Class Struggle As the Impact of Oppression Seen in Clifford Odets' Waiting for Lefty

CLASS STRUGGLE AS THE IMPACT OF OPPRESSION SEEN IN CLIFFORD ODETS’ WAITING FOR LEFTY: A MARXIST STUDY

AN UNDERGRADUATED THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

Hardian Putra Pratama Student Number: 054214066

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2010

CLASS STRUGGLE AS THE IMPACT OF OPPRESSION SEEN IN CLIFFORD ODETS’ WAITING FOR LEFTY: A MARXIST STUDY

AN UNDERGRADUATED THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters

Hardian Putra Pratama Student Number: 054214066

ENGLISH LETTERS STUDY PROGRAMME DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS SANATA DHARMA UNIVERSITY YOGYAKARTA 2010

IMAGINE [John Lennon]

Imagine there’s no heaven It’s easy if you try No hell below us Above us only sky Imagine all the people living for today

Imagine there’s no country It isn’t hard to do Nothing to kill or die for And no religion, too Imagine all the people living life in peace

Imagine no possession I wonder if you can No need for greed or hunger A brotherhood of man Imagine all the people sharing all the world

You may say I’m a dreamer But I’m not the only one I hope someday you’ll join us And the world may live as one

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Great praise I address to the Lord for everything I have in my life. My great gratitude goes to my parents, Bartolomeus Bul Hartomo Panditadi and Benedicta

Asteria Kristin Kumalawati, who can never stop supporting and asking about my thesis all over the time. I also thank to my brother, Bernardus Hardika Christiawan, and my sister, Fransiska Neny Kris Harmastuty for their enormous helps.

Great gratitude is sincerely addressed to Dewi Widyastuti, S.Pd., M. Hum. for her helpful guidance and advices so that I can go deeper to the analysis of this thesis.

I also would like to thank to my co-advisor, Tatang Iskarna, S.S., M. Hum who has given helpful suggestions and Drs. Hirmawan, M. Hum for the unforgettable thesis defense. I also would like to thank my academic advisor, Adventina Putranti, S.S. M.

Hum. who directs me during this years.

I would like to thank all of the 2005 lads for the unforgettable memories we experienced together. Especially for Yoseph Bayu, Yemima Aji, Buntara Adi a.k.a.

Pethux, Christian Budi, Bruno Mukti, Stephanus Wangsa, Ian, Elisabeth Ria, Galih

Asri, Cindy Abrams, Riana, Della Putri. I also would like to thank to the “Veterans”:

Adit 04, Wawan 04, Mbahe 04, Galeh 04, Silas 04, and Tony 04.

My special gratitude is sincerely addressed to Fransiska Chandra Leonita for the love, supports, and cares she gives. She is the great inspiration for me when I encounter a dead end.

v Last but not least, I would like to thank everyone who have given me supports and helps. I cannot mention their names one by one, but I will always remember their names.

Hardian Putra Pratama

vi TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE PAGE……………………………………………………...... i APPROVAL PAGE……………………………………………………… ii ACCEPTANCE PAGE………………………………………………...... iii MOTTO PAGE………………………………………………………….. iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS……………………………………………... v TABLE OF CONTENTS………………………………………………... vii ABSTRACT…………………………………………………………….... ix ABSTRAK………………………………………………………………... x

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION A. Background of the Study…...………………………………………….. 1 B. Problem Formulation…………..…………………………………….... 4 C. Objectives of the Study…………..……………………………………. 4 D. Definition of Terms……...…………………………………………….. 5

CHAPTER II: THEORETICAL REVIEW A. Review of Related Studies……..…….………………………………… 6 B. Review of Related Theories……………………………………………. 9 1. Theory of Character………………………………………………… 9 2. Theory of Characterization…………………………………………. 10 3. Theory of Marxism…………………………………………………. 12 a. Theory of Social Class……………………………………………. 14 b. Theory of Oppression………………………………………….... 15 c. Theory of Alienation……………………………………………... 17 d. Theory of Class Consciousness………………………………….. 21 e. Theory of Class Struggle…………………………………………. 23 C. Theoretical Framework……..…………………………………………. 24

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY A. Object of the Study………..…………………………………………... 26 B. Approach of the Study…..…………………………………………….. 27 C. Method of the Study……………………………………………………. 28

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS A. The Description of the Characters.………………………………….... 28 1. The Group of Proletariat………………………………………….. 30 2. The Group of Capitalists…………………………………………… 41 B. Oppression Experienced by the Oppressed Characters…………... 44 1. Economic Oppression……………………………………………… 46 2. Social Oppression………………………………………………….. 51 3. Legal Oppression………………………………………………….. 53 C. Class Struggle as the Impact of the Oppression…………………. 55 1. The Experience of Alienation……………………………………… 55 2. Liberating the Class Consciousness……………………………….. 63 3. The Class Struggle………………………………………………… 66

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CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION…………………………………………. 70

BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………... 72

viii

ABSTRACT

HARDIAN PUTRA PRATAMA. Class Struggle as the Impact of Oppression Seen in Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty: A Marxist Study. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Sanata Dharma University, 2009.

