Marxist Analysis

In analyzing the Alec Baldwin speech from the film Glengarry Glen Ross, the fundamentals of Marxist capitalism are evident, as played out by Baldwin and his inferior counterparts. The harsh language and cold demeanor of Baldwin’s character and “motivational” speech exemplify what Marx described as, “the icy water of egotistical calculation” (659). The employees to whom Baldwin’s character is addressing are merely figures within the profit margin, not human beings of equal existence. Baldwin bluntly enforces the fact that each man is a commodity, a replaceable object, and a worthless one at that if unable to satisfy the demands of the company. The saddest part about the scene is the powerlessness exerted by the employees. Their jobs are being threatened, and to be stripped of ones ability to produce is essentially to become void of any value or worth; a societal outsider.

Much of Baldwin’s establishment of authority is through the things he possesses: large sums of money, the nice suit he’s wearing, his watch, and his car. He compares his watch and his car to the value of the employees and their cars. This comparison draws upon the ideas of commodity fetishism, about which Marx states: “the productions of the human brain appear as independent beings endowed with life, and entering into relation both with one another and the human race” (665). The “mystical character of commodities” (664) is related to the fact that Baldwin’s logic and persuasion hinge on the idea that the value of a human being is somehow relatable to the value of a car or a watch. If the car and watch were unassembled into their basic components, they would just be a pile of junk worth much less. Yet, because they required human labor for their assembly, and are therefore a commodity, they are comparable to the human, who is yet another commodity.

When we evaluate our surroundings, we are constantly summing up worth. Marx explains that, “Value, therefore, does not walk about with a label describing what it is. It is value, rather, that converts every product into a social hieroglyphic” (666). With commodities becoming a system much like language, Saussure’s principles of semiotics would further prove that the relationship between the commodity and its value are arbitrary. Yet, like the employees beneath Baldwin’s aim, all of those who subscribe to the language of capitalism enforce is structure and are therefore further confined by its exploitation.

Marx, Karl. "The communist Manifesto", "Capital, Vol1". Ed. Vincent Leitch. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Second Edition. New York: W.W. Norton & Company Inc, 2010. Print.