Ideology According To Marx And Althusser In Relation To Bartleby The Scrivener

8 Pages 2035 Words

would not be able to produce the means of survival. In his own words, “by producing their means of subsistence men are indirectly producing their actual material life,”(1) or produces social groups through similar ideological ideas, and this becomes who one is and how one lives. Producing ones means of subsistence according to Marx, depends on the “nature of the actual means of subsistence they find in existence and have to reproduce. This mode of production must not be considered simply as being the reproduction of the physical existence of the individuals. Rather it is a definite form of activity of these individuals, a definite form of expressing their life, a definite mode of life on their part.” (1) This actually constructs a commonality between Bartleby and the Lawyer in that they both express their life by the way they live it. By saying he was filled with ideas that the easiest way of life is the best, the lawyer is practicing the ideals of the dominant class of his society. Capitalism, owner ship, wealth, all these things make living life easier, and therefore, he has conformed to become a lawyer, in order to make the materials that are required for his existence. This is why Bartleby is such a phenomena to him. Bartleby abandons the concepts of the material world, in that he does not engage in normal means of survival....