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Marxist Criticism in the Novels Scythe by Neal Shusterman and 1984 by George Orwell
It is a wise man who said that there is no greater inequality than the equal treatment of unequals (Frankfurter).
Inequality happens anywhere and everywhere in different times and places throughout the world. It is oppressive by nature and seeks to condemn those who are seen as lesser or unworthy of equal and fair treatment. Prominently, the novels Scythe by Neal Shusterman and 1984 by George Orwell, depicts two stories of different individuals, which takes place in the future dominated by oppression. The subtle inequality in Scythe exhibits how unaware or apathetic the people are to their social standing and the control that is oppressed onto them. Whereas 1984 excessively shows the dominating oppression the government has, rather Big Brother, and how the oppression creates an unthinking society where individual thoughts is a fatal crime. The literature used to behind the political forces of both communism and fascism within Scythe and 1984 is supported by the ideology of Marxist criticism. Each society in these novels attempts to create a utopia of equal persons through communist and fascist ideals, however this has the opposite effect, hence creating a dystopia. When dystopian societies like those in Scythe and 1984 attempt to create equality, they will always be one individual or group exerting some variant of control.
Marxism was originated and an adapted philosophy by Karl Marx, who firmly believed that communism would successful and sustainable for a country’s economic and social needs. In his book The Communist Manifesto, he reveals his view on the bourgeoisie or oppressors and believers they are exploiting the working class or proletariat: The bourgeoisie cannot exist without constantly revolutionizing the instruments of production, and thereby the relations of production, and with them the whole relations of society. Conservation of the old modes of production in unaltered forms, was, on the contrary, the first condition of existence for all earlier industrial classes. Constant revolutionizing of production, uninterrupted disturbance of all social conditions, everlasting uncertainty and agitation, distinguish the bourgeois epoch from all earlier ones (Marx). He then claims: The proletarians have nothing to loose but their chains. They have a world to win (Marx). His purposeful replacement of the word lose for loose exhibits his ideology behind revolutions and uprising against the bourgeoisie that can only be fought by the working class. With an understanding of Marxism, Marxist criticism lies in the literature that invokes the Marxist ideology, more specifically for Scythe and 1984, the oppression that shapes the society as a whole.
George Orwell, or his real name Eric Blair, was born into a low-class family, which was impactful on his early childhood and adulthood because of his societies invisible caste system. In his childhood he attended a private elementary school called Crossgates, which he received a scholarship from, nonetheless he was treated as lesser value by educators, administration, and peers because of his financial standing. After schooling, he decides to join the imperial police, where the hatred for a caste system or inequality of others surfaced. He later resigned from the police force and dedicated most of his time writing against totalitarianism (Woodcock). He has been considered to have had heavy influence in his writings Animal Farm and 1984 from The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx, though not necessarily in support of his social class views, rather a warning against communism and totalitarianism: Orwell was indeed a genuine socialist whose warning was aimed at totalitarianism in general, not at the left per se (BBC).
1984 was written in 1948 and is exclusively written in the third-person point of view of Winston Smith, who resides in England during the future of 1984. During this period, the totalitarian government, Big Brother, dictates over the citizens of the three classes in Oceania; the Inner Party, the Outer Party, and the proles in the country of Oceania. The Inner Party would be considered modern day upper class, who have comfortable living conditions and is able to receive privacy from Big Brother, while reaping the benefits from the laborers such as the proles. The Outer Party is made up of administrative officials or educators and have limited benefits besides life necessities. Additionally, members of the Outer Party are required to have a television in their rooms, which monitors and captures everything they do within their home or apartments radius. Lastly, the proles make up eighty-five percent of the population and have an occupation as manual laborers. They have little surveillance and are allowed to indulge in drinking, sexual acts, or gambling to keep them entertained, as well as having no education at all to prevent any free thinking. Orwells influence from Karl Marx is shown in his reduction of the word proletariat to proles and his view that only the lowest class can overthrow the oppressor: If there was hope, it must lie in the proles, because only there, in those swarming disregarded masses, eighty-five percent of the population of Oceania, could force to destroy the Party ever be generated. The Party could not be overthrown from within. Its enemies, if it has any enemies, had no way of coming together or even of identifying one another& But the proles, if only they could somehow become conscious of their own strength, would have no need to conspire. They needed only to rise up and shake themselves like a horse shaking off flies (George Orwell, 68). Similarly, both influential thinkers understand that these proles are underestimated from the dominating power, hence why the attack against the oppressors would be more damaging, Winston recalls the Party leaders stating: As the Party slogan put it: Proles and animals are free (George Orwell, 72). The reasoning behind creating freedom amongst the proles while comparing them to animals was to solely show that by having an unconscious mind unaware of its surroundings, and they are incapable of understanding the concept that they may be oppressed. For clarity, animals are alive but have little awareness of how their capteres or even owners purpose is for having them, the proles are kept to be the same way as the mass majority of the population is made up of the lowest class. Big Brother has predetermined that if there was an uprising, it would come from a majority population, such as the proles and would do significant damage to the Partys communist ideals (Luckhurst).
