Critiques of social circumstances firmly rooted in reality may seem to be more appropriately suited by arguments with foundations in fact rather than fiction, but there is also much to be said about the merits of storytelling in these social commentaries. Reason and fantasy do not have to be separate to make an effective and compelling case. Fiction can aid the truth by putting emphasis on certain aspects of it, modeling what could be, and eliciting an emotional response from the audience. In the works The Communist Manifesto by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, An Essay on the Principle of Population by Thomas Robert Malthus, and Hard Times by Charles Dickens, the social commentators use the whole spectrum of fact and fantasy to make compelling
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However, by simplifying the truth and framing occurrences from a specific perspective, their work is essentially a sort of fiction in its own right. The manifesto does claim to use fact as evident in its use of words “is”, “historically”, “already seen”, etc. The words convey the sense of certainty the two authors hold in their account of history. While it is no bad thing to be certain, the amount of simplification belies the complete truth (instead shrouding it in a façade). This simplification is evident in the very first line of the manifesto in the following statement: “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” Although it would not be false to claim that history has class struggles, to reduce all the complexities to a single issue seems to be dramatic oversimplification. All of family, religion, government become agents of the same class …show more content…
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel’s Communist Manifesto used the fiction of biased perspectives and partial truths to further their ideological goals, Thomas Robert Malthus used a combination of suppositions, facts, and rationality to model out the flawed economic policies of his opponents, and Charles Dickens wrote an entirely fictional story to depict the all too real conditions of the poor and working class. It is evident that all the authors used fiction in varying amounts to great success. Like the spices in a culinary masterpiece, there is no right amount. A skillful artisan can direct a creation suited for the audience’s
However, by simplifying the truth and framing occurrences from a specific perspective, their work is essentially a sort of fiction in its own right. The manifesto does claim to use fact as evident in its use of words “is”, “historically”, “already seen”, etc. The words convey the sense of certainty the two authors hold in their account of history. While it is no bad thing to be certain, the amount of simplification belies the complete truth (instead shrouding it in a façade). This simplification is evident in the very first line of the manifesto in the following statement: “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.” Although it would not be false to claim that history has class struggles, to reduce all the complexities to a single issue seems to be dramatic oversimplification. All of family, religion, government become agents of the same class …show more content…
Karl Marx and Friedrich Engel’s Communist Manifesto used the fiction of biased perspectives and partial truths to further their ideological goals, Thomas Robert Malthus used a combination of suppositions, facts, and rationality to model out the flawed economic policies of his opponents, and Charles Dickens wrote an entirely fictional story to depict the all too real conditions of the poor and working class. It is evident that all the authors used fiction in varying amounts to great success. Like the spices in a culinary masterpiece, there is no right amount. A skillful artisan can direct a creation suited for the audience’s