Presentation: https://magic.piktochart.com/output/11067378-hgmarx_artifact1
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engles focused largely in The Communist Manifesto about societal conflicts, namely class. Marx believed that divisions in class structure were potentially more important than other concerns, such as gender and race. It is stated in The Communist Manifesto that, “Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other- bourgeoisie and proletariat” (Marx 459). In the words of Marx, the power of the upper class, especially in political terms, was “merely the organized power of one class for oppressing another” (Marx 468). The cause for such a confrontation between the two classes, in the opinion of Marx, was supremacy. According to The Communist Manifesto, “The government, like every other social institution, is produced by economic conditions, specifically by class struggles in which one class tries to dominate all other classes” (Marx 457). The bourgeoisie were the people who had control over money, provided for manufactured goods, and used people for physical labor whereas the proletariat class were those who were poor and forced to provide the manual labor in order to stay alive.
It was Marx and Engles belief that such strife between the two drastically different classes would eventually result in a revolution by the oppressed lower class to create a society that was classless. Marx states, “The development of modern industry…cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own gravediggers. Its fall and victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable” (Marx 464). The Communist Manifesto makes it clear that in such circumstances the proletariat class would attempt to displace the bourgeoisie and most likely succeed. The idea that the lower class would riot and create a revolution is also seen in the following quote: “From the moment when labour can no longer be converted into capital, money, or rent, into a social power capable of being monopolised, i.e., from the moment when individual property can no longer be transformed into bourgeois property, into capital, from that moment, you say, individuality vanishes” (Marx 465). In their work, Marx and Engles had the idea that the proletariat could proclaim their ends, however they could only be obtained by sheer force by putting an end to the current conditions of society.
It appears that the fictional series, The Hunger Games, is highly influenced by Marx and Engles beliefs of class struggles in The Communist Manifesto. The borrowing of said ideas is easily visualized in the portrayal of the Capitol ruling over the twelve impoverished districts. “Taking the kids from our districts, forcing them to kill one another while we watch- this is the Capitol’s way of reminding us how totally we are at their mercy…”’ Look how we take your children and sacrifice them and there’s nothing you can do. If you lift a finger, we will destroy every last one of you’” (Collins 18). It is not difficult to gather that “The Hunger Games are their weapon and you’re not supposed to be able to defeat it” (Collins 358). Much like it is stated in The Communist Manifesto, the struggle of power between the bourgeoisie (Capitol) and proletariat (Districts) is evident throughout The Hunger Games series. Katniss says, “I wonder if the Gamemakers are blocking out our conversation, because even though the information seems harmless, they don’t want people in different districts to know about one another” (Collins 203). Marx’s ideas about the bourgeois and proletariat are seen in the instance above in which the Capitol controls every aspect of the lives of those who are oppressed, even going as far as to limit what they can and cannot see and hear.
“Days of hunting and gathering for this one meal… it would be a poor substitution for the Capitol version” (Collins 65). Within such a quote, it is clear that the Capitol holds complete authority over the persecuted people. Much like the bourgeoisie is described in Marx and Engles Communist Manifesto, the Capitol holds the wealth and means of production over the Districts; the people who live in the poorest areas of the Districts, like Katniss Everdeen, could not afford anything near that of what was offered in the Capitol. In order to survive, the heroine of the series was forced to hunt, which was illegal in the society. The Capitol contained the people in the Districts by electrified fences, so as to discourage them from trying to escape. The ideas that Marx indicates about the bourgeoisie owning the production is obvious in The Hunger Games when it is shown that people had little to no money to afford food; in order to get necessary supplies, those living in the Districts are forced by the Capitol to receive a years worth of oil and grain in exchange for their names to be added more times in the reaping.
The fictional characters in the districts are subjected to a society where they are exploited via force; in each district they are required, per the orders of the capital, to provide products from a determined industry. The Communist Manifesto is very clear that, in under such circumstances, the lower classes will cause rioting and chaos in an attempt to overthrow the government. Katniss says, “I want to tell people that if you think for one second the Capitol will treat us fairly…you are deluding yourself. Because you know who they are and what they do…we must fight back” (Collins 99). The Communist Manifesto indicates that discord from inequality will inevitably cause the proletarians to rebel and overthrow whoever holds the power. “Let the ruling classes tremble at a Communistic revolution. The proletarians have nothing to lose but their chains. They have the world to win” (Marx). This idea is clear when the districts have had enough and begin to rebel against the Capitol. “You can torture us and bomb us and burn our districts to the ground…Fire is catching…if we burn, you burn with us” (Collins 100).
wayves: Critical Theoretical Inquiry 