Big Brothers attempt at creating an equal society, where everyone appears to be the same based off of their support for their Party, is completely hypocritical as there are three separate parties where power divides each person from one another. Big Brother attempts to exert control onto its people and monitors their everyday lives, but more importantly restrict natural human behavior such as thinking, speaking, and even the use of eyes. The formation of the new language Newspeak is an attempt at censoring words or phrases that can influence individual thought and consciousness: Dont you see that the whole aim of Newspeak is to narrow the range of thought? In the end we shall make thoughtcrime literally impossible, because there will be no words in which to express it. Every concept that can ever be needed will be expressed by exactly one word, with its meaning rigidly defined and all its subsidiary meanings rubbed out and forgotten (George Orwell, 52). Thoughts alone have more power than anything else in the human mind, since thoughts have the ability to propel action. Supportive evidence by Lisa Firestone states: The problem, however, is that our mind is not always a safe place. Every person is divided between a healthy attitude toward themselves, that is goal-directed and life-affirming and a destructive side of themselves, that can be self-critical, self-denying, paranoid and suspicious. This inner critic, also referred to as the anti-self or the critical inner voice, can take over our thinking and lead to rumination . This rumination or negative thinking that Firestone references is exactly what Big Brother wants the people of Oceania to avoid doing or thinking. Meaning that as soon as they become conscious in their thoughts of the inequality, mistreatment, and poor living conditions; these negative thoughts will cause an uprising. Winston notes that simple human behavioral action outside of the authoritative control can cause a rebellion inadvertently: Rebellion meant a look in the eyes, an inflection of the voice; at the most, an occasional whispered word (George Orwell, 68). Thus, supporting the claim that when dystopian societies attempt to create equality, there will always be one individual or group exerting some variant of control, which in this case is Big Brothers control on human behavior.
George Orwell and Neal Shusterman come from two completely different time periods. Neal Shusterman was born on November 12th, 1962, and was raised in Brooklyn, New York. Later, at the age of 16 he and his family moved to New Mexico city, where he attended the American School Foundation, where presently he claims that his education their truly shaped him and enlightened him of different perspectives: Having an international experience changed my life, giving me a fresh perspective on the world, and a sense of confidence I might not have otherwise (Shusterman). This change or realization of other perspectives has had influence in his latest novel Scythe, where an appearingly perfect world or utopia exists in the future where measuring the amount of time has no longer been needed after 2042 where everything changed. In an interview, Shusterman is questioned about his reasoning behind writing a dystopian novel set it a utopic world: After 10 years of dystopia on the bookshelves, I wanted to look at the realistic consequences of utopia. Not a dystopia masquerading as utopia, but a true utopiaa perfect world, by our human definitions of perfect. Turns out there are consequences to perfectionnot the least of which is immortality, and a need to thin the population. But who would be responsible for that? I conceived of a group of highly moral, ethical people who would do the job out of service to humanity. My hope, as with all my novels, is that readers will think about their own world from a perspective they hadnt considered before. The more perspective we have, the more equipped we are to make important decisions in our lives, and in the world (Barisich). Just like his novel, in the real world Shusterman believes that changing perspective on the views of another persons politics or ideas can truly make a difference, he writes: Republican. Democrat. Liberal. Conservative. Weve become so used to these words, and whatever gut feeling goes along with them, that we fail to see the forest for the trees. If youre conservative, just because a liberal shouts about injustice, doesnt mean that theyre wrong. If youre a liberal, just because a conservative has an idea, doesnt mean that its a bad one. RISE ABOVE THE LABELS! (Shusterman). His political beliefs have been called into question, and its clearly revealed through him and his writing that he is an independent thinker that forms his own opinions and ideas from facts that he discovers himself and as stated, he independently thinks.
