The Feminist Structure In Willy Vlautin's The Moral Life

The Motel Life is set in Reno, Nevada (for the most part) and the author, Willy Vlautin, was born and raised in Reno, Nevada. It is not coincidental that the setting and where the author was born and raised are the same. According to a Marxist critic, the author is familiar with Reno, Nevada because that is his social background, therefore the author writes about what he is familiar with, in this case Reno, Nevada. For instance, an author, according to a Marxist critic does not write about a class that they are not in because they are not familiar with that class.

In The Motel Life, Frank and Jerry Lee are the lower class, the bottom of the totem pole in society. They have and will always be considered a part of the lower class unless they

What is keeping Frank and Jerry Lee, maybe it’s the government that is the oppressor. Why the government? Well, in a way the government failed Frank and Jerry Lee after their mother died. They were left all alone, to raise themselves and pay the bills. Maybe, just maybe, if the government would have taken action after their mother’s death and place them in the foster care or found them a legal guardian they might have escaped the lower class. We know from the novel on page 56 that Frank and Jerry Lee’s mother did not want them to be placed in the foster care, but it just might have saved them from the life they currently live within the lower class. It could also be their alcohol addiction. Majority of the money they make goes to feeding their addiction. At the same time the oppressor could be the stores how supply the alcohol because they make alcohol so easily available to two obvious alcoholics. Not only do the stores make it available, but also they continue to sell it to them. We can make speculations about which oppressor is has the strongest force on their lives, but regardless of who or what, it still keeps them in the lower