I have never heard of the movie In Time but after watching the film, I regretted not knowing about it sooner. The movie depicts the many ongoing problems around the world in a futuristic way. Sci-fi movies are always amazing to watch as it shows the technology we may one day have while also portraying the prevalent themes discussed in class. This movie in particular can be a great source to focus on when analyzing Karl Marx’s work. Finding the right quote in Marx’s essay will be crucial in writing an A+ essay. “Nickle and Dimed” was also an enjoyable read that I will have to take into consideration when writing the second essay.
HW: The Utopian Ideaology
Barbara Ehrenreich’s initial objective in this experiment was to see whether low-wage work was a solution to poverty and homelessness. She herself mentions that the experiment is not a perfect one because the welfare average has two children to support. Everything else is planned such as living in a home, living off the money she earns from the low income job while experiencing the psychological effects. She drops everything and starts off from nothing, looking for a $7 paying job to help pay for her rent which was around $500-600 in the Key West area.
Her first job was at Hearthside as a waitress working for two weeks from 2 pm to 10 pm. While working here, Ehrenreich begins to see the daily work life of her coworkers as well as learning some of their personal lives such as Gail’s. Just after a week of working, Ehrenreich compiles a semi-detailed report on each of her coworkers, showing us the different lifestyles each low-income worker has. One thing I found interesting was Joan’s outfits do not represent her lifestyle, pointing out that most of her clothes are from thrift shops which are often cheap. Later on in the essay, it was mentioned that Ehrenreich had a $1200 starting balance which is crucial. This laws the experiment because Ehrenreich did not have horrible starting conditions, unlike many other people. Her first job also is not capable of supporting her rent so she goes on to find a second job at Jerry’s, which can be stressful and leaves you with no time to relax and enjoy yourself.
HW: Themes “In Time”
The themes present in this movie include the power of time. Time is a valuable aspect in our everyday life. Without time, we cannot accomplish anything. The saying “time is money” fits the prevalent theme of this movie. In the movie, no one ages past 25; once you reach the age of 25, you will only have one year left to live unless you are rich and can afford to “buy” more time or more life years. The segregation between the rich and poor is also like modern day social classes. They are split between time zones, which is regulated by cops or timekeepers in this case, to control the movement between time zones. This can relate to the modern world because we are to a certain extent divided by different economic standings.
Another theme present in this movie is to live your life to the fullest. Time is a construct and we do not have all the time in the world to do what we truly desire. I believe that living your life the way you want, obviously not to a crazy extent, but doing what you want to do and enjoy doing is the best, possible way to live your life. In the movie, everyone is living their life just to live one more second. It’s crazy how they have to work to even have a chance at life on Earth. Every human is born with the same equal rights and should not have to be controlled by the government on how to live and what not.
HW: “America Remains the World’s Beacon of Success”
Tim Roemer in his essay explains how the United States is still considered the most desirable country to live in. The United States was created on the foundation that it was the land of opportunity. Immigrants not only come to the states for this freedom, but also for higher level institutions such as the Silicon Valley and the Research Triangle Parks. This influx of people raises the competitiveness within American society, as it is statically proven through the sheer amount of Nobel Prizes showing how the U.S. remain world leaders in information technology and other science fields.
Roemer shares the same belief with Marx that individuals and individual businesses continue to make decisions to influence the market-oriented economy. Inventions dating back to Thomas Edison to Bill Gates have dramatically impacted the world. In comparison, the Chinese government watches over individuals’ innovations with medias being hidden from their society. This limits growth in society as new inventions are often frowned upon or not supported by the government. I understand technology such as the iPhone and iPad cost a fortune, but it is truly a miracle to have these devices in modern day. If the U.S. had Marx’s system, we would be living in a very different world.
HW: Marx’s teachings and 2019
According to Marx, separations cause conflict within society. Marx divides the two classes in society as the bourgeoise and proletariat. I feel this division is too vague and does not value an individual as a human being, but rather as a collective group solely based on their economic worth. The bourgeoise is considered the minority as they are the wealthy one percent of the population, while the proletariat or the working class make up the remaining 99 percent. As mentioned in class, you can compare Marx’s teachings to modern hip-hop. I would say that there are only a few rappers within the industry that have created a name for themselves beyond the means of music. Some of the top rappers I would consider to be near the bourgeoisie level include Jay-Z, Dr. Dre, and P Diddy. and maybe Kanye West. Mobility within Marx’s system is extremely difficult and requires hard work, talent, and definitely some luck; this doesn’t happen overnight, but rather through generations (new money -> old money).
