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Bread And Roses Analysis

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The movie “Bread and Roses” really gives the viewer a clear sign of what it is like being employed in a minimal paying job, while belonging to the lower class. It is sometimes effortless to discern the social economic status that an individual belongs to, based on their income, appearance, and sometimes even race. However, just because it may be easy to recognize, how it came about is a lot more difficult to explain. The occurrence of the events in the movie “Bread and Roses” can be explained by Karl Marx’s ideas of alienation and false consciousness. Many times in capitalism, wage-workers are cared for only due to their ability to produce what is expected. If the wage-worker is unable to produce what they are expected to, they will …show more content…

In this case, those products were making sure the entire building was clean, because the wage-workers were janitors. Perez showed that he objectified the janitors only as a means of the products they produce as he fired certain individuals. The first individual he fired was the elderly lady who was an illegal immigrant that showed up a few minutes late to work. Being late to work was an indication of inability to work, to Perez. What also was the deciding factor of firing the elderly lady was that she forgot her glasses. As the elderly lady forgot her glasses it affected her productiveness due to having difficulty seeing. Perez saw this act not as a simple mistake, but proof that she was not eligible to work for that specific day and further on. As the elderly lady was fired, she showed deep distraught and concern, begging for her job back. The reason she reacted in such a way is because her employment provided some source of financial ability for her everyday necessities. Perez alienated the elderly lady even after she begged, as he disregarded the potential personal struggles she would suffer from. Perez saw past her possible struggles, feeling that her inability to work and her non-commitment to the job would make Perez himself suffer in the long run. Another example of how Perez showed alienation …show more content…

Marx’s ideas not only justified how the specific events came about, but explained that the root of where these events came from. Marx’s ideas explained that the root of these events occurred from the inequality of how the capitalist class abused their wealth and power only to become wealthier and powerful, while the wage-workers become oblivious to it. A limitation of Marx’s ideas is that alienation does not relate to all cases of financial inequality, which are heavily based on culture. Marx’s ideas in regards to alienation is targets more individualistic cultures rather than collectivistic cultures. This is because individualistic cultures value one's own goals, motives, and success. Marx’s ideas in regards to alienation related to the movie so well because the setting of the movie took place in America, an individualistic society. However, if taken place in a holistic society, where individuals are more concerned with group goals and harmony, Marx’s ideas of alienation would not correlate as well, and may even be

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