aikens major paper ass

8/6/2019 Aikens Major Paper Ass.

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Erin Aikens

English 490.01

Dr. Donahoo

May 3, 2011

Marxism in Talking Pictures

In Horton Footes play Talking Pictures it is easily distinguishable that the

characters lives are ruled by their place in their social and economic world. Mr. and Mrs.

Jackson are uprooted from their lives on numerous occasions due to someone higher than

them on the railroad corporate ladder wanting Mr. Jacksons job, Myra must give up her

position due to her services being obsolete with the coming of the newer talking pictures,

and even little Estaquio Trevino who does the work of the Lord is forced back to Mexico

due to he and his fathers church not gaining enough members to pay for its upkeep. The

play depicts a struggling family trying to build on an economic base that does not do well

to support them. Through examination and close reading of Footes story, several

different Marxist theories can be applied offering a commentary on the capitalist

conditions represented in the play and helping to determine whether or not these

conditions are powerful enough to elicit a social change if not in the audience then at

least in the characters.

Because of these conditions which Foote has created in the Jackson household and

beyond, a Marxist critique of the play seems an effective method of evaluating its

happenings. Theorist C. David Lisman states that Marxist literature functions in not

merely showing the effects of economic and social injustice upon individual


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personalities, but by creating characters who typify the historic plight that many

proletariats experience (Lisman 74-75). Foote has followed this quite well in that he has

built lives for these characters that reflect the social struggle with which many in a

capitalist society are faced. The play opens with the two daughters Katie Bell and Vesta

enjoying a quite read and eating a snack while jumping from one economically involved

conversation to another. Myra states that she read in some movie magazine or other

where they may stop making silent pictures all together (Foote 7). Because of this

transition neither Myras skill as an employee nor her need to provide for herself and her

son are considered, and she faces the risk of being forced out of her job by the demand for

the newer and more up-to-date talking pictures. While immediately establishing the

powerful and the powerless in their town, this also supports Lismans idea that historic

struggles should be represented in the body of work. The plight here is the constant

battle of a producer, artist, etc. being entirely reliant on the consumers demand for what

they are producing in order to be profitable and successful in their business. While

capitalism does offer an opportunity for social class advancement, one must be selling

something everybody needs, and Myras services are quickly becoming obsolete.

This is also an example of how a false consciousness has been established among

the proletariat class. In his article False Consciousness and Ideology in Marxist Theory

author Ron Eyerman states that the relationship between false consciousness and

ideology is conceived in terms of the relation between social existence and social

consciousness, a relation between who one isand what one thinks (Eyerman 44).


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Throughout the play, numerous excuses are given as to why jobs are being lost, people are

leaving, and things are going wrong,but never is it blamed on the economy although the

year is 1929 right before the stock market crash. Myra mentions her possibility of losing

her job and the two girls refuse to view it as a moment of distress and continue to talk of

rich movie stars and sad pictures. Mr. Jackson takes his being bumped and having to

uproot his entire family and move to another place as not a serious issue, but merely part

of the responsibilities of his job. And Estaquio turns to religion to explain why his mother

left claiming it was not the living conditions or her family that drove her away,but that

the devil simply got hold of her and wouldnt let her go (27). Never once do the girls

feel that their superiors forcing them to move is an injustice of the bourgeoisie, but rather

just the way their lives operate in such a capitalist society. Their consciousness of who

they are has been shaped around their social existence that is controlled by a power they

cannot see and so choose not to acknowledge. Reinforcing Eyermans point: because

Katie Bell, Vesta, and Estaquio were all brought up to a social consciousness that life is

the way it is, they never question their place nor Gods benevolence. Foote chooses to

take this one step further in that those who seem to be most influenced by this idea are the

children, the father, and the future spiritual leader, and shows that Footes idea of the

future of our country is one ruled by a powerful upper class and a happily oppressed lower

class that does not believe there to be another way.

This can be further displayed when one evaluates the impact of the elite controlled

hegemony in this town. Karl Marx himself writes that the ideas of the ruling class are, in


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are content to admire from afar the life of luxury they will never have, and will happily sit

in their living room, living vicariously through Myras experiences. However, with the

coming of the talkies, suddenly we see these false consciousnesses and hegemony crack.

