Working Class Versus The Ruling Class example essay topic

Abraham Cahan's "A Sweatshop Romance" is a short story which at first can be easily mistaken for a simple piece of work. However, upon closer inspection it is clear that this story is a Marxist text which explores many of the fundamental flaws of society that Marxism tries to identify. Several key passages hint at concerns related to class-consciousness which serves to reinforce the Marxist philosophy and although some could argue that this piece of text is propagandistic in nature, it does have several passages which lend moral credibility to the story. Further, the fact that the characters of Cahan's "A Sweatshop Romance" are Jewish-American has very little bearing on the story, which is more about a broad-based class critique. The Marxist doctrine describes the concept of the Labor Theory of Value which contends that since all wealth in society is created by labor, the working class should be entitled to the rewards instead of the ruling class. Cahan's story describes a setting where the employees of Leiter Lipman's tailor shop work on a quota system.

One of Lipman's workers David explains that his salary is not based on time, but rather how many coats he can produce. He clearly does not like the system as he points out, "My twelve dollars every week? ... Oh, I see; you mean a week of twelve days!" He goes on to describe how the rest of society works on a calendar schedule, but pointing out that for them, "The calendars are a lot of liars". David is the protagonist as far as the Marxist portion of the text is concerned; bringing forth the problems he has with the current system. He points out that future Sabbath expenses on Friday are really only like a Wednesday for him, because he has not yet met his quota for the week.

Thus David is the key to bringing class-consciousness to the forefront directly. When the young son of the owner wakes up and pulls on Beile's hair, he utters, "He is practicing to be a boss". This is a metaphor which Cahan introduced for the purpose of pointing out class struggle -- that of the working class versus the ruling class. There are other, more subtle expressions of these concerns. As Z late beckons for Beile to go purchase soda's she wants to resist, but points out that she would rather endure the humiliation than the prospect of finding a new job.

Heyman too, is afraid of losing his job, and from the way he is described in the story it is very clear that he cares very much about spending as little money as possible, representing individualistic capitalistic gains. As David, a representation of Marxism, stands up for Beile's rights, Heyman sits by and does nothing. Later we discover that Heyman's lack of action in proposing to Beile, and also failing to see her after his supposed cowardly act, has cost him dearly, and David succeeds where he failed. This can be interpreted as propagandistic since Heyman, the man who is more inclined to accept the system as is, fails over David, who represents a man seeing the flaws in the system and wishing to change it. His actions of storming out of his workplace after embarrassing Mrs. Lipman only serve to reinforce his determination. Class-Consciousness is also shown through the interaction of Reb and Basse and the Lipmans.

Mrs. Lipman is trying to impress these two individuals, who are said to have, "occupied a much higher social position". There is a dichotomy here between the class interactions of the factory workers and the Lipmans, and then that of the Lipmans and the visiting Russian guests. David wants to prove that his class should not be walked and trampled over. At the same time Mrs. Lipman, being of a lower social position than the guests, wants to impress the guests and prove that they too are no longer so lowly.

Although it is clear that this story is somewhat propagandistic, one can detach the Marxist principles and focus solely on the love story; how inaction can lead to your love falling through your hands. That is one reason why the story was titled "A Sweatshop Romance" and thus can be viewed either as an interesting love story that has a moral message, or a piece of philosophical ideology intent on driving the Marxist views. It is also interesting to note that the protagonist of the story changes depending on weather you view it as Marxist text, in which case David is the protagonist, or a love story gone bad, in which case Heyman is the protagonist. This shows that the story does have two levels, and thus can not be considered fully propagandistic. The fact that the characters are Jewish-American has little to do with the overall story and theme. Perhaps the reason the characters were Jewish were due to Cahan himself being Jewish, and that he decided to use characters and settings that he knew from personal experience.

The Jewish immigrant experience does not seem any different than that of say Asian or Irish immigrants. The basic theme revolved around the working and ruling class, and since immigrants in general always fall into the working class, this story can be interpreted to be about a broad-based class critique. On one hand, Abraham Cahan's "A Sweatshop Romance" is a story that describes class struggle not only between one set of classes, but of two. The factory workers are shown to be afraid of losing their jobs, and in the case of Beile she is willing to endure ridicule.

Heyman himself thinks to himself that there is no point in losing ones job over something so petty. David, on the other hand, is a representative of Marxist philosophy, as he explores the class he is in, and also how unfairly the ruling versus working class is. David says, .".. provided the Missis has not spent our wages". This seems to imply unfairness in the sense that there is no guarantee that they will even be paid, and yet they still have to turn out twelve coats a day. In many ways this text can be inferred to be propagandistic, but on the other hand you have a love story where Heyman trembles to ask for Beile's hand, and yet he can never get himself to hand her the clock in his vest pocket. His in actions before and after the incident in the shop demonstrate the folly of waiting too long and acting too little.

In a way, the latter hand proves to be a universal theme, and deserves literary credit in and of itself. Finally, the fact that the characters were Jewish-American has more to do with the experiences that the author drew upon to write this story, and less to do with Jewish immigrant experiences, as it was meant to be a broad-based class critique.