An episode of The Simpsons from season 7 entitled "Scenes from the Class Struggle in Springfield" does its best to inform the viewers of the American dream as well as the dangers behind it. The dangers associated with the American dream include conspicuous consumption and tokenism, and the episode has a good mixture of both. Here are some of the particulars.
To start off with tokenism, the rich women at the country club see Marge in her Coco Chanel suit and make an effort to add her to the club and its lifestyle under the assumption that Marge is already a part of the highest class of social values. The women have no idea that the suit was found at a vintage store and slashed for 90 percent of the original price because to them, they would not think of anybody buying an article of clothing like that at a major discount. This is considered tokenism because Marge and the rest of the family comes from an underrepresented group in society (the lower middle class), and the lifestyle to the Simpson family is uncomfortable to them as they are not familiar with the values of the rich, but make an effort, even if it is a minuscule amount, to fit in before ultimately deciding that their original way of life was much better.
In terms of conspicuous consumption, it also goes back to the Coco Chanel suit that Marge purchases at the beginning of the episode as Marge likes the suit and wants to buy it, but she is unsure if she should for fear that it would make her stand out in an unpleasant way when it comes to middle class values and aesthetics. Under the encouragement from Lisa, Marge purchases the suit, and seems happy to do so, but it is with the suit that sets the entire episode's course of events.
The episode delivers a Marxist critique in about as traditional of a way as one would assume from studying Marxism. The rich, though skeptical to even be associated with Marge due to her coming from an inferior background, try to recruit her to become "one of them" in a way. Marge, unknowingly, also changes herself in terms of behavior in order to meet the standards that the rich expect from her only to realize how bad she has become after overhearing her family talk about how bad they are for believing in what they believe. The episode ends with the rich basically continuing to go about their own way while the Simpson family has a family meal at Krusty Burger, about as low as one can get for a middle class family, as said by the restaurant's janitor.
The episode does a good job of pointing out the Marxist critique of how the episode portrays a service to the rich while playing off the middle class as being less than them. A good example of this is when Montgomery Burns, Homer's boss, and "golfer" is caught cheating, yet has no consequences for his actions. Same thing with the rich women at the end as all they get is just some disappointment that Marge did not want to become a member of the elite.
Tuesday, February 26, 2019
Tuesday, February 19, 2019
Patrick Star's Job
Patrick Star's Job
Patrick Star, the beloved but idiotic pink starfish from the hit TV show, SpongeBob SquarePants, represents the proletariat people, or working class, pretty accurately in the times of Karl Marx. For this, I will be examining the episode, "The Fry Cook Games" to show how Patrick, despite his stupidity, actually lands a job pretty easily.
To begin with, the episode starts out with SpongeBob ready to compete in the annual Fry Cook Games which should really just be called "a chance for people with jobs to rub it in to the unemployed." SpongeBob is later visited by his friend Patrick who, despite his laziness, is excited when he hears the word, "games," and asks to join in the fun. SpongeBob, supposedly representing the bourgeoisie, patronizingly tells him that he has to be a fry cook to join. Patrick doesn't believe that it can be that hard to become one only to be dismissed by SpongeBob, saying fry cooks are "an elite core." Uh, SpongeBob, you're a fry cook, not a CEO.
Later on, it's revealed that Patrick is able to get a job at the Chum Bucket. I'm kind of surprised that Patrick wasn't rejected for being over-qualified. Let's run down his list of skills: drooling, eating, sleeping, doing absolutely nothing, and sticking to the bottom of his rock. The reason why this situation suits a Marxist style of life is that people like SpongeBob, who represents the bourgeoisie, obviously have the skills and the passion to go about this job. People like Patrick, who represents the proletarian class, don't possess such skills, but he was able to get the job anyhow due to him wanting a job.
Patrick's skills play no role in him getting the job, but rather by him simply going in and receiving one. It fits in well with Marxism because in a Marxist society, nobody in any situation, including people in a higher class than others, are not allowed to outshine those that might be considered inferior in a capitalist society. In a communist society, as portrayed by Karl Marx in his 1848 book "The Communist Manifesto," he stressed the importance of equal ground for all in terms of pay, work experience, and shared interests. It can be safe to assume that in this episode Patrick does have the same interest as SpongeBob in the sense that he wants to become a fry cook, and it can also be implied that he's getting the same pay as SpongeBob as well as having the same job position as his best friend. It is also because of Patrick having a job as a Chum Bucket fry cook that he is able to participate in the fry cook games. The fry cook games seem to represent a secret society that is only accessible to those that match its criteria; SpongeBob and later Patrick thanks to Marxism are able to be a part of this society.
There are plenty of other examples I could've gone into in regards to Marxism in SpongeBob, but I look at this as a good example of how SpongeBob is not the only top dog when it comes to fry cooking or having an invitation to the games.
Patrick Star, the beloved but idiotic pink starfish from the hit TV show, SpongeBob SquarePants, represents the proletariat people, or working class, pretty accurately in the times of Karl Marx. For this, I will be examining the episode, "The Fry Cook Games" to show how Patrick, despite his stupidity, actually lands a job pretty easily.
To begin with, the episode starts out with SpongeBob ready to compete in the annual Fry Cook Games which should really just be called "a chance for people with jobs to rub it in to the unemployed." SpongeBob is later visited by his friend Patrick who, despite his laziness, is excited when he hears the word, "games," and asks to join in the fun. SpongeBob, supposedly representing the bourgeoisie, patronizingly tells him that he has to be a fry cook to join. Patrick doesn't believe that it can be that hard to become one only to be dismissed by SpongeBob, saying fry cooks are "an elite core." Uh, SpongeBob, you're a fry cook, not a CEO.
Later on, it's revealed that Patrick is able to get a job at the Chum Bucket. I'm kind of surprised that Patrick wasn't rejected for being over-qualified. Let's run down his list of skills: drooling, eating, sleeping, doing absolutely nothing, and sticking to the bottom of his rock. The reason why this situation suits a Marxist style of life is that people like SpongeBob, who represents the bourgeoisie, obviously have the skills and the passion to go about this job. People like Patrick, who represents the proletarian class, don't possess such skills, but he was able to get the job anyhow due to him wanting a job.
Patrick's skills play no role in him getting the job, but rather by him simply going in and receiving one. It fits in well with Marxism because in a Marxist society, nobody in any situation, including people in a higher class than others, are not allowed to outshine those that might be considered inferior in a capitalist society. In a communist society, as portrayed by Karl Marx in his 1848 book "The Communist Manifesto," he stressed the importance of equal ground for all in terms of pay, work experience, and shared interests. It can be safe to assume that in this episode Patrick does have the same interest as SpongeBob in the sense that he wants to become a fry cook, and it can also be implied that he's getting the same pay as SpongeBob as well as having the same job position as his best friend. It is also because of Patrick having a job as a Chum Bucket fry cook that he is able to participate in the fry cook games. The fry cook games seem to represent a secret society that is only accessible to those that match its criteria; SpongeBob and later Patrick thanks to Marxism are able to be a part of this society.
There are plenty of other examples I could've gone into in regards to Marxism in SpongeBob, but I look at this as a good example of how SpongeBob is not the only top dog when it comes to fry cooking or having an invitation to the games.
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