Even the actors and actresses they admired will be removed of their celebrity gleam and

forced to find themselves much in a similar position to Myra. Myra raises this point as

they are beginning to question what will happen to the career of Ramon Navarro saying,

MYRA. What will happen to his career when the movies are all talkies?

KATIE BELL. Why does that worry him?

VESTA. Because he talks Mexican, goose. Once people hear him talk Mexican

theyll all know hes not American (Foote 6).

We see through this that no one is too high to be immune to the capitalist market, and

neither the movie stars nor Estaquio and his father are safe from the economic realities of

the world.

Similarly, their deep rooted Methodist beliefs control their thoughts and their every

action. Vesta and Katie Bell are forbidden to listen to the radio for fear of corrupting their

Christian upbringing unless, as Myra puts it, they only listen to programs of classical

music (17). A method of censorship, and while this does keep the girls youthful

innocence intact, it can also be seen as one of the traditions enforced by those above them

in order to prevent the planting of ideas of better ways of life into young, influential minds

like those of nave children who listen to radio shows or watch television programs that

their elders and superiors deem unfitting for such innocent eyes. A doctrine that teaches

that people should be satisfied with the lot that God has given them and encourages praise


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and contentment in good times and bad helps small families like the Jacksons see their

existence as better than some and therefore a blessing. This is expressed in Mr. Jacksons

statement Well, its not the end of the world. I still have a job (10). Eyerman pulls from

Lenins work as he states that the strain of working life under capitalism produced a

short-term and pragmatic view in the worker; his/her concern was with getting as much as

possible out of a bad situation(Eyerman 45). He refers to this as the trade-union

consciousness and one can see this relation presenting itself in Mr. Jackson as well as in

Katie Bell and Vesta. It manifests in an interest in the good right now rather than in the

bad that could present later on. This notion is keeping them oppressed in their ideas that

if they were meant to belong in a higher more privileged class God would make it so.

Apart from dictating right and wrong and controlling the actions of the towns

citizens, religion also plays a major role in the signaling of the grip economy has on the

lives of these characters. As the play progresses the characters are introduced to the

charming, if nave, little Mexican boy Estaquio Trevino. Although her family is shocked

at first that Katie Bell would befriend a boy of color, they soon are all admiring the ability

of the Hispanic to sing Rock of Ages in his native tongue and his desire to give his life

to the service of his Lord. And yet, as previously stated, even a spiritual leader who is do

dedicated to doing holy work is not immune to the economic conditions of the town.

Armed with a Bible and good intentions, Estaquio and his father plan to create a Spanish

church, convert all the Catholics to Baptists, and in effect use their religious beliefs as a

means to raise their social status from that of someone to whom the white townspeople


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should be ashamed to talk, to leaders and entrepreneurs and upstanding members of the

community. The only problem is that even houses of the Lord do not build, fund, or

maintain themselves and they are forced back into their old country (and class) due to the

fact that no one showed up to their services (61). Although we have seen throughout

history those who use religious power over others to rise above and rule them, Estaquio

and his father do not reside in a high enough class to be taken seriously to begin with,

giving them little leverage to change peoples minds about their current religious

affiliations. To again quote Lisman,if every human act and activity is a product of social

and economic forces, this entails that it is impossible for artists to rise above social and

economic conditions of their existence (Lisman 75). Although Lisman is probably

referring to artists in more of the author/painter sense, it is possible to extend the idea to

Estaquio and his fathers art of preaching and sharing the Holy Spanish Gospel. In a

supply and demand economy only what is bought is produced and if Mexican Baptists

arent in high demand, then a church to provide for the needs of their nonexistent

followers is not going to be very successful.

