The Bourgeois Sweeper
Within "The Chimney Sweeper" by William Blake readers are exposed to the unfortunate story of a young boy who is marketed by his family and forced to sweep chimneys. Like many social conditions, social issues are met through sometimes desperate means such as marketing your own child to make a barely tenantable income. The poem appears to be one depicting the sad life of a lower-class family, but it is much more complex and barely touches the surface of inequality when glancing at it. The issues faced by the young boy can easily be expanded upon within Karl Marx's "Manifesto of the Communist Party" where he explains the unfortunate burdens created as a result of social divisions and how these burdens come about through the continuation human existence. The evolution of exploitation and the bourgeois ideology lies the behaviors of the bourgeoisie, the owners of the means of production, …show more content…
As Marx implies, those who maintain control over industry often define the social conditions of a society, and within this poem, we see the unfortunate reality of how easily blinded workers are with their need to make money. Fueled by pressures and social expectations, individuals sell themselves to these individuals who already influence nearly all of society and by doing so became as valuable as a commodity. Workers no longer exhibited the qualities of human beings but as objects or parts required for the functioning of an industry. However, instead of challenging their status, workers, like this young boy, his father, and Tom, find hope in the idea of someday being free instead of focusing on the present. In reality, the bourgeoisie not only mastered the industry but also the concepts of distraction and by doing so they prevent the revolutionary spark that’s necessary for empowering proletariats such as this young boy and Tom Dacre in this
Within "The Chimney Sweeper" by William Blake readers are exposed to the unfortunate story of a young boy who is marketed by his family and forced to sweep chimneys. Like many social conditions, social issues are met through sometimes desperate means such as marketing your own child to make a barely tenantable income. The poem appears to be one depicting the sad life of a lower-class family, but it is much more complex and barely touches the surface of inequality when glancing at it. The issues faced by the young boy can easily be expanded upon within Karl Marx's "Manifesto of the Communist Party" where he explains the unfortunate burdens created as a result of social divisions and how these burdens come about through the continuation human existence. The evolution of exploitation and the bourgeois ideology lies the behaviors of the bourgeoisie, the owners of the means of production, …show more content…
As Marx implies, those who maintain control over industry often define the social conditions of a society, and within this poem, we see the unfortunate reality of how easily blinded workers are with their need to make money. Fueled by pressures and social expectations, individuals sell themselves to these individuals who already influence nearly all of society and by doing so became as valuable as a commodity. Workers no longer exhibited the qualities of human beings but as objects or parts required for the functioning of an industry. However, instead of challenging their status, workers, like this young boy, his father, and Tom, find hope in the idea of someday being free instead of focusing on the present. In reality, the bourgeoisie not only mastered the industry but also the concepts of distraction and by doing so they prevent the revolutionary spark that’s necessary for empowering proletariats such as this young boy and Tom Dacre in this