Marx, Baudelaire Against Capitalism: Comparing Marx And Thoreau

Alienation is defined as “the state or experience of being isolated from a group or an activity to which one should belong or in which one should belong or in which one should be involved.” In some sense, Marx, Baudelaire and – all incorporated this sort isolation into their works. This general definition applies to all three of their reflections as they respond to varying problems all related to “modernity” in some sense. With Marx and Thoreau against capitalist industrialization, and Baudelaire against urbanization, they are all very engaged in a way as they create these commentaries on society around them and the issues they have with it. For Marx, alienation was a critical part of his theory for Communism. It was used in reference to

He, like Marx, believed that there was a loss of self in the kind of labor taking place and that laborers were stuck due to lack of wages that was barely enough to survive off of. However, in Walden, Thoreau’s alienation is, unlike Marx’s, of his own choosing and therefore self-incurred. While Marx aimed to take down the bourgeoisie to end this lack of freedom in laborers, Thoreau himself focused on and encouraged others to free themselves from this society. His writing is centered on simplicity and self-reliance. He portrays a negative view on luxuries and urges man to get rid of any materials beyond necessity. In Walden, he writes, “By the words, necessary of life, I mean whatever, of all that man obtains by his own exertions, has been from the first, or from long use has become, so important to human life that few, if any, whether from savageness, or poverty, or philosophy, ever attempt to do without it. To many creatures there is in this sense but one necessary of life, Food” (Pg. 13). He believed that anything beyond bare necessities weighed man down and held him back. As he aimed to live off of his own provisions, basically alone in nature, he envisioned a positive, beneficial