Applying Marxist Literary Criticism to Of Mice and Men Essay Example

Applying Marxist Literary Criticism to Of Mice and Men Essay Example Applying Marxist Literary Criticism to Of Mice and Men Paper Applying Marxist Literary Criticism to Of Mice and Men Paper Steinbeck’s ‘Of Mice and Men’ is a microcosm of reality for the working classes during the great economic depression in the U. S. A. Through the use of generic characters which represent the different echelons that existed at the bottom of society during a period of economic instability – Steinbeck’s novel resists dominant ideologies at the time of publication as the bleak portrayal of the lives of itinerant workers could be interpreted as a statement against capitalism. Karl Marx saw political devices such as ‘The American Dream’ as oppressing the proletariat by giving them false hope. This idea of a false consciousness is evident throughout the novel as Steinbeck uses the recurring theme of dreams in ‘Of Mice and Men’ to illustrate the unsatisfying nature of the lives that the ranch members lived. The fact that all the characters have idealistic dreams of a better life highlights their dissatisfaction with their current predicament. Although the use of dreams such as George’s utopia of an easy and simple existence on a farm could be interpreted as positive because they give the characters hope, the reality which Steinbeck makes clear at the end of the novel is that these dreams are unrealistic and the majority of people in society do not fulfil their ambitions. ‘Someday – we’re gonna get the jack together and we’re gonna have a little house and a couple of acres an’ a cow and some pigs’ is repeated many times in the novel to highlight how dreams are used to prevent the proletariat from rising against their oppressors as they are manipulated by the promise of a life that is in reality unobtainable for the vast majority. Thus, resisting the dominant ideology that ‘everybody has an opportunity to be successful’. As the two central characters in the novel, George and Lennie epitomise the average itinerant worker in the sense that they are unskilled workers attempting to survive in a harsh economic climate. Itinerant workers are generally considered as being at the base of an economy, so by illustrating their plight Steinbeck is in fact devaluing the superstructure as the novel highlights the tough living conditions they are subjected to in order increment the wealth of the bourgeoisie. Steinbeck uses George’s perspective to further illustrate his perceived mistreatment of lower economic groups in society. ‘Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don’t belong no place†¦ They ain’t got nothing to look ahead to’ is the overpowering message at the end of the novel as all of the characters are subjected to hardship, tragedy and loneliness yet none are presented as facing a better outlook. This theme of loneliness and isolation also supports the Marxist theory of ‘The forces of production’. Whilst most of the characters in the novel are working at an unforgiving labour intensive job they are still at the bottom of the economic hierarchy. Steinbeck constantly reiterates the loneliness of the characters’ lives in order to highlight that although they are a major force of production there is an absence of enjoyment in the lives of the itinerant workers as they are not properly rewarded for their contributions to the economy. Coupled with the temporary nature of their employment, the workers are shown to be dislocated from reality and other people, living lonely existences and spending what little they earn on perverse pleasures such as gambling and prostitutes. This desire for false gratification could be a symbol for the lack of substance in the workers lives, or in other words Steinbeck’s perceived alienation of ranch workers. Karl Marx believed that workers in capitalist states such as the U. S. A where ‘Of Mice and Men’ is set are psychologically estranged from their work as they do not see the fruits of their work, instead they merely repeat one step of a cycle and are paid a fixed wage which is not relative to the profit the product they create gains. This theory is adopted by Steinbeck as the itinerant nature of the ranch workers job is shown to cause a separation from nature, leaving the workers disillusioned. The workers are given one task to fulfil, for example hauling the crop, and then they repeat this step over and over again until they move to another ranch – never seeing the result of their hard work. This industrialisation of the workers is depicted as having a detrimental effect on the workers psychology by Steinbeck and being the causation for their unhappiness. George and Lennie’s dream to ‘live of the fatta the land’ also forces itself into the fervent desires of Candy and Crooks which supports Marx’s belief that humans yearn for a relationship with nature. In this light, George is shown to resist bourgeoisie values which would stipulate that the industrialisation of workers is necessary for a healthy society which would be based on the assumption that profit is the most important motive – not the mental well-being of the workers. Curley’s wife could be seen as a symbol for those crushed by dominant ideologies and bourgeoisie values. Curley’s wife is portrayed as a vain and attention seeking character in life yet after her tragic death she is also a source of sympathy as Steinbeck shows her in a different light. ‘She was pretty and simple, and her face was sweet and young’ contrasts with the flirtatious, provocative and callous woman who endangered Lennie and cruelly threatened to have Crook’s hanged. Steinbeck is implying that the flaws in her character were created and compounded by the system she was born into. The fact that she is not named in the novel is an overt statement of how undervalued she is in society and this contrasts with the dominant ideology at time which is that everybody has equal opportunities to become ‘successful’. Instead of attempting to make the best of life within her means, she dreamed of the ‘high life’ advertised by purveyors of bourgeoisie values in order to preserve a capitalistic state. This meant she accepted the harsh reality of her predicament in the belief she would soon escape it.

