Marx! (#9)

I believe that Walter M. Miller, Jr. did an excellent job with his story “Crucifixus Etiam” as a demonstration of Marxism.  We can use Marxism to better interpret this futuristic world on Mars from an outside point of view, as well as through someone on the inside.

There is an inarguable example of both the bourgeoisie and proletariat classes.  Viewing it this way, we as readers can better understand the disparity between the excavating crew and those with a little bit more power.  The oppressed working class aren’t even allowed to know what it is that they are working so relentlessly towards: “There was a certain arbitrariness about it, a hint that the Commission thought of its employees as children, or enemies, or servants…the supervisory staff shrugged off all questions with: ‘Why? Well, what’s the difference?” (239).  As we learned in class, Marxism heavily relies on the idea that people really only feel the most fulfilled when they are connected to the fruits of their labor directly.  In the case of “Crucifixus”, in return for their lack of information, the workers were given enough to stay alive and started finding pleasure in things like booze and effortless sleep.  As it turns out, their duty on Mars was a lot more deadly than was let on to them at first.  Marxism deals with material things, commodities, and the “truffies” ended up turning into one as well.  One part that really stood out to me as an example of that was the line, “Newcomers were segregated in a separate barracks so that their nightly screams would not disturb the old-timers who had finally adjusted to Martian conditions” (233).  Basically, they were willing to do whatever they had to do, no matter how inhumane, to keep their “factory” running smoothly.

Near the end, there is even an example of the feared “proletariat revolution” predicted by Marx.  Handell attempts to get the rest of his fellow oppressed to uprise against the people in control.  Some of the people in control actually got nervous, for they were greatly outnumbered, but after his goal was realized, Manue stopped it.

The idea of Marxism really came full circle in the end when we see Manue’s resignation to what his life has become, but also his slight fulfillment which came from now having a goal, and the knowledge of what his work was creating: “He had wanted something to work for, hadn’t he?  Something more than the reasons Donnell had given.  Well, he could smell a reason, even if he couldn’t breathe it…He knew now what Mars was…an eight-century passion of human faith in the destiny of the race of Man” (246).

I also thought the top paragraph on page 238 was rather interesting, where Donnell explains to Manue the concept of Mars as outlet for the surplus on Earth.  He is basically explaining that rather than cut down on production, Earth needed to find more room in order to continue feeding their need for material items.