The wolf of wall street : an example of the theory of aliénation of karl marx ?

Borges

Lola

Movie Analysis : The Wolf Of Wall Street

INTRODUCTION 

Movie extract

Right, so, let’s talk about the Wolf of wall steet

Released in 2013, The wolf of wall street, a movie directed by martin scorcese, is based on the real life story of Jordan Belfort played by Leonardo Dicaprio.

Belfort is a croocked stockbrocker who made his career by embezzling his investors out of millions of dollars in the Wall Street of the early 90’s.

The movie shows us the excesses of the world of finance and banking in the USA with a main character who lives in luxury by spending his money in drugs, alcohol and prostitution forgetting its principles and values. He only lives for money.

During my senior year of high school I learned about the theory of aliénation by karl marx and the professor used the wolf of wall street as an example of it.

According to karl marx, work is what makes us human, work allows us to live, to be creative, to flourish. However in a capitalist society the workers ( proletariat) do not work for themselves but for the owners ( bourgeoisie) wich means that the workers find no interest or meaning in their work and that’s what we call aliénation. As soon as the workers do not find a meaning in their work they don’t find a meaning to society or to their own lives.

So the question is : to what extent is the wolf of wall street is an example of the theory of aliénation of karl marx ?

First of all, There are four types of aliénation

- aliénation from product

-alienation from process

-alienation from others

-alienation fromoneself

Two of them are very accurate in the movie

First : Aliénation from others

According to karl marx, In a capitalist society people are alienated form one another, capitalism puts people in position of competition, a worker makes his own money and work only for himself, not for the best interest of the group, there is little concern about a collective common good or a sense of cooperation.

In the movie, Jordan Belfort have « friends » that are actually his coworkers, they are instrumental to his rise, he uses them to do all the dirty work. Near the end of the movie Jordan accept to cooperate with the FBI so he don’t have to go to jail. So he wears a wire and go to his office to denounce his coworkers. However, Belfort decides to tell his « best » friend and associate that he is wearing a wire. So he write on a piece of paper « dont incriminate yourself- im wearing a wire »

Next thing we know jordan have to go to jail because his associate reported him to the fbi. This proves that he human connection is lost and that they’re alienated from the people aroud them.

Secondly, aliénation from one self

Aliénation from oneself robs a person of what they can be and contribute in the world, marx believed that what we contribute to the world in terms of our work is what makes us human.

What we contribute to the world is a manifestation of our creativity and creativity is an essencial part of our human nature

In our capitalist society, many people are alienated from their human nature, people lose their sense of self and who they are, we live to work rather than work being an extension of our being. We are not in control of our own lives

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