlike Reb Saunders’ brother who did not have one. Reb Saunders raises Danny in isolation due to his assumption that having intellect without a soul would make a person indifferent and uncaring. By only wanting what he presumes is most beneficial for Danny, Reb Saunders forms a barrier between him and a meaningful relationship with Danny. This approach of bringing up a child is the only one that Reb Saunders has previous knowledge and he realizes that, “..a wiser father... may have done differently. I am not... wise” (288). Once Reb Saunders understands the consequences of his irrational decision, it is too late to make amends. Silence strains their relationship and forces both Danny and Reb Saunders to become depressed and miserable. Despite raising Danny with good intentions, Reb Saunders feels remorse for not establishing an affectionate relationship with his son while he still had the chance. Furthermore, Reb Saunders yearns for Danny to become a tzaddik and tries fulfills his desire through restrained communication between his son. If Reb Saunders had created a lasting relationship with Danny then the same hope could have been achieved. For Danny to become a tzaddik without feeling compassion during his lifetime is difficult to demand. It may have been possible for Danny to develop the traits that his father requires of him if he was raised in a nurturing environment. Overall, Reb Saunders’ rationalization of his parenting technique is rendered useless as he comprehends what an ill-advised approach it
At first, David cares that his mother treats him badly. After awhile, he doesn’t care and becomes apathetic.
1. In the book, the father tries to help the son in the beginning but then throughout the book he stops trying to help and listens to the mother. If I had been in this same situation, I would have helped get the child away from his mother because nobody should have to live like that. The father was tired of having to watch his son get abused so eventually he just left and didn’t do anything. David thought that his father would help him but he did not.
These divisive effects of the pre-Revolutionary War time period first become evident when Daniel West witnesses certain events go by and starts to question his own loyalty to the British King. Daniel is a young, fourteen year-old, colonist with a father who happens to be a doctor, a sister and a brother, and best friend, Beckett Foote. He has to deal with many worrying events and the conflict between the Tories and the Whigs. They were two groups that caused Salem and its people to split under the escalating violence. The Whigs stood for the American side, however, the Tories were the patriots loyal to the King. Though Daniel and his family were loyal Tories, but he did not take part in any events that occurred where violence was involved. At that time, 1774, Salem was home to a sickness and it caused additional unrest with the current situation between the two groups. It was only a year before the great Revolutionary War would begin. Daniel watches as events that lead to the war take place and starts to question his place with the loyalists. The mischief of The Liberty Boys harassing Tories, adults avoiding their neighbors, the danger of fire in a town, the tricks that Sam Adams plays to work around the British governor and the redcoats, and more force Daniel to make his decisions. The Liberty Boys are a young, rowdy group of trouble makers. Throughout the story, a message is conveyed, simply a touch of danger can change one’s life. Salem was in a time of turmoil; the conflicting groups made it worse.
This seems to represent Hones predicament because he maintains his distance from his father by staying at his friends house, then again they could remain in near contact with their family however simply abstain from looking at anything emotional .on the other hand things appear to be better therefore in passionate sort of the fact of the matter is that the issues are still there just beneath the surface.
Commodity fetishism has blinded people into believing that value is a relationship between objects, when in reality, it is a relationship between people. This in turn, prevents people from thinking about the social labor condition workers have to endure; they only care and value about how much objects costs. They think that the source of the value comes from the cost, but it truly comes from labor (FC). Through this objectification stems alienation and estrangement. Marx starts with the assumption that humans have an intrinsic quality. As human beings, individuals like to be create and manipulate his or her environment. Creating is a part of people; therefore, people their being into their creations. However, Marx postulates that capitalism and specialized division of labor separates that working class from their creations in four ways- through alienation from the product, the labor process, one’s species-being, and humanity itself. The working class suffers through this hostility to make create more wealth for owners of factories. They get trapped in a cycle to make products for profit, but as automation advances, machines begins to take over people’s jobs; therefore, there less employment opportunities available, which in turn allows factory owners to decrease wages and exploit and devalue the working class (EL). In the The Poverty
Marx had rather extreme views on the extent to which nature in his time had become humanized as a result of human labor. He commented, “Even the objects of the simplest, “sensuous certainty” are only given to him through social development, industry and commercial intercourse. ”[2] "Throughout their labor, humans shape their own material environment, thereby transforming the very nature of human existence in the process. ”[3] One always seemed to know their role in society.