Econometrics 2 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Econometrics 2 - Essay Example The independent variables on the other hand include; Workers, Population Density, Average Income, Products, Price Levels, Competition, Service Ratings, Location (Central London), and Convenience. According to the table above, the R Square and the Adjusted R square are above 50%, 0.652 and 0.564 suggesting that they are 65.2% and 56.4% respectively. This means that 56.4% of the independent variables explain the dependent variable (profit levels). Since the Durbin-Watson, result indicates 2.119, a figure that represents no autocorrelation; therefore, the regression results are reliable and unbiased. The statistical result above can be used effectively in predicting the variations in the profit level at the supermarket group ‘Dodo’. Walrus is an online bicycle store that sells mainly one product, their ‘tBike’. Another online bicycle store, ‘Shifty’, has recently announced a lasting and substantial reduction in their prices for the next year. The analysis below is aimed at determining whether this is likely to significantly affect their sales of tBikes. According to the analysis below, tBike Sales is the dependent variable while shifty Price, Average Income, December, and tBike Price are independent variables. The table below summarizes the descriptive statistics. The model summary below shows the variations and relationship between the dependent and independent variables. According to the table below, the adjusted R squared is 0.729 implying that 72.9% of the independent variables explain the variations of the dependent variable, tBike Sales throughout the period of the data. Since the Durbin-Watson, result indicates 1.087, a figure that represents no autocorrelation; therefore, the regression results are reliable and unbiased. The statistical result above can be used effectively in predicting the variations in the profit level at

Financial Markets Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 1

Financial Markets - Essay Example In the context of the International Community the most known financial regulators are the following ones: a) the International Organization of Securities Commissions – also known as IOSCO, b) the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision and c) the Committee of European Securities Regulators – for the supervision of Financial Services across Europe. It has to be noted that international regulators have no power to impose specific rules on countries internationally – or to ask the local authorities to take measures in order to support such activity (Backley, 2008, p.135) The term ‘denomination intermediation’ refers to the transformation of money by financial intermediaries – usually the banks (Jeucken, 2001, p.56); a clearer definition of the above term is provided by Neave (1998); in accordance with the above researcher, the term ‘denomination intermediation’ reflects the following activities of banks: a) the gathering of money through the accounts of individuals – the amount deposited in each account is usually small and b) the lending of this amount – money gathered; the amounts given as loans are usually high (Neave, 1998, p.260). Towards the same direction, Brigham (2008) notes that ‘denomination intermediation’ is a term reflecting ‘the process by which financial intermediaries transform funds provided by savers into funds used by borrowers’ (Brigham, 2008, p.101). Liquidity risk is related with insolvency at the following point: in cases of high liquidity, the risk of insolvency is decreased; on the other hand, in low liquidity, the risk of insolvency is increased; it is in this context that the above two risks have been characterized as ‘linearly coupled processes’ (Matz et al., 2007, p.174). At the next level, liquidity can have a series of different aspects – including ‘the

Nivea Family Brand Essay Example for Free

Nivea Family Brand Essay 1. What is the market’s perception of the Nivea family brand on each of the following dimensions? †¢ Performance- Nivea-primarily through Nivea Crà ¨me-had acquired a unique, widely understood brand identity as â€Å"caretaker† of skin. Since 1911, Nivea has been making the first water-in-oil emulsion that is a reliable top selling product. They used superior and innovative ingredients. Consumers see Nivea as a quality brand. †¢ Imagery- Nivea has a strong brand personality which is emotionally involving based on childhood, trust and love. The product imagery represented caring, pure, gentle, family values, trust, mildness and fair price. The product is used for dry skin and all skincare needs. †¢ Judgments Most users grew up with Nivea and learned that it was a product that could be used by the entire family to satisfy all kinds of needs. Because of consumers’ own personal history with the brand and the company’s advertising, Nivea had become strongly associated with shared family experiences and had a rich set of other brand associations such as â€Å"care,† â€Å"protection,† â€Å"mildness† etc. †¢ Feelings- Nivea evokes feeling of caring, fun, security, gentleness and pureness. The brand is closely linked with consumers. Nivea is a global brand with a wide assortment of products catering to the full spectrum of consumer segments 2. Identify the brand associations (individual brands under the family umbrella) for the following 3 sub brands: Visage, Vital, Beaute. What role does each sub brand play in entering the respective product-markets? In other words, why shouldn’t the company just use the family brand without individual brands? †¢ Visage: Nivea Visage focused on mildness. Cosmed upgraded Nivea Visage’s image through a series of actions. Firstly, it remains close to the Nivea brand image of pureness and gentleness, targeted for the face with a more sophisticated image. Secondly, the company improved its product, offering day and night crà ¨me. To support this they changed the packaging and logo. Their advertisements aimed at more at the scientific and research aspects coupled with the historic trust in the brand. †¢ Vital: Vital targets women over 50 years old. The advertisements are less family angled and utilize older female models that the target market can easily identify with. The packaging, logo and colors were redesigned for this different target market. The colors chosen for the logo were red and gold to represent energy and femininity. Natural and recognizable ingredients were added to the product line, such as: soy proteins and primrose oil. †¢ Beaute: Beaute is positioned with primary focus on the skin-care attributes of the products by using the slogan â€Å"Colors that Care†. The products were packaged in stylish containers made with deep-blue hues that resonated with the Nivea Crà ¨me packaging. Each product specialized in meeting the needs of different consumers. Prices were higher to compete with their biggest competitors

