Marxist Comparison Between the Heart of Darnkess and One Flew over the Cuckoo's Nest

Marxist Comparison Between The Heart Of Darkness and One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest The definition of classism is the belief that people from certain social or economic classes are superior to others. When viewed from a Marxist perspective, Ken Kesey's One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest and Joseph Conrad's Heart of Darkness can be seen as a comment on negative treatment of lower class individuals. In the Heart of Darkness the way the Europeans treated the lower class Africans was quite inhumane. As for in One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest the patients there were truly mistreated because of their class of being mentally ill. A Marxist theory can give you a better idea of how bad the class fight truly was between the Europeans and Africans. In the Congo the European pilgrims truly treated the native Africans like they were worthless because of their class. There were many problems between them and because of the European's power many of the Natives were being captured as slaves. An example of this is, "each had an iron collar on his neck, and all were connected together with a chain" (Conrad,70). Marlow witnessed these events take place at the outer station. This just shows how disrespectful they treated the Natives, almost like they were animals. A few of the Africans started to change their ways and help the Europeans. They saw this as a way to stay safe. The Manager's boy did this, "an over fed youthful negro from the beach to delight the white men below" (Conrad,79). This was wrong as the Europeans had total control over the helpless Natives and compelled them to their methods. They were almost making them believe that the Native class was bad and should be more like them. Europeans had no respect for the Native's health and lives as they were just poor slaves making them rich. Marlow observes the over worked and dying, "they were dying slowly-it was very clear. They were not enemies, they were not criminals, they were nothing earthly now-nothing but black

Cited: * Heart Of Darkness. New York, NY:New American Library, A division of Penguin Putnam Inc, 1950 * Kesey, Ken. One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest. United States: Viking Press & Signet Books, 1962