Much of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto discusses the relationship between how a capitalist society produces its’ goods and how this affects the social structure of the society. Throughout the manifesto, Marx used the term mode of production to refer to how a given society structures its’ economic production, it also refers to how a society produces and with what capital the society produces. Human capital plays a large part in Marx’s communist manifesto, concerning himself with the relations of production, which refers to the relationship between those who own the means of production (bourgeoisie) and those who do not own the fruit of their labor (proletariat). This is where Marx believes that one can find the causes of conflict, asserting history evolves through the mode of production. The constant evolution of the mode of production toward a realization of its’ full potential productivity capacity, creates dissensions between the classes of people, which in capitalism, are defined by the modes of production (owners and workers). Marx believes that one such dissension is that since Capitalism is a mode of production based on private ownership of the means of production, and entities within a capitalistic economy produce property to be exchanged to stay competitive, these entities are forced to drive the wage level for its’ labor as low as possible so as to stay competitive. In turn, the proletariat must create means with which they can keep the interests of the bourgeoisie in check, trying to avoid being exploited to the point of extirpation. Marx holds that this example shows the inherent conflicting nature of the social infrastructure of production, which will in turn give rise to a class struggle culminating in the overthrow ...
Recalling the scene where Al gets murdered, moments before Bateman kills him, he offers to help him to which he responds with joy. Unfortunately for Al, Bateman decides to go back on his offer and instead stabs him to death because he didn't, "have anything in common" (Harron 2000) with him. From Marx’s point of view, this would be the cruelty that stems from capitalism.
Throughout the film a focus on family and the dynamics is prominent. A traumatic event, the loss of a son, brother, and friend, has influenced the Jarrett greatly. Due to the circumstances in which Conrad, a severely depressed teenager and the main character, was present during the death of his brother, feelings of guilt had built up in this young man. A great deal of stress and tension is built between the family members because of this tragic accident. Here is where the concept of, change in one part of the familial system reverberates through out other parts. (Duty, 2010) The relationship between the Conrad and his mother become even more absent because, in the film it is presented to show that the mother blames and has not forgiven Conrad for the death of his brother Buck. Six months after the death of his brother Conrad attempts suicide with razors in the bathroom of his home. His parents commit him to a psychiatric hospital and eight months later, he is trying to resume his “old” life.
...is interactions with his wife are filled with tension and he is saddened when he reflects upon the men lost during war and the death of his brother.
The idea of the class struggle is central to both Marx and Darwin's theories. For Marx, it is nothing more than the offspring of capitalist exploitation. This struggle existed long before Marx came into existence. In this struggle, the workers, being exploited, would think about and demand another system where exploitation would be nonexistent. However, since they were at the '...
Even as a child, she lacked emotion when she could not provide comfort to her dying brother, Daniel. Daniel needed the comfort of his mother, but for Hagar to play at being her – it was beyond me (Laurence 25). Indeed, Hagar's deficiency in feeling or expressing emotion was a visible characteristic throughout the novel. As a result of her upbringing, Hagar possesses pride that despises weakness in any form.
Dan’s naivete towards Jack 's sexuality is the conflict in their relationship. His inability to accept his son is the reason why their relationship is so complicated. Dan, caught off guard when faced with his son and another boy together, loses his temper and their relationship is compromised forever. This event makes him reevaluate his parenting behavior and the role he will play in his son’s future. What hurt Dan the most, was not being in jail, but the realization that he did not know his family, and that he was ignorant of even the most obvious things. That day he lost both his freedom and his family, thus fueling his dedication to do right by his son. He resolves, after his symbolic road trip with Cam, to make a grand gesture towards his
Karl Marx analyzed class relations and social conflict using materialist interpretation of historical development and eventually creating a communist class, in hope of providing everyone with the same necessities. Marx argued that the capitalist bourgeoisie mercilessly exploited the proletariat class. He realized that the performance carried out by the proletariats created considerable abundance for the capitalist. Marxism focuses on exterminating the bourgeoisie and supplying the people with balanced amounts of funds ultimately creating the proletariat class efficient for everyone.