Transnational Social Movements, International Nongovernmental Organizat

Transnational Social Movements, International Nongovernmental Organizations and Our State-centric World The 1999 Seattle protests brought the apparent proliferation of anti-globalization grassroot sociopolitical movements into the limelight of the world stage. Transnational social movements (TSMs), international nongovernmental organizations (INGOs), as well as the loose transnational activist networks (TANs) that contain them—all these came to be seen as an angry and no less potent backlash that's directed at the powerful states and increasingly towering economic IGOs such as the WTO, the IMF, and the World Bank. In the field of international relations, some regard this as a prophetic watershed event that signals the weakening and perhaps even collapsing of the state-centric system of international relations, while many others insist that Seattle is but an eventually insignificant episode in the book of globalization and state power, as evidenced by the Doha success. This paper attempts to address two questions that are at the heart of this dispute: Do TSMs and INGOs have any real power in today's international political arena against the traditional view of state dominance? And, if the answer to the previous question is yes, then does such a change merit a fundamental revision of the state-centric model of international relations? My answer to these two questions is threefold: First, I assert that TSMs and INGOs can and have posed substantial normative challenges to state hegemony, most commonly the notion that the state enjoys a monopoly on representation of its citizens and their interests. Furthermore, TSMs and INGOs that employ the use of violence (particularly terrorism) breach the conventional notion that states... ...ed Arjomand, Said Amir. â€Å"Iran's Islamic Revolution in Comparative Perspective.† World Politics, Volume 38, Issue 3 (1986. 4), 383-414. Griffith, William E. â€Å"The Revial of Islamic Fundamentalism: the Case of Iran.† International Security. Volume 4, Issue 1, 1979, 132-138. Khashan, Hilal. â€Å"The New World Order and the Tempo of Militant Islam.† British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies. Volume 24, Issue 1 (1997. 5), 5-24. O'Brien, Robert, et al. Contesting Glboal Governance. Cambridge, 2000. G. Hossein. â€Å"Legitimacy, Religion, and Nationalism in the Middle East.† The American Political Science Review, Volume 84, Issue 1 (1990. 3), 69-91. Tarrow, Sidney. â€Å"Transnational Politics: Contention and Institutions in International Politics.† Annual Review of Political Science, 2001.4. Weaver, Mary Ann. â€Å"The Real Bin Laden.† The New Yorker, January 24, 2000.

