Essay on a Practical Application of Marxist Theory to Gone With the Wind

Marxist theory is a socio and economic system which base is in the economic and political theories of Fredrich Engels and Karl Marx. It is a theory in which socio struggle is the main aspect in the analysis of socio change in western societies. The theory portrays many aspects of life which include socio, political, economic and how society works. They theory also demonstrates an aspect of socio discrimination, gender bias and political impacts of individual lives. All these aspects are dominant in the novel Gone with the wind which has been written by Margaret Mitchell in the year 1861. The novel tells a story of the civil war in America. The novel tells the history of civil war. This essay will show how the novel portrays Marxism aspects in it.

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Mitchells novel is dominated by the history of Civil War. This makes the novel to have four subsections. The first section is pre-war, the civil war section, the reconstruction section and lastly the post-reconstruction section. Scarlett OHara is sixteen years old before the civil war started. She is also at war with the idea the man she loves by the name Ashley is going to marry her cousin. Scarlet is determined to face Ashley and declare how much she loves him so that he would not go ahead with the plan of marrying her cousin. Just like in any war she wants to win at all cost, and this makes Ashley elope with her without caring about the feelings of Melanie.

Violence and war in the novel are awful noble and unnecessary. Although the novel does not explain the cause of war in the society, we can tell that it is about slavery (Mitchell, 2008). In the few first pages of the book, we see Marxist theory where people are at war to achieve their socio standards. Marxism theory believes that the effects of struggling for socio standards in the society yield to no gain since we are all equal. The same case applies to Mitchell novel; war seems like a waste of resources and time. There is no specific gain when people engage in war. War only destroys the southern society beauty with no valid reason. According to Marxism theory war in the society will end when everyone stops being individualistic so that there will be no competition for resources. For example, when the struggle for slaves stops war ceased in history (Aronowitz, 2016).

Marxism-feminism tries to elaborate how women are treated differently in the society. They face socio and economic oppression. In the novel deter discrimination is vivid. The author of the novel was fighting for woman rights. During the era of the story, women were not allowed to control business but we see Scarletts going against this gender vice and she operates a successful business. According to the novel when a woman likes scarlet works and earns her money she is seen as unattractive and unwomanly in the society. The money she makes does not make her life comfortable, and this becomes a problem (Hatch & Cunliffe, 2013). Women have the strengths and capabilities of the novel Gone with the Wind. They are also brilliant, and they are even better than men, but because of gender inequalities during their time, they do not utilize their abilities to the maximum (Mitchell, 2008). Scarlett is unable to handle the inequality in the society, and she becomes very cunning. She gets what she wants from men easily. After the death of her dad, she takes over the mill business which she manages better than her father. This is a clear indication that if women are given more responsibilities in the society, they would be better than men. Her husband is ashamed since he does not possess any business quality. Melanie is also very talented, and she provides emotional support to Scarlett (Aronowitz, 2016). She is stronger than her husband Ashley, and she defends him from things he cannot handle. Ellen is the head of her family and a great contributor towards Tara. According to Marxism, a society with gender bias is destructive since women can move the society.

The theory talks about class struggles or class discrimination in the society as people pursue to control the means of production and resources. The other word Marx use to describe class struggle is capitalism. In a capitalist economy, everyone is struggling to acquire power and control the means of production since resources are scarce. There is no collaboration, and hence people exploit or get exploited in labor markets.

In Mitchells novel, class division in the Confederate South is a race. The whites control almost all means of production and power. They have a lot of properties, money, and power. The blacks, on the other hand, were the exploited class. They could not afford anything on their own. These class struggles made the whites very rich since they took the blacks as slaves so that they would provide free labor. This made the class structure to become bigger since the white people without slaves were being treated as subhuman (Mitchell, 2008). The whites with slaves began to be recognized as the high class in the society. Those without slaves were seen as middle class. In the text, the old south is different since it does not regard poor people. It does away with both the blacks and the whites who are not in high society. The rich had an easy and enjoyable life.

An example of a high-class person is Slattery's because he controlled the Confederate south. Yankees is doing all he can to make money from cheap or free labor. The means of production control these classes. The history is based on wars, struggles, and uprisings due to capitalism. Those who are employed work for long hours for less salary.

Under capitalism, things are different everyone plays an equal role in production and exchange of resources. People are categorized according to their talents. Marxism describes that communism is the best solution for any economy to reduce socio vices such as class discriminations and recessions that are caused by inflation. Under communism, there is an equitable distribution of resources. It was communism that stopped the war in the novel Gone with the Wind (Hatch & Cunliffe, 2013).

According to Marxism politics have an important impact on peoples lives. If the government is operating under a well-stated constitution and follows the rule of law, it makes the country peaceful for everyone. The government should protect the interest of people so that they will be no exploitation from those who own the means of production. The text has a political background of America history. The novel took part in the revolution and post-structuralism in America since it led to the end of Civil War. It set a political history in America.

Racism is a situation where one is discriminated against due to the color of her skin. It is the background of the text. The blacks are being treated as secondary in the society. In the novel is regarded as others. Blacks were the slaves being sold to provide cheap labor. Ashley Wilkes and Frank Kennedy made the lives of blacks very difficult. The Union soldiers who should have liberated the blacks from slavery were mistreating them (Aronowitz, 2016).

Marxism theory is a practical application of Marxist theory to novel Gone with the Wind text. Marxism theory is based upon socio, economic and political aspects of the economy. The text takes all these aspects from the beginning to the end of it. The text background is the civil war which was mainly as a result of capitalism. The novel demonstrates how there were gender inequalities where women were not taking some responsibility such as operating a business. The novel also elaborates the results of capitalism and poor politics in the society. With all the above discussions I conclude that Marxism theory is a practical a practical application of Marxist theory to novel Gone with the Wind by Mitchell.

Work Cited

Mitchell, M. (2008). Gone with the Wind. Pan Macmillan.

Aronowitz, S. (2016). The Crisis in Historical Materialism: Class, Politics, and Culture in Marxist theory. Springer.Hatch, M. J., & Cunliffe, A. L. (2013). Organization theory: modern, symbolic and postmodern perspectives. Oxford University Press.