The document defines the proletariat as the social class of wage-earners whose only possession of significant economic value is their labor power. Marx argued that under capitalism, the proletariat is exploited and forced to accept low wages from business owners in return for operating the means of production. This oppression gives proletarians common economic and political interests across national boundaries, driving them to unite and overthrow the capitalist system to create a communist society without class distinctions. The novel The Grapes of Wrath depicts the plight of migrant farmers in the Great Depression who represent the Marxist concept of the proletariat exploited by wealthy landowners as the bourgeoisie.
The document defines the proletariat as the social class of wage-earners whose only possession of significant economic value is their labor power. Marx argued that under capitalism, the proletariat is exploited and forced to accept low wages from business owners in return for operating the means of production. This oppression gives proletarians common economic and political interests across national boundaries, driving them to unite and overthrow the capitalist system to create a communist society without class distinctions. The novel The Grapes of Wrath depicts the plight of migrant farmers in the Great Depression who represent the Marxist concept of the proletariat exploited by wealthy landowners as the bourgeoisie.
The document defines the proletariat as the social class of wage-earners whose only possession of significant economic value is their labor power. Marx argued that under capitalism, the proletariat is exploited and forced to accept low wages from business owners in return for operating the means of production. This oppression gives proletarians common economic and political interests across national boundaries, driving them to unite and overthrow the capitalist system to create a communist society without class distinctions. The novel The Grapes of Wrath depicts the plight of migrant farmers in the Great Depression who represent the Marxist concept of the proletariat exploited by wealthy landowners as the bourgeoisie.
The document defines the proletariat as the social class of wage-earners whose only possession of significant economic value is their labor power. Marx argued that under capitalism, the proletariat is exploited and forced to accept low wages from business owners in return for operating the means of production. This oppression gives proletarians common economic and political interests across national boundaries, driving them to unite and overthrow the capitalist system to create a communist society without class distinctions. The novel The Grapes of Wrath depicts the plight of migrant farmers in the Great Depression who represent the Marxist concept of the proletariat exploited by wealthy landowners as the bourgeoisie.
The proletariat is defined as the social class of wage-earners.
A member of such a class is a
proletarian.Their only possession of significant economic value is their labour power (their capacity to work).
Marx says that the proletariat is being exploited under capitalism, forced to accept meager wages in return for operating the means of production, which belong to the class of business owners, the bourgeoisie.
{Bourgeoisie is the social class that came to own the means of production during modern industrialization and whose societal concerns are the value of property and the preservation of capital to ensure the perpetuation of their economic supremacy.}
Marx argued that this oppression gives the proletariat common economic and political interests that transcend national boundaries, impelling them to unite and take over power from the capitalist class, and eventually to create a communist society free from class distinctions.
Proletarian in Grapes of wrath
Going by the definition of proletarian, the novel Grapes of Wrath is about wage earners, it's about migrant farmers who are on a journey to find work and earn money.
In the Grapes of Wrath the tenant farmers, though they have worked the land they have inhabited for decades, don't own the property. As such, their value is deemed less than those who do own the property. In fact, a lack of ownership plagues the tenant farmers, like the Joads, throughout the novel. Not only do they have to leave their farms, they have no means of purchasing a home, and though they go to California with the hopes of earning money so they can secure a home, by the end of the novel they are still living in workers' camps. This is especially important to a Marxist critic, as the Joads live in a camp, are homeless, while working for wealthy landowners, such as Hooper ranch owners, who have secured wealth by paying their workers unlivable wages. This relationship between the Joads and the owners is what a Marxist critic would call the socioeconomic relationship between the bourgeoisie--the haves, and the proletariat--the have-nots. So in the Grapes of Wrath the banks and land owners represent the bourgeoisie, and the Joads represent proletariats. For Steinbeck, the bourgeoisie are guilty of inhumanity due to their treatment of the proletariats.
Steinbeck created the work because of showing the difficulties of many Americans who had The Great Depression and The Dust Bowl. Steinbeck's “The Grapes of Wrath '' can be discussed by many critical theories but Marxist criticism which I will be discussing here is the one of the most common lenses through which to read the novel. This is because Steinbeck's narrative shows the exact problems that a capitalist society describes working class people. We will read/discuss the work to see how the author makes a Marxist argument in his work. During The Dust Owl in the history of America, large parts of the American Midwest, much of Oklahoma, to be more precise, were heavily affected by a continuous span of drought and high winds. The hope to find a land for making a living forced people out of their homes in the lower Midwest. This novel was written in the final stage of the Great Depression.
The workers receive less money for long hours from their employers; the landowners show dishonesty to their workers and hardly pay them. This relationship between the Joads and the owners is what a Marxist critic would call the socioeconomic relationship between the bourgeoisie which is the haves, and the proletariat which is the have-nots. So in the Grapes of Wrath landowners represent the bourgeoisie and the Joads represent proletariats. For Steinbeck, the bourgeoisie are guilty of inhumanity because of their treatment of the proletariats. John Steinbeck works with a lot of different themes in this novel, but the issue of poverty and how capitalism contributes to it, is by far one of the most important aspects of book.