The discussion we had in class stated that the problems that can arise based on our differences include our economics, cultural background, family, religion, and politics. Some of these are very true because our last names can play a major role in determining which class we belong to in Marx’s system. The idea that everyone deserves the equal amount of assets proportioned to society’s need was the key factor in Marx’s utopian society. This is just an illusion of an effective system since the “undesirable” is removed. An example you can relate to this is going on vacation to a beautiful resort, but the area around the resort may be combating poverty or domestic violence. People will only see the good, but not the bad which skews our “ideal world”.
HW: Continuation of Marx’s essay
Before reading this essay, I’ve written a paper or two already on communism and Marx in my previous classes so I have a general idea of what Marx’s utopian society consisted of. One particular interesting fact I’ve stumbled upon reading this was that the feudal system slowly changed into a manufacturing system into what is modern society today. The colonizing of the States meant that there was more exchange taking place, increasing the need for demand. With demands rising, markets were flourishing so people had to innovate and reinvent some aspects of production to keep up with the pace of the rapid growth of the industry. These changes in the system allowed manufacturing leaders to continue to grow their wealth, further widening the gap between the working class and the rich.
HW: Read “How to Tame a Wild Tongue” by Gloria Anzaldua
Culture influences Gloria Anzaldua’s upbringing because she often sees the form of harassment done to her and her people as well as well her keen awareness of what goes around her. Gloria’s mentioning of the many languages and dialects is similar to other countries. For example, Korean’s may share the same language but there are different dialects whether you are from the urban area or the rural side of the nation. When Gloria says that she is her language, I can relate to it because although I was born in the States, I first lived the first couple years in Korea with my grandparents. Due to this fact, I was not as fluent in English as my other classmates so I had to take english as a secondary language class in elementary school. The way I was brought up was that I had to speak Korean at home when speaking to my parents, but outside I had to use English. This constant switch between languages overall made it difficult for me to get accustomed to in my early years. Gloria Anzaldua probably experienced the same issues as I, if not worse.
HW: “The Manifesto of the Communist Party” (excerpt)
One of the main components that Karl Marx used to make his writing strong and one that we can use to make our writing stronger is the use of evidence for our arguments while providing rudimentary breakdown of different terminology and offering a historical background of the said topic. Defining many of the terms and getting to the very basic level to talk and convince your audience is essential for the creation of our papers. Historical background is great in the way that it shows a whole different perspective and that we can always learn from our past.
Uselessly making points to defend one’s argument or standpoint is not as effective as what Marx did. What Karl Marx did was create different sections as a means to define and explain starting off from an emotional outburst or eye catching opener or his use of exclamation points. Karl Marx believed that arguing against your audience may work, but is not as effective as his methods. Marx’s many vocabulary terms to explain his viewpoint allows the reader to get familiar with the subject and allows for the reader to analyze and make analogies or comparisons.
HW: PreWriting
My thoughts on prewriting mainly always begin with how exactly I’m going to start the essay. It’s a matter of finding what I truly want to write about while finding evidence to back up what I have to say. The brainstorming part is always the most difficult part for me, but once a thesis is formed I can go on a tangent. It’s interesting to see how you can use the works we’ve discussed in class to utilize into our writings. I’ve found that at least two of the works we read will be essential to completing my first paper.
HW: “Becoming a Writer by Junot Diaz
Junot Diaz describes his frustrations about writing by giving us an anecdote on when he first began his daunting task of writing a “Great American Novel”. I was never dedicated to writing as Diaz was in my earlier years, but I also never really appreciated writing until near the end of high school. Appreciate as in the fact that writing can be a hobby and that it is sometimes fun to write about our experiences and to show the world the inner workings of our mind. I do not think I can write consistently for five years because writing even for an hour is difficult for me. This is a habit I have been working on since my freshman year of college; usually procrastinating until the last day or so isn’t healthy and will not produce a paper of your desire. One thing I can take from this reading is that taking a break is crucial in controlling your mentality when writing an essay. It’s good to take a hot shower, go out for a walk in the park, take a nap, or just doing something positive that brings peace to your mind to reestablish concentration and strengthen creativity.
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