Vintage Intro to Capitalism

The Take

In The Colour Purple, Alice Walker creates a realistic account of Colonialism and Capitalism at its worst, in the form of letters from Nettie. In her letter to Celie, Nettie gives an emotional account of the destruction of the small African village of Olinka at the hands of a “rubber manufacturer in England” (Walker 170). Walker illustrates how a “corporation” from England can so easily take over indigenous villages. The people of Olinka originally welcomed the roadbuilders, “preparing a feast” for them (Walker 169). But when they realized that they were building the road right through the village and “had guns…with orders to shoot”, they had no choice but to watch their village collapse (Walker 170). All the natural resources “giant mahogany trees, all the trees, the game, everything of the forest was being destroyed” (Walker 170). Walker demonstrates how the indigenous people become displaced, exploited and the modern cycle of third world poverty begins; “the worst was yet to be told. Since Olinka no longer owned their village, they must pay rent for it, and in order to use the water, which no longer belongs to them, they must pay a water tax” (Walker 171). Walker illustrates through a letter, a seemingly personal account, the process of corporate privatization of natural resources in third world countries. Rhetorically, Walker uses the device of epistolary form to bring realism to a very real problem, a problem that still exists today, “privatization of the essential infrastructure, water, power, is strangling up the agricultural community [in India]” and perpetuates the cycle of poverty (Roy 76).

Water Privatization

The Color Purple

“At first he thought the people who told him about the English rubber company were mistaken, if only about its territory including the Olinka village. But eventually he was directed to the governor’s mansion, a huge white building, with flags flying in its yard, and there had an audience with the white man in charge. It was this man who gave the roadbuilders their orders, this man who knew about Olinka only from a map.”  - (Walker 171)

Consumer Nation

 “Whoever heard of a Hastings refrigerator? Once in my life I would like to own something outright before it is broken! I’m always in a race with the junkyard! I just finished paying for the car and it’s on its last legs. The refrigerator consumes belts like a goddam maniac. They time those things. They time them so when you finally paid for them, they’re used up.” – (Miller 92)

Dignity for Sale

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman portrays the ways in which the capitalist system uses human labour as a disposable commodity. Not only is Willy unable to live up to the competition that surrounds him, he cannot live up to what he himself used to be, that he “averaged a hundred and seventy dollars a week in the year of 1928” (Miller 94). Through his entirety of his conversation with Howard he makes references to the past and Howard does little more than ignore him. After “34 years” of service to Howard and his father, he is let go with the excuse “business is business” (Miller 95). What is left of Willy is a former shell of his self, pleading “I can’t throw myself at my sons. I’m not a cripple” (Miller 95). What Willy learns here is that the capitalist system, the business that he is in, goes through people like disposable commodities. He ends up feeling used and exploited, “You can’t eat the orange and throw the peel away – a man is not a piece of fruit” (Miller 94).  Even Biff acknowledges the fickle nature of the business world, “I’m a dime a dozen, and so are you!” (Miller 106). Willy’s expectations of success and self worth are delusional at times and it takes Charley to try and make him see things realistically;

Willy, when’re you gonna realize that the things don’t mean anything? You named him Howard, but you can’t sell that. The only thing you got in this world is what you can sell. And the funny thing is that you’re a salesman and you don’t know that. (Miller 98)

Willy is only as good as the products he can sell and ultimately his place in the business world is as disposable as the household appliances he continually has to pay to replace.

Willy and Biff

Working Yourself to Death

Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman depicts a man, Willy unable to obtain the “American Dream”. Willy Loman is unable to reconcile what he has with what he wants, which ultimately leads to his breakdown. Willy is caught in a trap of trying to achieve what others have.  Willy sets himself up for failure by comparing himself to his more successful brother Ben, “a man who started with the clothes on his back and ended up with diamond mines” (Miller 85). Ben is a memory that haunts Willy, an apparition who represents colonial imperialism bragging to the boys he states that “when I was seventeen I walked into the jungle, and when I was twenty-one I walked out. And by God I was rich!”(Miller 87) Given that Willy’s father was a “great inventor”; he could never fully live up to the example provided by his family (Miller 87). The pressure that Willy places on himself, he also perpetuates on his children. Both Biff and Happy have difficulty finding meaning in their life when they are raised to believe that only financial success provides happiness. Willy’s insecurities are projected onto his kids leading to a cycle of competition.  The competition that drives Willy to madness is the same as what he imposes onto his children, endless expectations, criticisms and comparisons.  Willy sees the threat of competition everywhere, “There’s more people! That’s what’s ruining the country! Population is getting out of control! The competition is maddening!” (Miller 79). But he cannot acknowledge he places that same competition upon his children. The capitalist is system is so ingrained in Willy that he does not know he is a willing participant, even when he is frustrated with his failures. In The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism, Max Weber defines capitalism this way;

Man is dominated by the making of money, by acquisition as the ultimate purpose of life. Economic acquisition is no longer subordinated to man as the means for satisfaction of his material needs. This reversal of what we should call the natural relationship, so irrational from a naive point of view, is evidently as definitely a leading principle of capitalism as it is foreign to all peoples not under capitalistic influence. (Weber 53)

Willy’s inability to achieve financial success pervades every space in his life, his wife, his sons, his friendships and his job. His inability to achieve what he deems success and enjoy the family and wife that he has, is what ultimately leads to his demise.

 

 

 

 

 

Servant and Master

“But it is Babo here to whom, under God, I owe not only my own preservation, but likewise to him, chiefly, the merit is due of pacifying his more ignorant brethren, when at intervals tempted to murmurings.”

“Ah, master,” sighed the black, bowing his face, “don’t speak of me; Babo is nothing; what Babo has done was but duty.”

“Faithful fellow!” cried Captain Delano. “Don Benito, I envy you such a friend; slave I cannot call him.”

As master and man stood before him, the black upholding the white, Captain Delano could not but bethink him of the beauty of that relationship which could present such a spectacle of fidelity on the one hand and confidence on the other. The scene was heightened by the contrast in dress, denoting their relative positions.” – (Melville 47/48)

Benito Cereno and Valuation.

Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno uses irony to subvert the dominant cultural ideologies of its time. Melville uses irony to critically evaluate how humans were shipped as cargo and the American naiveté when dealing with those they feel as culturally subordinate. Captain Delano describes what he finds on the ship as “negro slaves, amongst other valuable freight” (Melville 39).  Delano’s valuation of the slaves, specifically Babo, could be no more wrong. Delano’s repeated objectification of the slaves is apparent in his description of them as a “multitude of living freight…as little troublesome as crates and bales” (Melville 45). Delano’s assessment of the slaves is only in terms of commerce and trade.  It is his worldview which gets in the way of seeing what is occurring before his eyes, a slave mutiny led by Babo. When Delano inquires about purchasing Babo for “fifty doubloons”, Babo replies with scorn, “to hear such a paltry a valuation put upon him” (Melville 61). The binaries of master/slave and dominant/subordinate subvert here, Babo answers for Don Benito and Don Benito is at the mercy of Babo. Ironically this subversion of binaries is hinted at right from the beginning of the story. As Delano first observes the ship he sees crudely scribbled on it the words “SEGUID VUESTRO JEFE, ‘follow you leader’” (Melville 40). Who that leader is, Delano would not question as he is blinded by his cultural assumptions. Melville’s depiction of Delano as benevolent saviour is ironic since his “valuation” of the slaves is greatly misinformed.