Small Details- Big picture

Wharton focuses his attention in this novel on many minute details. Every detail that a character does or thinks is meant to be scrutinized. This may be to show how people are truly scrutinized and analyzed to the highest extreme at all times by the upper echelon of society. One example of the attentive nature of Wharton is seen through the facial expressions of Lily. They hold serious importance in conveying her emotions. The two major expressions that Lily shows are blushes and smiles, which are regularly repeated throughout the novel, taking on very different meaning, and always providing good clues tot he current emotional state of Lily.

Success

"My idea of success," he said, "is personal freedom."
Freedom "from everything- from money from poverty, from ease and anxiety, from all the material accidents. To keep a kind of republic of the spirit- that's what i call success." (70)


Seldon's idea of success is one that I believe all people are able to relate to. It is miraculous to think of how much pressure society puts on people that revolve around the material aspects of the world. All of this pressure by society certainly affects everyone. And because of this pressure, how many times do you, as an individual want to escape it all? This is the idea of success that Seldon has. He thinks success is some way of escaping it all. Escaping from the pressures that surround people every day of their life.

Class Struggle

Marx tends to portray the struggle amongst classes as a negative concept. We did disprove some this by saying that he disagrees with the exploitation of the proletariat not class struggle, yet I still believe that he perceives this struggle as unnecessary. I however believe that it is this class struggle that keeps our society strong. Without the struggle and competition, people in society would not be nearly as motivated and therefore would be far less productive. Although some people receive the short end, it is almost a necessary evil. This class struggle is the driving force behind progress and the betterment of society as a whole.

Greed

"The only wheels which political economy puts in motion are greed and the war of the greedy, competition" (59).
I believe that this is the driving factor behind many if not all of Marx's policies. He tries to alleviate any competition among individuals by equalling out every persons status. If everyone receives the same, then people won't be motivated by their greedy desires to advance beyond others. In policy, Marx's visions and communism eliminate any type of competition in the economy.

class discussion

Today in class, my group and I presented the the idea that people work in order to survive. This reminds me directly of what Darwin would be saying. We are all driven by forces to survive and Marx is trying to persaude us that work is the means of survivng and therefore without work, we would not be able to produce and or support for yourself and family.

capitalism

Marx's hatred of capitalism seems to spawn from what he coins the "exploitation of the proletariat". I believe that Marx exagerates the exchange between capitalist and proletariat in an attempt to sway the reader into believing the "real truth". Page 215 states his opposition towards capitalism, but this is a point that I would strongly contest. Profit and accumulations of wealth seem to be the underlying entities that Marx opposes. I, unlike Marx, do not see wealth as a negative quality. This does not mean that the exploitation of the lower class is wrong, however the proletariat is not always exploited in order to gain wealth.

Means of production

Something in Marx's writing that intrigued me was his position on what separated humans from animals. The idea that resided within most is that it is our intellect, or our soul that truly distinguishes man from beast. Marx clearly takes his stand, opposing this theory by stating that it is actually man's ability to produce for himself rather than intellect or consciousness. What I find most intriguing about this is that he almost totally rejects the importance of consciousness altogether. In my mind, there is no way to reject thought entirely. I do not rule out Marx's theory of what separates man, none the less, I can not accept his rejection of thought.

Family

Marx uses the term "family" in a number of statements directed at the bourgeois. He speaks of the "Abolition of family!", but what exactly does family mean. Is there any underlying meaning behind the word?Pages 172 and 173 abound with the usage of the word, but there is no clear meaning.

communist goal

There is one goal of the communists that resonates throughout the entire piece of literature. That goal is of absolute overthrow of existing customs and traditions. Marx states, "communists everywhere support every revolutionary movement against the existing social and political order of things." Communists desire to shake up the current standings of people and break down the class barriers, and to do so, he utilizes communism and the ideal of social revolution.

Class struggles

"Every class struggle is a political struggle." (pg 166)
This brief excerpt by Marx is what I believe to be the most important quote of the section. It defines how Marx sees the class struggle between the Proletariat and the Bourgeoisie. According to Marx, the struggle between these two groups boils down to the issues within politics such the loss of jobs and businesses to the monopolies of big business. This political struggle to rid the nation of big business is the root of the class struggle that arose.

Machinery enslaves man

Both Marx and Gandhi have similar thoughts with regards to machinery. Marx believes that "they (the proletariat) are daily and hourly enslaved by the machine..." (165) Gandhi's view is remarkably similar. He believes that machines or railroads actually detract from the over all progress of the nation, much like Marx states. These two similar views theorize that machines are taking away more than they are giving back to the nation. These parallel ideals have similar foundations as well. The foundation of both is meant to free the proletariat/ Indians form the overbearing actions of the bourgeois/English.

Visuals

Page 42 contains two powerful metaphors used by Gandhi to express why brute force should not be used. He states that "it is possible" for us to use brute force to regain control of India, "but by using similar means we can get only the same thing they got... It is the same as saying you can get a rose through planting a noxious weed." (42) The analogy of getting a rose (a self ruled nation) from a noxious weed (brute force) is an intelligent and powerful analogy.
It returns to his concept of good and evil. Gandhi stated how it takes time for good to occur, whereas evil "has wings" and goes immediately to the top. However, the victory of evil is temporal and shallow.
In the analogy of page 42, Gandhi is advocating an alternative to brute force. An alternative that will create a rose, a self ruling nation.

Foreigners

"India cannot cease to be one nation because people belonging to different religions live in it. The introduction of foreigners does not necessarily destroy the nation; they merge into it... That country must have a faculty for assimilation." (26)

This seems to go against the ideas we laid out in class. We had agreed that people should be tolerant of other nationalities entering into our own nation, however it seems that Gandhi wants those people who enter into India to lose their sense of national identity. Gandhi seems to expect people to conform to the ways of his nation.