Marxism

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Marxism

• Christina Aardema
• Anna Beels
• Rachael Lynch
• Devin Selberg
• Jordan Koster

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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 ones
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.
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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.

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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
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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.

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Marxist theory in The Great Gatsby

• According to Lois Tyson Marxist theory was shown
  predominately through the characters.

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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

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Tom Buchanans 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.

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Tom Buchanan (cont.)

• One thing that commodification causes you to do
  is want more and more.
• In Toms 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.

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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).

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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).

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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

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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.

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Main Point of Marxist Theory

• The main point of Marxism was to demonstrate how
  a capitalist society wouldnt function and how
  there was a need for a classless society