It Is Expensive to Be Poor

Money is the most valuable asset in any given household. Of all the valuable assets within a home, money is the most revered of them all. Many societies and families, especially those who lived in the ancient ages, have a way in which they used to keep the money. Keeping money required the identification of a secretive location where only the authorized people could be able to access. This paper aims to discuss how the article by Diaz titled Money is significantly related to different economic statuses of individuals through incorporating Marxism concepts. Therefore, the purpose of this essay is to discuss the relationship between the story Money and its representation of the economic system incorporating Marxism concepts and the Communist Manifesto.

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According to the story, money drives every activity globally. For instance, Diaz showed that immigrants from Dominican Republic, with no educational background and degree have the responsibility to send back money to their home country in regard to the American dream of lower-class statuses being uplifted. Such individuals have hopes of attaining and proving to their families back home that there is a difference in their standards of living. Such individuals suffer economic starvation and are under the oppression of the rich individuals that drive most of the economies. Money drives the behavior of the kids and this has always been the reason why the children take from their parents, thinking that it is fine. However, a neighbor may steal and be considered as a terrible behavior which is a double standard considered from Marxism theoretical concept. For example, considering the geographical context of New York in relation to economic status, the neighborhoods, the economic, crime, poverty rates cannot be compared to the Southern States. In the story, we could appreciate that authorities such as the police were useless when it comes to poor people. The boy stated that Now, it wasn't like I could publicly denounce these dolts or go to the police, he felt unprotected and felt that police had an upper hand for the less fortunate with a lower economic status. People like him and his family, were deemed as useless and troublemakers.

Marxism concept can be used to elaborate the story presented by Diaz. This is because Marxism is a theory that is primarily concerned with the societal inequality. Marxism is the first concept that runs through Diazs story. Marxism looks into segregation that exists among our societies. The gaps that exist among the rich and poor that exist within the society through economic boundaries is the lead basis for Karl Marx formulating the Marxism concept. It its definition, Marxism is a concept that categorizes economic statuses that exist in the world within two broad categories; bourgeoisie and proletariat (Tyson 64). The bourgeoisie are the owners of all means of production within the society while the proletariats are the laborers to the production system. This results in inequality in the society system especially the economic system in which many people are grouped according to the social class that they belong. Inequality results to completion which eventually leads to conflict. According to Marxism, conflict is healthy as it brings about social change, but resulting to the overall development of the society. In our society today, the individuals that belong to the lower economic status are alarmingly increasing while those of the higher social status are decreasing but with an increase in their resources.

In reference to Marxism, one's society status is mainly determined by his/her economic power. Although there are a lot of factors that differentiate people and divides people into different group or social class in the past, none of them weights more than the difference economic power from Marks perspective. In his perspective, people are motived by economic power because in order to move to upper social class people have to become wealthier. People look at you base on how much wealth you have and the more money you have the more power you have and more respect you gain from others. Both Diaz The Money and Munros Wild Swans reveal how ones social class can be defined by his/her economic power and it influences people in daily life. In Money by Junot Diaz There is two key environmental factors influencing peoples personality. The first factor is parents' behaviors toward their children. Parents' behaviors have long term effect on their child's personality. The second factor is the living environment. There are many potential environmental influences that shape ones personality. These include the place a person lives and the people around him/her. The influences of the people around the narrator will dictate how the character tries to become. In a poor neighborhood, he might decide to sell drugs after expose to rap music and the influences of his friends. The way he take the money/ steals the money is a great example of bad influence. In a nicer neighborhood, he might decide to stick it out through college and become a successful man with the advice from his parents and the adults he looks up to around him.

Considering what happened in both scenes in, that is The Money by Diaz and Wild Swans by Munro represent class difference and how such difference affected ones behaviors. If there is no class difference, then the narrator in The Money would not steal his friend's house because his friend would not break his house in the first place. If there is no class difference, then Rose would not have to worry about that no one trusts her (Diaz,36). She can shout out at the minister and people will criticize him. This generally create a big difference between the two stories, Marxism represents the political, economic, and social theories created by Karl Marx and embraces the notion that the struggles between various social classes are a major factor in regards to determining history.

The story also comprises on the economic situation of the minority and oppressed groups. The minority group has unique characteristics in regard to race and ethnicity. Minority groups refer to a proportion of the population that does not enjoy equal social, economic, and political provisions within their countries of stay. Minority status can be due to the stratification of the different access and availability of wealth and income. It is a minority as perceived by cultural characteristics. It results from social and historical processes. The minority groups possess unique distinguishing factors that separate them from the native population within the region. Minority groups result when there is social disintegration within society where all the people do not have representation and decision-making within their country of stay. Therefore, making them vulnerable and susceptible to the decision of the native or majority population. The minority groupings change over time because there are no specific criteria that can be used for categorizing the groups.

Minority group concept thrives in an ideal situation where, there is need to exercise unfair rule against a target component of the population to usurp privileges of the victim population in favor of the dominant or native population. When the majority groups arise to demand fair and equal representation within their communities, and subsequent demands to have equal representation in decision-making within the society, there is violence that is likely to ensue (Tyson 64). Minority groups create an invisible socio-economic boundary that is not hostile to an individual who exist within the unknown socio-economic block. That is, when the minority demands their rights and equal representation, there exists a higher likelihood of the bigger population advancing war against the minority group.

According to Marx and Friedrich (45), in relation to the Communists manifesto, communism is the system of governance that needs to be adopted by the society. Through communism the oppressed, minority and the marginalized groups are fairly integrated in the society (Tyson 63). There are two economic groups that exist in the society; the rich and the poor. The rich has the culture of savings. The workers are the poor and oppressed group who strive to save money. Owing to the weak economic systems of the group, they are not able to access credit facilities and prefer to make their savings in their homes.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the story Money is a clear example of an oppressed lower-class family and their way of living. This proves my theoretical perspectives supported with the Marxism concept in regard to the economic system and The Communist Manifesto. At the end of the day, they are the poor family from lower class that will be still poor and that will not change. They will remain oppressed forever.

Works Cited

Diaz, Junot. Drown. Faber & Faber, 2009. Print.

Diaz, Junot. The Money. The New Yorker, n.p. 13 June 2011. Web.

Marx, Karl, and Friedrich Engels. The Communist Manifesto. Place of publication not identified: Filiquarian Publishing, 2000. Print.

Tyson, Lois. Critical Theory Today: A User-friendly Guide. New York: Garland Pub., 1999. Print.