Alienation
According to Debra Mashall she says that alienation is what people believe, things about society that aren’t necessarily valid. Ideology is an example.
It is an individual isolated from society, work and sense of self. Alienation consists of the two sets of relations namely;
A worker and an Object
Alienation of the worker from the product means that their labor becomes an object, labor exists outside of the worker, it does not belong to the worker.
A worker and production
This relation of labor to act of production with the labor process, not just to finish the object but also the activity of the production, no longer belongs to the worker. He pointed out the competition of power between the two social classes in society
There are two types of social classes namely;
Bourgeoisie: it is owned product means and results in production, distribution and the profit, they were high class people, they owned factories and they sold things to make a living. these people have more power than the proletariat
Proletariat: it is known as labors( workers) and Marx has a strong support on the value of labors. they were low class people and were dependent on the salary of wage that they get when paid from the bourgeoisie and they have less power
Marx believes that the only solution is to have equality in both this social classes and that no class should be better or achieve better than the other class. That people whether from the poor or rich they need to help each other because
Alienation is defined by "the state of being isolated from a group or activity to which one should belong or in which one should be involved. " Alienation is a reoccurring theme in the both The Lost World, and, Into Thin Air. The problem with alienation in each book is that it has a negative effect on the characters and their decision-making.
Into Thin Air is the book about the Mt. Everest disaster. The main character and narrator John Krakauer is invited to join Rob Hall’s expedition team, little did he know what was about to happen.
The premises presented by Karl Marx on his manuscript were genuinely with accord to the ordeal of the workers as they lose themselves in the hands of the capitalists. But, as we stated in the first part of this paper, we think there is a flaw in his second premise, the estrangement of the worker from the activity production. We believe that labor done by workers - explicitly those who take pleasure in doing their job- doesn’t necessarily imply that everything that they do is not out of their essential being primarily because they love what they do, and any work that is done out of passion and love comes from the essential being of a
This alienation arises in part because of the antagonisms, which inevitable arise from the class structure of society. We are alienated from those who exploit our labor and control the things we produce.” (Marx). Karl Marx explains in his Theory of Alienation that isolation of an individual is the result of living in a society stratified by social classes. According to Marx, there are four types of alienation; alienation of the worker from their product, alienation of the worker from the act of production, alienation of the worker from their Gattungswesen (species-essence), and alienation from other workers.
This is because despite the energy of labor and the being of the labor which are put into the product, that product itself doesn’t belong to the laborer nor do they receive any benefits from the product i.e., ‘the fruits of their labor’. In a sense, the laborer loses something of himself during the time spent creating this estranged object, as it doesn 't identify with it as a meaningful part of its own presence as a person, yet simply as an independent entity alienated to itself. Marx states that the “worker puts his life into the object; but now his life no longer belongs to him but to the object” (29). Therefore, the more labor one puts into a product the more powerful and estranged the world of products becomes of them. This estrangement can become so acute that the bare necessities of living are taken from the laborer as the more products they produce, the less they possess.
When using a Marxist lens the viewer must focus on social classes and how power is distributed throughout these classes, including who holds the power and who is inferior to that power in the society. One question that might come about when viewing the
The author Kathryn Stocket provided many events where alienation was shown throughout that book, for example: when Mrs. Hilly (one of Mrs. Leefolt’s friends) wanted to pass a law enforcing African Americans to have their own restrooms built outside due to the fact that she believed that “Negras” (as they called the maids in the book) carry certain diseases that could be caught by Caucasians. This event to me displays intent toward alienation due to how Kathryn Stocket portrayed Hilly’s actions to seem prejudice. Not only was this event
“In ancient Rome we have patricians, knights, plebeians, slaves; in the Middle Ages, feudal lords, vassals, guild-masters, journeymen, apprentices, serfs; in almost all of these classes, again, subordinate gradations” (Manifesto, 1848).
In the Communist manifesto, Marx discusses the class type of his time, bourgeois and proletariat. The bourgeois were the higher class who exploited the proletariats. They constantly strived to expand their power and wealth in society.
Who do you think of when you hear the name Cleopatra? Most people automatically know which Cleopatra is being referred to yet, almost every female pharaoh or queen was named Cleopatra. The most famous was Cleopatra VII. So, what makes Cleopatra VII stand out more? Why is she the one everyone thinks of when that name is mentioned.
Marx believed that the current capitalist society is separated into two classes, the Proletariat society, and Bourgeois society. The Proletarians, as perceived by Marx, are part of the working class that only possess one significant material value, that is the ability to work, or labour power. The Bourgeoise, on the other hand, is the societal class that owns the means of production and hence rule over the Proletarians. As I quote from Marx’s book, “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” (Marx and Engels, 1988, p. 473)
According to Edwards et al. (2006) Marx thought that within capitalism there would be an increased divide between the bourgeoisie class and the proletariat class in the future. The proletariats are lower of the two classes, the people who have to work for wages in order to survive. The bourgeoisie are the people in society who controlled and owned the means of production in a capitalist system.
Bourgeoisie, which gains the power, defines superstructure “including all social and legal institution, all political and educational systems, all religions and all art” (Bressler, 162), and articulate the ideology which is based on profits of bourgeoisie. The bourgeoisie ideology leads to alienation of individuals, especially proletariats. This bourgeoisie ideology creates the clash between the two classes. Marx supported the working class and their victory over dominant class. Marxism believes in providing equal opportunity to the working class as that are available to the
Today’s world is living very quickly. Most people try to adjust to the routine that we are given, so working, meeting with each other, spending holidays and the other way back. That is how society works - Fast. It can be easily compared to a giant organism in which every cell has different role, but they all have to cooperate???. Looks smoothly???
The second, is alienation from the product. In Marxist time and in today’s modern world we are involved in an abundance of mass production. In a capitalist system, people are placed in a position where they are responsible in making a minor part of the goods. The goods of work belong to the capitalist and is sold for their profit, whereas the workers gain nothing. Therefore, Marx concluded that the greater effort the workers put into their job, the lesser they benefit.
Melvin Seeman’s five prominent features of alienation
Melvin Seeman, the American sociologist, considers alienation as the summation of the individual's emotions, divides it into five different modalities: powerlessness, meaninglessness, normlessness, and finally self-estrangement.
1. Powerlessness
According to Seeman, powerlessness theoretically means when the individual believes his activity will fail to yield the results he seeks. He also opines that the notion of alienation is rooted in the Marxian view of the worker’s condition in capitalist society, where the worker is alienated to the extent that the prerogative and means of decision are expropriated by the ruling entrepreneurs.