This type of thinking is transformed into the novel Scythe, which is now ruled by the Thunderhead, which is an infinite database containing information from the beginning of time. The Thunderhead had been chosen as ruler after the world had seen that politicians and war mongers are corrupt individuals who are unable to make wise decisions not based on their own personal bias or desires: The Thunderhead quite literally knew everything. When and where to build roads; how to eliminate waste in food distribution and thus end hunger; how to protect the environment from the ever-growing human population. It created jobs, it clothed poor, and it established the World Code& The Thunderhead gave us a perfect world. The utopia that our ancestors could only dream of is our reality (Neal Shusterman, 53). Seemingly, a perfect world where everyone was equal, there was an unbiased, wise, and genius overseer, it eradicated famine, poverty, crime, and even death. This perfect world that Karl Marx seeked to see established, still was not equal because of the Scythedom: There was only one thing the Thunderhead was not given authority over. The Scythedom. When it was decided that people needed to die in order to ease the tide population growth, it was also decided that this must be the responsibility of humans (Neal Shusterman, 53). The Scythes are selected individuals after a series of trials and are considered to be the best humanity has to offer, and they roam the world ‘gleaning’ people in order to keep the population in check (Hixson). Although there is immortality, being killed by a Scythe is permanent, this type of power reveals the inequality that still occurs in this utopia, and as Scythe Curie puts it: We have one very limited world, and although death has been defeated as completely as polio, people still must die. The ending of human life used to be in the hands of nature. But we stole it. Now we have a monopoly on death. We are its sole distributor (Neal Shusterman, 15). Scythe Curie is an influential Scythe for the main protagonists, Rowan and Citra, who were apprentices of Scythe Faraday, until he appearingly gleans himself, which is a coined term for kill. Eventually, Citra and Rowan are separated, Citra under merciful and calculative Scythe Curries teachings, and Rowan under one of the biggest abusers of his authority, Scythe Goddard. They are forced to compete for the Scythe title as there is only need for one more additional Scythe that year. Scythe Goddard is a prime example of the inequality good and bad Scythes have upon the human race as they hold the final power in their lives: Make no mistake we scythes are above the law because we deserve to be. I see a day when new scythes will be chosen not because of some esoteric moral high ground, but because they enjoy the taking of life. After all this is a perfect world-and in a perfect world, dont we all have the right to love what we do? (Neal Shusterman, 162). Make no mistake we scythes are above the law because we deserve to be. I see a day when new scythes will be chosen not because of some esoteric moral high ground, but because they enjoy the taking of life. After all this is a perfect world-and in a perfect world, dont we all have the right to love what we do? (Neal Shusterman, 162). Jurisdiction of the Thunderhead only goes so far to prevent any inequality, but it stops when problems arise in the Sychedom, which goes to show that when the Thunderhead attempts to create a utopia with equality, there will always be one group such as the Scythedom that orchestrate their power over the people.
Both Scythe and 1984 share similar and differentiating conflicts of authoritative abuse on the citizens. Each leader of the novels has some sort of surveillance on its people. In Scythe, there are cameras everywhere so that the Thunderhead can see everything and have a record of each activity a person does, while in 1984, Big Brother also has surveillance everywhere especially in private personal spaces such as Winston Smiths room. Although the government in Scythe or ruler the Thunderhead is not oppressive, the Scythes themselves hold the most power that can completely alter and permanently affect a humans life. A Scythe can simply decide to end a life or can force people to submit to whatever they want them to do, such as Scythe Goddard and his menacing band of followers. Meanwhile in 1984 Big Brother is constantly separating the treatment of its people by a caste system of three different parties and oppresses them through thought and other human behaviors. Each novel conveys the idea that dystopian societies will never work when trying to create inequality, because of groups such as the Scythes and Big Brother exerting their control onto the people.
Neal Shustermans Scythe and George Orwell’s 1984 have been crucial pieces of literature to support the claim that when dystopian societies attempt to create equality, there will always be one individual or group exerting some variant of control. Under the Marxist criticism lens, both books adopt the ideas that Karl Marx idealized and displayed it through the oppression taking place in each novel. The abuses of power amongst the Scythes, while being unstoppable even with the Thunderheads control, allows them to instill the inequality that the human race still has, even in a utopia. Additionally, the dominating force of Big Brother against thought crime and simply being an individual person, illustrates the idea that people like Winston have no means of power or individualism to fight back. Inequality and oppression go hand-in-hand, and continues to occur amongst the human race. In order to combat this, the ideals that Karl Marx believed, creates the solution that only through the mass majority of individuals that the people can fight these injustices.
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