Class Struggle in Alice Munro’s Selected Short Stories

In this article, I analyze Class Struggle in Alice Munro’s selected short stories using Marxism as the main theory and Sociological theory of conflict as the supporting theory. Whilst, the method is qualitative content analysis in that I interpret and explain attitudes, behavior, and words of the characters in the texts through the theory of Marxism as the main theory and sociological theory of conflict as the supporting one. The result of this study is that the characters undergo class struggle caused by factors of their struggle. Change after the class struggle is visible, instead. Keywords :  class struggle, conflict. DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/70-06 Publication date: July 31 st 2020

selling their labor power in order to live. 5. Employees who no longer have their means of production, therefore, they must sell their labor power. 6. The group of people no longer with the means of production, that must live from selling their labor power to the capital owners and be oppressed in the capitalist production process: secretaries and executives, nurses and corporate lawyers, teachers and policemen, computer operators and executive directors. 7. The oppressed people such as full bloods and half-bloods, blue-collar and white-collar, wage-earners and others who live like them, those who are shabby and those wearing the uniforms of the Prussian officialdom. From the explanation of the class struggle above I come to the understanding that class struggle is the struggle between two classes in society: the capitalist and the proletariat which the former refers to those who are high in economy who can control the low ones. Whilst, the latter refers to those that sell their labor power/become the workers who work under the capitalist and the people in general: teachers, nurses, traders with small property, farmers, all of whom becomes my research in this article.
Many writers analyse social class and class struggle in their articles; Putra, et. al., (2014) in their article Class Struggle as the Impact of Oppression Seen in Clifford, study about class struggle by the oppressed proletariat against the oppressing capitalist, Kurnia, et. al. in their article Social Class and Class Struggle in Suzanne Collin's the Hunger Games, study about the struggle between the bourgeois represented by the Capitol and the proletariat represented by District 12, Farahmandian, et. al., (2013)  My study, then, deals with the class struggle-though their oppression is because of the same economic problems as most of the above studies-concerning with lower economic people cornered and oppressed by the higher ones found in different literary worksFurther, the short stories I analyze are "Royal Beatings,""the Beggar Maid,"and the "Hired Girl."

Theoritical Background
Further, as the characters doing class struggle are found in the literary works, therefore, I have to refer to two grand theories: Marxist literary theory bearing Marxism as the main theory and sociology of literature bearing sociological theory of conflict as the supporting theory. Both Marxist literary theory and Sociology of literature talk about people dealing with economy and social class within literary works. Within Marxism, there are social classes creating gaps within the society so that one of the classes is in conflict against the other and this conflict triggers them to be in struggle to get a better condition. Thus, sociological theory of conflict is appropriate to support Marxism to elaborate their conflict. The followings are little bits about Marxism and Sociological theory of conflict.
Karl Heinrich Marx and Frederic Engels come up with the idea of Marxism because of imperialism. Coming from the Latin term 'imperium' meaning 'command,' imperialism deals with dominating one area by another done by direct or indirect control; direct control refers to the conquest of one area by a governing class though it could not be a permanent conquest of a population. Further, imperialism becomes more general term which refers to a form of economic domination of one area by another. It seems that colonialism is then well-maintained as a factually special case of imperialism historically first seizing a form of colonialist. Nonetheless, imperialism often sustained the passing of colonialism in that it continued the removal of a leading class from the occupied area after the occupied area got its independence from colonial rule. Imperialism shares with colonialism certain assets of economic control of one geographical area over another, assets that get changed after decolonization. However, these assets are invariant both in colonial and post-colonial contexts (Patnaik, et. al., 2017: ix-x). Thus, it is understandable that imperialism not only dominates area/areas politically but also economically, therefore, there will be two social stratifications looked at from economic point of view: the dominator and the dominated people, the former has a great capital to build their economy/those with a lot of property/rich people, whilst, the latter are the majority people that sell their labor power to the capitalist/those with little property/poor people, due to which Marxism comes up. As a result of the stratification in society from economic point of view, the rich people, then, feels that she comes from economically poor family, she resists the offer. I strongly believe that Rose behaves in such a way that she refuses the house because she cannot live the way Patrick's parents live which is quite different from the way she lives with her parents that is appropriate to what Eliot states above that culture is the way of life of a specific people living together in one place that can be seen, one of which, in their habit (Milner, 2003:27). Rose's habit is quite different from Patrick's habit which Rose tries to drag Patrick into her habit in a matter of dwelling.
'"I don't want a house like that! I don't want to live like that!" "We'll live however you like. We'll have whatever kind of house you like." Provided it's not a dump, she thought nastily"' (Munro, 1978:73). Besides, Rose's worry of living with Patrick in the offered house is not without a reason. Instead of Patrick, Patrick's sister seems to humiliate Rose's social background. In addition, a difference in economy will trigger a class struggle as Dahrendorf states that if the condition of economy of people is different from that of other people, they will make their own class as they oppose the other one for their separation in their way of life, their education, as well as their interests (Dahrendorf, 1959:14). What Rose does by opposing Patrick's father's offer is a sort of class struggle because the way of life and the interests between Rose and Patrick's family are quite different from each other.
What Dahrendorf states above can be seen in the "the Hired Girl" within Alice Munro's The View from Castle Rock. In "the Hired Girl," the first person I is presented to be a girl who has maids in her parents' house "We called our maids hired girls," I added. "That was what we called them, at home" (Munro, 2006:148) but for a temporary time, she has to be hired in Mrs. Montjoy's house. As a matter of fact, she is reluctant to be called a maid, accordingly, she is in psychological conflict against her condition in a low profile way.
"Anybody could see why. To put myself somewhere near her level. As if that was possible. As if anything I had to say about myself or the house I came from could interest or impress her" (Munro, 2006:148). The quotation above implies that the first person I feels that she is lower in economy than her employer, therefore, what she can do to struggle against such a condition is through a low profile way because 'to put myself somewhere near her levelas if that was possible' meaning that she wants to be like Mrs. Montjoy but she cannot. Besides, she is aware that what she has at home will not attract Mrs. Montjoy.
Thus, the characters behave in a low profile way because there are differences in economic conditions; in "the Beggar Maid," Rose refuses the offer because she has undergone a bad treatment from Patrick's sister as will be explained in the factors. In "the Hired Girl," the first person I feels humiliated, though she has hired girls at home, because she cannot catch up with her employer's level of economy so she behaves in a low profile way.

Conclusion
From the analysis above, I draw to a conclusion that the characters do class struggle are through psychological conflicts: their being unbearable to the rich people, ignoring the rich people, and behaving in a low profile way.