While examining the seven works of literature, various critiques were repeated throughout multiple works. Some particularly interesting examples of these critiques include claims that life is monotonous and that communism continued the process of reification while possessing an emphasis on perfection. Obviously, this supports the argument that intellectuals possessed similar critiques regardless of their nationalities and time periods and made their shared critiques apparent in their literature. While various critiques were reoccurring between the sources, there were two major critiques which were evident in all the studied nationalities and time periods. These two universal critiques were the intellectuals’ claims that the communist state …show more content…
In We, the Benefactor, the leader of the One State and the one in power over the ciphers’ happiness, is chosen through an election. All the same, the election is merely symbolic. According to the narrator, D-503, the elections are predictable as the Benefactor is reelected each time with a unanimous vote from all the ciphers. However, in this election D-503 witnesses thousands of ciphers voting against the Benefactor, thus going against the previous trend. This provokes a panic and confrontation between the dissenters and the guardians; however, the state, which is inferred to be communist, refuses to acknowledge the fact that there was any dissent. This is most evident from the article in the State Gazette the next morning. In it the state claims that “FOR THE 48TH TIME THE BENEFACTOR, WHO HAS PROVEN HIS UNSHAKABLE WISDOM MANY TIMES OVER, WAS UNANIMOUSLY CHOSEN.” This clearly demonstrates the power that the state holds over how events are presented. As a result, the state has control over what is considered true. In this case, the Benefactor is claimed to be unanimously elected despite the thousands publically witnessed dissenting. By including this event in We, Zamyatin makes a statement about the corruption of truth due to the communist state and how it decides to depict …show more content…
He simply states that “the center of power is identical with the center of truth… the highest secular authority is identical with the highest spiritual authority.” Given that the center of power was the communist state, Havel readdresses the universal critique that the state held power over the truth. However, he extends this by suggesting that, as the highest secular authority, the communist state also possessed the highest spiritual, or moral, authority. This was made possible due to communism’s aversion to religion and emphasis on salvation on Earth rather than in a religious afterlife. With religion no longer prominent as a determining factor of morality, the communist state was able to directly control what was considered moral. Havel expands his critique of communism as a “secular religion” by claiming that people turned to it for answers and a sense of belonging, but “the price is abdication of one’s own reason, conscience, and responsibility.” By detailing what those under the communist state lost, Havel displays that the state takes not only thought and accountability from the people, but it also takes their conscience. As a result, individuals cannot determine morality on an individual basis according to their own conscience. The communist state takes control of morality and maintains it as the highest secular authority.
Karl Marx 's writing of ‘The Communist Manifesto’ in 1848 has been documented by a vast number of academics as one of the most influential pieces of political texts written in the modern era. Its ideologically driven ideas formed the solid foundation of the Communist movement throughout the 20th century, offering a greater alternative for those who were rapidly becoming disillusioned and frustrated with the growing wealth and social divisions created by capitalism. A feeling not just felt in by a couple of individuals in one society, but a feeling that was spreading throughout various societies worldwide. As Toma highlights in his work, Marx felt that ‘capitalism would produce a crisis-ridden, polarized society destined to be taken over by
“To understand political power right, and derive it from its original, we must consider, what state all men are naturally in, and that is, a state of perfect freedom…” (2.8).
The defining characteristics of the two ideologies were crucial to the nature of the regimes and their influence on the world. Fascism is an authoritarian single-party state based on “mystical nationalism, often with racist elements and especially a charismatic leader who presents himself as a national savior .” Its far-right view turned the fascist regime into a strong but notorious power. For communism, the central idea that Marx and Engels theorized in “The Communist Manifesto” is
Harmon, William, and C. Hugh Holman. A Handbook to Literature. 8th ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1999.
The word “communism” is generally linked with “Marxism”. Since Marx along with Friedrich Engels published the cutting-edge thesis, The Communist Manifesto in the middle of the 19th century, it conceived the new dimension for both politics and economics. Before turning to the principles of the Manifesto, it is useful to present the brief historical background of the era, and understand why it affected the ideology. Predominantly the Industrial Revolution (IR) and the Great Revolution in France (FR) transformed the society as follows; creation of conditions for capitalism by destroying feudalism. Period between 1820 -1840 marks the beginning of the IR, which altered the whole meantime s...
Mao was under the impression that Communism was so perfect that intellectual criticism would not be hurt, but benefit the attitudes in the country. This was a major chan...
While literary critics do attempt to elaborate or develop ideas articulated by Karl Marx, it is important and necessary to make a distinction between Marx's specific socio-economic and political agenda and the body of literary theory which emerged years later. Marxist literary criticism proceeds from the fundamental philosophical assumption that "consciousness can never be anything else than conscious existence...Life is not determined by consciousness, but consciousness by life" (Marx 568-9). Marxist critics use this challenge to the notion of an innate, prefigured, individual human nature to reexamine the nature of creative or literary authority.
Whether one thinks that the ideas of communism are good or bad, by taking a look a today’s society, we can certainly see the affect The Communist Manifesto and other books of its kind have had. Karl Marx’s ideas have shaped many programs and organizations to attempt following along the lines of equality.
Marx, Karl, Friedrich Engels, Samuel Moore, and David McLellan. The Communist Manifesto. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992. Print.
Raman Selden, Peter Widdowson, and Peter Brooker. A Reader's Guide to Contemporary Literary Theory. 4th ed. London: Prentice Hall and Harvester Wheatrsheaf. 1997.
One of the first things Havel tries to accomplish in the essay “ The Power of the Powerless” is to distinguish the communist regime from a classical dictatorship. Unlike classical dictatorships, which are local and lack historical roots the communist system is spread over a whole bloc under the rule of the Soviet Union and has lots of historical roots specifically the proletarian and socialist movements of the 19th century. Another main difference is that the communist system commands a flexible ideology, in essence the regime behaved like a “secularized religion”. “Of course, one pays dearly for this low-rent home: the price is abdication of ones own reason, conscience, and responsibility, for an essential aspect of this ideology is the...
Karl Marx (1818-1883) was one of the most influential thinkers and writers of modern times. Although it was only until after his death when his doctrine became world know and was titled Marxism. Marx is best known for his publication, The Communist Manifesto that he wrote with Engels; it became a very influential for future ideologies. A German political philosopher and revolutionary, Karl Marx was widely known for his radical concepts of society. This paper give an analysis of “The Manifesto” which is a series of writings to advocate Marx ‘s theory of struggles between classes. I will be writing on The Communist Manifesto, published in 1848, which lays down his theories on socialism and Communism.
Literature Criticism Online -. Web. The Web. The Web. 31 Mar. 2010. Kazin, Alfred. The.
The second section of The Communist Manifesto is the section in which Karl Marx attempts to offer rebuttals to popular criticisms of his theory of governance. These explanations are based upon the supposition that capitalists cannot make informed observations upon communism as they are unable to look past their capitalist upbringing and that capitalists only seek to exploit others. Though the logic behind these suppositions are flawed, Marx does make some valid points concerning the uprising of the proletariat.
Literature is an intricate art form. In order to attempt to understand the meanings and ideas within literary work, there are many forms of criticism that propose different approaches to its interpretation. Each criticism is crucial to the understanding of how individuals interpret literary works. Since each criticism has a different approach to enrich the understanding literary works, the question is raised whether one criticism should be used over others, whether a certain combination of criticisms should be used, or whether all criticisms should be taken into account. This may all be dependent on the reader’s individual preference or opinion, but each criticism presented builds on the others to create a well-rounded and unique understanding