Chuthasita Thaebanpakul 1

English 12
December 6, 2017

How Marxist Value Reflects on The Planet of Camazotz

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, German philosophers, have conceived that the scientific

theory illustrates the social movement and the role of working class. There are two main groups of

people in the Marxist theory which are proletariat and bourgeoisie. Based on theory, the proletariat

is the one who produces products and has a labor to sell while bourgeoisie is the one who sells those

goods produced by proletariat (Akers & Sellers, 2013). Those concepts of the theory are illustrated

in the novel A Wrinkle in Time which clearly displays the difference between proletariat and

bourgeoisie. In A Wrinkle in Time, Margaret Murry, the main character, is always viewed as a weird

person by people around her. However, for her father, she is a good child and he confirms that she

will grow up as a normal person. Unfortunately, her father has never been with her for a long time

and she never knows where he is too. When the time passes, Meg wants to figure out what happens

to her father, so, she goes to find her father with her brother whose name is Charles Wallace and her

friend, Calvin O'keefe. During the journey, she meets with the three guardians who bring them to

planet Camazotz to find her father. After Meg arrives at planet Camazotz, she notices lots of events

which seems strange to her because it is totally different from how she lives on the Earth. On planet

Camazotz, there is an IT who controls all citizens minds to follow his own commands at all time.

In A Wrinkle in Time, the planet Camazotz reflects Marxist values through citizens actions, citizens

ownership, and elimination of differences.

Firstly, how citizens having the same actions demonstrates that the Marxist idea is adopted

in Camazotz society. Since the bourgeoisie, IT, believes that if people were doing the same things, it

would reduce the exploitation among themselves. Therefore, everyone on the planet is forced to do

the same activities at the same moment (p.115). According to Singer, a professor of Sociology,

Meg recognises, and articulates, how the forces of darkness can deceive: that sameness is not the

same as equality; that the absence of sadness is not the same as contentment (p.316). This
MARXIST VALUE THROUGH PLANET CAMAZOTZ !2

statement implies that in Megs point of view, it does not work in the way of improving the society.

In fact, Marxist concept is applied for a purpose of making everyone in the society be equal in an

opportunity of work. Since those actions that people on the planet are doing as practices also

improve their ability; therefore, it is an important factor which leads everyone to have the same

ability and reduce the space between classes. Reducing a gap between classes is possible because if

all people are the same, they are not able to distinguish whether they are different from others in the

same society or not, so it can get rid of people desires to have self-development. So, the statement

definitely against the Marxisms purpose. Therefore, it confirms that Marxist ideas really exist on

Camazotz. Furthermore, how the pattern of houses in the town looks alike is another way to

emphasise the Marxist value on Camazotz.

Secondly, the feature of Camazotzs town emphasises that Marxist theory is utilised to

develop the society. After Meg and her companion tesser through the time, they arrive at Camazotz

standing on a hill and look toward the town on the planet as a bird eye view. Suddenly, Meg notices

that the town of planet Camazotz contains an identical style of houses as shows, The houses in the

outskirts were all exactly alike, small square boxes painted gray (p.115). Moreover, she also

notices that each household has the same amount of property that they own as also describe if she

could count the flowers there would be exactly the same number for each house (p.115). In

Defence of Marxism, it states that the rate of surplus value is the rate of exploitation of labour by

capital (Sewell & Woods, 2000). The statement means that the more extra property that one owns,

the more chance that he will be taken advantages. In the same way, IT thinks that if people are

different from one another, it will create conflict (p.155). Based on the concept of Marxism, all the

product that proletarians have produced should be collected by a leader then separate them for each

household equally meaning that even though one owns more products, it does not mean that he truly

has more property than the others. To prevent the problem, IT allows citizens on the planet to
MARXIST VALUE THROUGH PLANET CAMAZOTZ !3

own everything equally. Therefore, it proves that people in Camazotz are forced to be equal so no

one will get or lose than the other one which is based on Marist idea. Besides, the most important

purpose of the Marxist theory is to reduce the gap between poor and rich people. Therefore,

eliminating the different people is also important in order to make everyone equal effectively.

Finally, on planet Camazotz, people who act differently from other people will be punished

and eliminated out of the society. In the story, IT tries to remove the people who are disparate from

the others by separating them to be in a particular room which no one can see through, but only the

man who is able to make the wall transparent. When the three children first arrive at Camazotz, they

notice that there is a boy bouncing the ball in a different rhythm from the others then he drops the

ball. After that, during travelling to go to meet IT, Charles who is being hypnotised introduces them

the boy who is being caught in the room. Then, he tells them the reason that the boy was caught is

that he cannot control his action to be the same as the other; therefore, he is punished by keep

bouncing the ball in the rhythm which causes him so much pain (p.158). According to Akers and

Sellers, In a capitalist society, the ruling-class elite (bourgeoisie) control the means of production,

which allows them to control the political state as well. They use this control to manipulate the

labourers (proletariat) and keep them in a position of powerlessness (2013). Based on the

statement of Criminological Theories, laws, and regulations that created in the society where

Marxism is adopted intentionally oppress proletariats to be under a bourgeoisie because they allow

a bourgeoisie to have an entire power. Therefore, the working class can be penalised by having a

law opposes their fault. From the statement, it supports the action of IT in the story since his actions

absolutely tyrannise the people by using his power to get rid of the people who oppose his laws;

therefore, those actions bring him to be superior from others. Then, ITs executions show that he is

the one who has the most power among all population. To expand, elimination of people is another

way that shows how IT extremely has an authority because it is about lives. Those powers which IT
MARXIST VALUE THROUGH PLANET CAMAZOTZ !4

owns are same as the power of bourgeoisie in Marxist theory. Thus, it confirms that the elimination

of human by IT on planet Camazotz reflects the Marxist value.

In conclusion, the Marxist value is showed on planet Camazotz through these three ways. To

begin with, an identical action of citizens is a factor which drives them to be equal. Since Marxism

has ruling-class having most power to control the working class, so IT represents the bourgeoisie

who manipulate all peoples conscious. So, this is the reason why people are doing the same at the

same moment. Next, products in one society are distributed to each household equally. As

bourgeoisie in Marxism is also the one who collects all the property and distribute them. Therefore,

each house can only own the same amount of property due to the distribution. Finally, since

bourgeoisie can make rules to favour their own side, it causes proletariat to be easily exploited as a

result of unfair rules. Hence, separation of the people who are dissimilar is a punishment that caused

from leaders power. Therefore, all the possibility of people on planet Camazotz is dependent on

their leader same as how bourgeoisie mostly has all powers to control proletariat in Marxism.
MARXIST VALUE THROUGH PLANET CAMAZOTZ !5

Reference

Akers, L. R., & Sellers, S. C. (2013). Marxist theories. Criminological Theories: Introduction,

Evaluation, Application. Retrieved from https://global.oup.com/us/companion.websites/

9780199844487/guide1/study_guide.pdf

LEngle, M. (2007). A Wrinkle in Time. New York: Square Fish.

Sewell, R., & Woods, A. (March 15, 2000). What is Marxism. In defence of Marxism. Retrieved

from https://www.marxist.com/what-is-marxism-economics-materialism.htm

Singer, A. E. (2011). A Novel Approach: The Sociology of Literature, Children's Books, and Social

Inequality. International Journal Of Qualitative Methods, 10(4), 307-320.