Beauty and the Beast

This story, obviously much easier to read then anything else thus far, would have nothing to do with Marx to an individual without knowledge of the idealogy, but to me, rang loud and clear with conncection. The main theme I took out of this reading is the idea of class in society.
Ron and Sarah came from two different neighborhoods, almost two different worlds entirely. Ron, a lawyer, financially sound and very attractive; Sarah, a factory work of sorts, extremely homely, a mother of three, and very poor. What could they possibly have in common? What did the proletariat and the bourgeousie have in common? Nothing, and yet something in them gravitates them towards each other in a remarkeable way. Although they enjoyed each other's company, they didn't seem to match just like in the era of Marx, it was wrong and harmful to think that you could raise up to another level of class; that just didn't happen.

I found a very interesting relation to Anna Karenina in this story of ugly Sarah Cole. It's as if Ron, just like Levin was trying so hard to connect with the lesser class, as if to make himself feel better about himself even though he thought he was a nice man. Levin says that when he was mowing with the servants it was the happiest time of his life, and it seems to me that it was a fine time for Ron also. Just like Levin, Ron was exploiting Sarah and using her, just as Levin used his servants. Ron was very one-sided with Sarah, and she was going through more of a struggle personally to live up to Ron's expectations and be good friend then he. He never made any initiative to go to her apartment or meet her kids just as the bourgeouisie would never lower themselves to the lower class level. The lower class is always trying to get ahead, never the other way around.

The end of their relationship, if that is what it was, was very devastating to Sarah. How could Ron be so cruel and just kick her to the curb when he got all that he wanted out of her? It is very similar what we have talking about in class of Marxism. The state uses all the labor forces and production of the people promising freedom ,although without individuality, and what they get is a whole lot of nothing, just like Sarah, a whole lot of nothing. This is definitely similar to the idea of hegemony, because Ron is the "dominant group" who completely seems to control the "lesser group", Sarah, and she gives him free reign over her voluntarily, just as the lesser class gives up their freedom of indiviuality in the era of Marx in order to become what they think a much better classless society that strives for the same goals and purposes. However, as we have seen both enfold in front of our very eyes, we know that in each case (Communism and the relationship with Sarah and Ron)that the dominant group still conquers and opresses the lesser group, even though it was thought that the idea of one being better then the other had been eradicated. Sarah knew that she was lesser then Ron because she said many times how they were very different, but Ron convinced her that there was nothing of the sort, just as Marx convinced us that class should be nothing of the sort and everything would be so much better if we were all on the same level. In both cases, we know that this didn't exactly end up the way intended. Ron screwed over Sarah and Marx most certainly screwed over a lot of influential minds that believed in his idealogy which led to one of the most harmful and depressing times in history.