Accepted

I watched the movie Accepted this morning with the assignment for this weekend floating through my mind. It was with this in mind that I started to see these connections forming. These similarities between what was shown in the movie and what Marx’s ideals were. For starters, the whole movie is about what happens when people are repressed to the point of desperation by an overbearing and judgmental upper class. In the words of Sherman Schrader, “This is the act of a desperate, wildly unrealistic individual”. The main characters in the movie have one way or another found themselves without a college to attend in the coming year and are thus forced to find an alternative, in this case, to band together and make a college of their own. This too would have met the approval of Marx, who urged others to create their own communities and establishments through cooperation and a team effort. For the majority of this movie the main characters struggle to find a way to make their fake college passable as a real one, and to satisfy the needs of their student body. In the end they work together to make their college a success and earn it a one year trial accreditation from the Ohio State board of accreditation. This is an example of the Marxist ideal of working together for a common goal; everybody in the college comes from a different place with different stories but they all work together for the betterment of themselves and the college as a whole. Their progress does not go unchallenged, as the dean of nearby Harmon college seeks to undue them. This is an example of the higher, or ruling, class oppressing the lower class. The movie completes the example of successful Marxism by having the underdogs succeed and have their goals realized.