Marxist Analysis.
OVERVIEW Write a three-page, double-spaced Marxist analysis of Mike Nichol’s Working Girl. Do not consult outside sources in building your argument. Your evidence to back up your claims should instead include character dialogue, plot details, and/or discussion of imagery/cinematography in the film. Be sure to include the film in a Works Cited page. See below for a more detailed description of the assignment, section by section. Use the questions provided in the bulleted list below to develop a thesis statement. Be sure that each paragraph in the body of the essay effectively supports the thesis statement that you devise. Finally, be sure that the essay is free of grammatical error .ABOUT THE INTRODUCTION In a Marxist analysis, it can be effective to announce the ideology of the film and its relationship to Marxist views at the outset. (See below) Because the rest of the essay will be concerned with where and how the ideology is worked out, it is important to let your reader share your understanding of the stance taken by the film. If you find this approach too dry, boring, and didactic, you might begin with a summary of an incident in the movie that illustrates the social relationships of the characters or some socioeconomic aspect of the society as preparation for your statement of the work’s overall worldview. A SAMPLE INTRODUCTION (You may modify and adapt this introduction to suit your purposes.) Mike Nichol’s Working Girl recalls Grimm’s classic “Cinderella” and reveals a modern society with sharp class divisions, not unlike its antecedent folk tale. It provides an unwitting time capsule of the 1980s: all of its characters are influenced by the inequitable distribution of wealth Though Tess McGill and Jack Trainer’s love-at-first-sight romance is standard fare in romantic comedy, its characters’ actions are best explained by examining the class structure presented by Nichols during America’s Reagan era in his film [Place thesis statement here. Decide whether the film is a positive example (advocating for a fair redistribution of wealth and power) or negative example (supporting the ideology that the status quo is fair and immutable) and explain why]. QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU DEVISE A THESIS STATEMENT (The answer to one of these questions will provide you with a workable thesis statement.) • What does the setting tell you about the distribution of power and wealth? • Is there evidence of conspicuous consumption? • Does the society that is depicted value things for their potential of resale or trade, or for their power to convey social status? • Where do you find characters making decisions based not on abstract principles, but on the economic situations in which they live? • Who are the powerful/powerless people depicted in the film? • Do you find repression and manipulation of workers by owners? • Is there evidence of alienation and fragmentation? • Do the working class characters realize their lack of power?