There is one other major aspect (and two other major characters) that have not yet

been discussed fully in this paper and that is the relationship between Myra and Willis and

the way that their interactions and choices contribute to the overall less than favorable

view that the play seems to convey about a capitalist society. As the play progresses,

Myras seems more and more uncertain. The audience knows the Queen theatre is going

to go talkie, and that she will therefore be forced into the choice of uprooting her son and


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constantly traveling to less and less progressive towns in the hopes that they will still be

operating a silent theatre. She, instead, chooses marrying a man who promises a good life

for her and Pete and is offering security for the rest of their lives. Although it is made

clear that Willis is infatuated with Myra, Foote never does reveal to us whether or not she

is truly in love with him, and so her choice is one of a constant battle between herself and

consumer demands for piano players, or marriage to a man she most likely does not love

but is willing to accept based on her desire for stability for herself and her son saying, if I

married Willis we would live on here, he has money to buy a lot and build a house where

you can have your own room (32). Once again the presence of an economic choice rules

out over all else, even in something as important as family, love, and marriage. Willis

wife left him for a man who supposedly had a bank account of a hundred thousand

dollars (35), but once it is revealed that this is not true, she refuses to leave Willis, not on

the grounds of still being in love with her him, but that she feels she needs to be

compensated financially for the trouble of coming all the way to Harrison in an attempt to

get him back, until the attempt fails and suddenly she never really wanted him back at all

(55).

The overall purpose of this paper is to analyze the position that Talking Pictures

exerts on the communist/Marxist/capitalist argument and to understand whether or not the

play is powerful enough to make an impact on such conversation. In deep consideration,

this text does exhibit and exemplify many well founded and deep rooted Marxist

characteristics, in line with many modern theorists as well as the writings of Karl Marx


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himself on particular issues. The examination of such a piece that displays a workday as

merely a means to a financial end, religion as merely a buffer for the bad in the world, and

relationships and marriage bought at the best price, makes it difficult to swallow the

consumerist views of those such as the ones that keep Myra and Mr. Jackson in a constant

state of migration to provide for their families.

A common area of discussion among Marxists is whether or not socialist reform

will be spontaneous, or self-instigated among the working class people, or whether it will

need a leader to encourage and plant the ideas of another way of commerce that

encourages pride in ones work, that works to reverse the proletariat consciousness and

most importantly will even out the gaps between the classes, moving Katie Bell and Vesta

into the same standard of living as the movie stars they admire so much. Author Robert

Mayer brings to light in an excellent way this same question by comparing the opinions of

Marx, Lenin, and Plekhanov all of whom are highly respected in this particular field of

study. He points out that Lenin and Plekhanov agree that the change they wished to see in

the world would only be initiated from without by the radical bourgeois intelligentsia

(Mayer 159). And it is works such as Horton Footes Talking Pictures which could be

seen to have the willpower to elicit social reform if not among many, at least among a

few, which has the potential to build into many. It affects on an emotional level in the case

of Estaquio, Myra, and Willis, but also on a more intellectual level as we imagine that all

of this takes place months before the stock market crash of 1929. The play invites us to

look beyond the final curtain and decide whether or not we as an audience are content


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with the lives of the characters after our presence in the action is complete. Whether his

intentions or not, Footes play does seem to be the model as to why capitalism is not the

most ideal economic system ever created, but never does he flat-out turn it down entirely.

In the end of the story we do finally see an emotional response pertaining to Mr.

Jacksonss lost position, we see Pete remaining with his mother rather than his father, and

we see an awakening in Katie Bells eyes as some of her innocence falls away. As

Harrison, Texas says goodbye to the silent films, perhaps we will see our characters say

goodbye to their silent agreement with the poor conditions and begin to be that outward

change that others in their community need to see.


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Works Cited

Eyerman, Ron. "False Consciousness and Ideology in Marxist Theory." Acta Sociologica. 24.

(1981): 43-56. Web.JSTOR. May 1, 2011.

Foote, Horton. "Talking Pictures". New York City: Dramatists Play Service Inc., 1996. Print.

Lisman, C. David. "Marxist Literary Theory: A Critique."JournalofAesthetic Education. 22.

(1988): 73-85. Web.JSTOR. May 1, 2011.

Mayer, Robert. "Plekhanov, Lenin and Working-Class Consciousness." Studies in East

European Thought. 49.3 (1997): 159-185. Web.JSTOR. May 1, 2011.

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