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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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every age, the ruling ideas, i.e., the class which is the dominant material force in society is at the same time its dominant intellectual force (Lisman 75). This can be seen as a parallel to the mind set of the Jacksons. Those they admire, such as the movie stars and Brother Meyers, are the ones who control the way their thinking goes. The most important aspects of the lives of those who inhabit the Jackson home are their religion, their families, and the pictures they admire so much. The only two topics discussed between Katie Bell and Vesta pertain to the wonders of the picture show and some aspect of church doctrine or policy, often mixing the two such as their question of whether or not they would go to Hell if they went to the picture show on Sunday (14). These topics, while popular aspects of any society, are guided and exploited by their superiors and offer them excuses and rationale for why they are happy in their current social position. Because these people are either rich, famous, or in a higher standing in society, they are the ones who establish right and wrong and how to behave. The girls carry an obsession with the picture show which is fueled by magazines and radio programs. The media keeps young girls in the loop on the lives of the actors and actresses from their nationality to their eye color and everything in between. Many youth even today harbor a deep infatuation with the idea of a beautiful actor or actress, and this idea of rising so far above where one is currently placed is one that has transformed into a staple in most towns. It gives the girls an outlet on which to focus their energy keeping them happy with the idea that they, too, could rise from their middle or lower class stations to become rich and famous as well. As long as this information is available and the picture show stays a part of their interest, they

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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. Jacksons lost position, we see Pete remaining with his mother rather than his father, and
s

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." Journal of Aesthetic 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.