Marxism

1. Marxism Christina Aardema Anna Beels Rachael Lynch Devin Selberg Jordan Koster

2. The Marxist Theory --Marx created the theory of Marxism which believed that the motive for all social and political activities was for gaining and keeping economic power. --Theories of Marxism are categorized into a group called “Dialectal Materialism” which consists of lots of thoughts and the way one looks at life. As well as one’s outlook and emotions on different things. --Marxists believe in “Empirical Evidence” which consists of using the truth in every aspect of a situation. This methodology was led by Marx and Engels. However later they reveal that not all of their “theories” were true and that they were based more on scientific theory rather than concrete facts. --Another component of Marxism is Determinism which explains that all processes are pre-thought and determined by natural laws. Therefore all processes should be able to be predicted.

3. More Info on Marxist Theory • Marxist theories are categorized into reality of society, economics, working classes, and politics. • Dialectal Materialism, Historical Materialism, and the Labor Theory of Value are the “Famous Three Component Parts” Of Marxism.

4. Karl Heinrich Marx • Karl Marx was born on may 5, 1818 in Germany to a middle-class family. • At the age of seventeen he enrolled in the Faculty of Law at the University of Bonn then transferred to the University of Berlin. • He was a member and leader to many clubs some being the Young Hegelian movement ,the Communist society, and the Communist League. • He became known for his writing and theories, he began writing for the Rheinsche Zeitung,Deutsch-Franzosische Jahrbucher, and writing famous writings such as the Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts, The German Ideology, The Poverty of Philosophy,the Communish Manifesto, The Neue Fheinische Zeitung, the Class struggles in France, The 18th Brumaire of Luis Bonaparte, The Grundrisse, The Civil War in France, and more. • He Married Jenny von Westphalen and had 6 children, 3 whom lived. • After fighting illnesses in the later years of his life and going through the death of his wife and eldest daughter he died on March 14, 1883. http://www.infed.org/walking/wa-marx.htm

5. Marx Contribution of Theories • Karl Marx was a strong communist advocate and even lead a group that overthrew the French Government and took over for two months. • Marx felt that the separation was more significant in socioeconomic classes than differences between religion, ethnicity, race, and gender. • The Marxist belief established classes in America from the homeless, poor, financially established, well-to-do, and extremely wealthy. These were established as the underclass, lower class, middle class, upper class, and aristocracy.

6. Marxist theory in “The Great Gatsby” • According to Lois Tyson Marxist theory was shown predominately through the characters.

7. Marxist Theory in “The Great Gatsby” (cont.) • The characters demonstrate Marxist theory through their actions. They lead us to believe that they follow the act of commodification. • Commodification is the thought that you are what you own . • This is how it is shown through some of the main characters…

8. Tom Buchanan’s Problem • He demonstrates this by… • His marriage to daisy (His money is equal to her beauty). • His joy of having expansive things. • His power over the women he has affairs with. All of these things build up his own personal wealth, because he has control over them.

9. Tom Buchanan (cont.) • One thing that commodification causes you to do is want more and more. • In Tom’s case he wants an elevated status, he is from the west (he graduated from Yale) and the classy thing is to be from the east. This is something he cant have so he shows a rude dislike for the old money status.

10. Daisy • She demonstrates commodification through… • The acceptance of toms marriage proposal (for the money) • When she leaves Gatsby because he is of a lower status. • When she uses Gatsby as a commodity (He takes the blame for Myrtles death, she gets off free).

11. Gatsby • He shows commodification through… • The act of having all that stuff just to impress daisy (sign exchange value) • His attempt to have daisy (If he has daisy it will show that he belongs to that social class).

12. Marxist View of Great Gatsby • Lois Tyson some what hints that she thinks the characters are just like the rich upper class of the old Russia. They were the reason Marx came up with his theory in the first place • The characters in East and West Egg were like the rich noble class • The people in the valley of the ashes were like the peasants

13. Marxist View of Great Gatsby (cont.) • In the book the Great Gatsby Tyson points out how the rich would go about spending there money on themselves and define themselves by what they owned. The poor in the book got nothing. Marxism is shown though this because this is why Marx made up Marxism. Marx wanted to get ride of the rich upper class.

14. Main Point of Marxist Theory • The main point of Marxism was to demonstrate how a capitalist society wouldn’t function and how there was a need for a classless society