Lord of the Flies differences

In Lord of the Flies there are some differences between the â€Å"Castle Rock† at the end of chapter six the Beast from the Air with the beach as it has been described throughout the book so far. The differences are the beach is used for the littluns to play and build sand castles. While the Castle Rock has just been discovered and Jack said, â€Å"What a place for a fort! † meaning that he is thinking about something and will use it as a protection or safe place. Lastly the beach has more resources to offer than the Castle Rock. The Castle Rock is more like a hiding place for them and while the beach is a place for them to stay and occupy. To commence, the Castle Rock and the beach are a place on the island, but the Castle Rock is a place up on the mountain top as Ralph, â€Å"led the way over the rocks inspected a sort of half-cave that held nothing more terrible than a clutch of rotten eggs†¦Ã¢â‚¬  While the beach is where the water pool is and the shelters. The shelters are beside the beach where the boys sleep built by Simon and Ralph and with others that helped out. As William Golding describes the Castle Rock as a place that has â€Å"rotten eggs† meaning things that are not useful and the beach has boys that some stay there not being useful by not helping out the others boys. Furthermore, the beach is where the littluns play and build their sand castles whereas the Rock Castle is just observed and walked by Ralph, Jack and the hunters and this place they are not familiar with. The littluns construct castles and use their imagination, â€Å"round the castle was a complex of marks, tracks, walls, railway lines†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Golding tells the reader that the littluns miss their home so they build these castles to keep their hopes up that there will be a day they will be back home. The Rock Castle is a place that Jack said would be for a fort but Ralph does not like the idea while Jack is so excited and building up ideas as he is at the Rock Castle. The beach is where the boys are comfortable and feel safe but in the Castle Rock they still do not have that comfort level because, â€Å"some of the boys wanted to go back to the beach. Some wanted to roll more rocks. †On the other hand the beach there is fruit that the littluns can reach and eat; they have water, the pool that is supposed to be used as a lavatory, and space where they can play around. But in the Castle Rock like Ralph said â€Å"there’s no food here, and no shelter, not much fresh water,† there are more advantages in the beach than in the Castle Rock because there are more resources for them to use in the beach than on the mountain top. As Golding describes the scene of the Castle Rock is like a very small place and not enough room for things or people to hide, â€Å"because you can see. Nothing goes in or out. † And â€Å"there was nowhere to hide, even if one did not have to go on. † Castle Rock is different than the beach because this is where they believe that the â€Å"beast† has landed. Simon felt a flicker of incredulity, â€Å"a beast that scratched, that sat on a mountain-top, that left no tracks and yet was not fast enough to catch Samneric. † This is what Simon believes a beast would be at, but never thinks it could be at the beach. But is this beast they are talking illusions of human beings acting like the â€Å"beast† or is it really a creature? Because the â€Å"beast could represent themselves but now some of them are getting scared of each other that they think this is the â€Å"beast†. Maybe Jack later on will want the Castle Rock and go live over there because â€Å"Jack was excited! when they had reached Castle Rock therefore given an inference that Jack will want to occupy this place and abandon the beach where mostly the majority has stayed. Last of all, in the island where the boys had been stranded the beach is only there real shelter, water, and fruit for the littluns, the pool for lavatory, for littluns to play, build sand castle, and for the biguns to relax and let the sun tan there skin. Whereas in the Castle Rock it is a place half-cave with â€Å"rotten eggs† as I refer to things that are not useful around just like some of the boys at the beach that are not useful and do not cooperate with the others. The Castle Rock is limited to few things that the beach offers, it has less space, not too much water, and it is more of an area to be a fort. Jack is so excited about this place that he wants to stay there to build a fort, but Ralph does not like the idea because he is a person that thinks long term meaning will or is there enough food, water, and shelter, where Jack is a person that just goes for his needs and thinks only for himself.

The concept of social identity, social class,gender and...

Social Identity is the understanding of who we are, and reciprocally, other peoples understanding of themselves. Richard Jenkins believed that this social identity is achieved through socialization within social groups. He argued that by placing themselves in the role of others, people, particularly children, gain a greater understanding of the role that they should play. For example, a six-year-old girl playing mommy with her dolls will, as she gets into the role, begin to understand what a mother expects from a daughter and will, in response, be able to perform her own role as a daughter better. This is known as the play stage. Identity taking or role-playing is, according to Tony Bilton, the primary way in which individuals creates†¦show more content†¦However various people have proved such expectations wrong. Ann Oakley (1972) firmly believed that the culture of a society is what determines the type of behaviour displayed by the sexes. I believe that that assumption is right. If one compared the behaviour of a woman in India to that of a woman living in North America one would certainly notice a huge difference in behaviour. The constant demand of liberty for all helps to form females identity in North America. They demand and get freedom of speech; movement and can occupy any job in society. This is not the case with Indian women. Not only when born is a girl considered a liability but she is also treated as inferior to the male of the species. In many cases, Indian women are viewed as possessions. As in the example of the Pakistani girl, possessions can be tampered with to teach lessons to the offending family. It is kind of like stealing cattle with the knowledge that the person who owns it will feel upset because they intended to kill it and get some meat. Because of this type of treatment, Indian women tend to be more timid and probably consider an American woman bold. They would not dream of interrupting a man while he is speaking far less disagreeing with him, certain jobs are closed to them and their world would more or less revolve around keeping their husbands and families happy. The realization ofShow MoreRelatedWhat Is Identity? Who Defines Such, And How Is It Constructed?1570 Words   |  7 PagesWhat is identity? Who defines such, and how is it constructed? The Oxford English dictionary, describes identity as â€Å"being who, or what a person is, and the characteristics determining who, or what that person is.† But, identity is much more complex than its dictionary definition. Although the word â€Å"identity† is used correctly in everyday discourse, its meaning is not captured by the definition. 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