Class struggle is a collective effort of an oppressed class against the class that oppresses them. In this case, the proletariat against the capitalists. They conduct the class struggle because they want the welfare in their life. The study about class struggle is interesting to be discussed. All the people, regardless their class origin and their life background, are supposed to have the welfare. Through Waiting for Lefty, Clifford Odets tries to portray that situation. In order to get the main analysis of the study, the writer analyses the description of the characters that are divided into two main classes namely the proletariat and the capitalists. The next step is the writer analyses the oppression done by the capitalists toward the proletariat. Soon after that, the writer analyses the class struggle done by the proletariat. The writer uses library research method in this study. The writer uses book as the main source and internet as the supporting source. Theories which are applied in this study are theory of character, theory of characterization, and theory of Marxism that includes theory of social class, theory of oppression, theory of alienation, theory of class consciousness, and theory of class struggle. The writer uses Marxist approach to analyze the class struggle as the impact of oppression. The result of the analysis of this study shows that in the capitalism society, there are two main classes existing within. The former is the class of capitalist. The latter is the class of proletariat. The capitalists oppress the proletariat in order to gain the profit as much as possible. When the proletariat is getting miserable caused by the oppression done by the capitalists, they do the class struggle in order to gain the equal welfare with the capitalists. This class struggle is done after they experience some phases. The first phase is the alienation as the result of the oppression. Because of the oppression that results in the form of alienation keeps coming, they get the class consciousness as one united class tortured by another class, which is the class of capitalist. As an oppressed class, they feel that they have the same enemy so that they need to struggle to overthrow the oppressor class altogether. The influence of Marxism is obviously seen through the portrayal of class struggle done by the proletariat against the capitalists who crudely oppress them.

ix ABSTRAK

Class struggle adalah sebuah usaha kolektif dari sebuah kelas yang tertindas untuk melawan kelas yang menindas mereka. Dalam hal ini, kelas proletar melawan kelas kapitalis. Class struggle dilakukan karena mereka ingin mendapat kesejahteraan di dalam hidup mereka. Studi tentang class struggle sangat menarik untuk dibahas. Kesejahteraan selayaknya didapatkan oleh semua lapisan masyarakat tanpa mempedulikan asal kelas dan latar belakang hidup mereka. Lewat Waiting for Lefty, Clifford Odets berusaha menggambarkan keadaan tersebut. Untuk mendapatkan analisis utama studi ini, penulis menganalisis penggambaran para tokoh yang terbagi menjadi dua kelompok utama yaitu kelas proletar dan kelas kapitalis. Selanjutnya, penulis menganalisa tentang penindasan yang dilakukan oleh kelas kapitalis terhadap kelas proletar. Kemudian penulis menganalisis tentang class struggle yang dilakukan oleh kelas proletar. Penulis menggunakan metode penelitian pustaka di dalam studi ini. Penulis menggunakan sumber utama dari buku dan internet sebagai penunjang. Teori yang digunakan dalam buku ini adalah teori tentang tokoh, teori penokohan, dan teori Marxisme yang mencakup teori kelas sosial, teori penindasan, teori alienasi, teori class consciousness, dan teori class struggle. Penulis menggunakan pendekatan Marxist dalam menganalisis class struggle sebagai akibat dari penindasan. Hasil dari analisis menunjukkan bahwa di dalam masyarakat yang menganut sistem kapitalisme, ada dua kelas utama yang berada di dalamnya. Kelas pertama adalah kelas kapitalis. Kelas yang kedua adalah kelas proletar. Kelas kapitalis menindas kelas proletar karena mereka berkepentingan untuk mendapatkan untung sebanyak – banyaknya.. Ketika kelas proletar merasa penindasan yang dilakukan oleh kelas kapitalis membuat mereka menjadi sengsara, kelas proletar melakukan class struggle guna mendapatkan kesejahteraan yang sama dengan kelas kapitalis. Class struggle ini dilakukan setelah mereka mengalami beberapa tahap. Tahap pertama adalah penindasan yang berakibat pada timbulnya alienasi. Karena penindasan yang berakibat pada alienasi terus mendera, mereka mendapatkan class consciousness sebagai kesatuan kelas yang teraniaya oleh kelas lain, yaitu kelas kapitalis. Sebagai kelas yang tertindas oleh kelas lain yang berbeda dari kelas mereka, mereka merasa mempunyai musuh yang sama sehingga mereka perlu berjuang untuk menggulingkan kelas penindas secara bersama – sama. Pengaruh Marxisme sangat terlihat pada penggambaran class struggle yang dilakukan oleh kelas proletar melawan penindasan kejam kelas kapitalis.

x CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Literature is one of many creative ways to communicate with people.

Literary works become media to express the ideas of the author. It has several literary genres such as drama, poetry, and also novel. It becomes a significant part in human life because it may be used as a media to express our feeling, thought, and experiences to the others as Henry Hudson says:

Literature is a vital record of what men have seen in life, what they have experience of it, what they thought and felt those aspect of it, which have the most immediate and enduring interest all of us. It is thus fundamentally an expression of life through the medium of language (1958: 10).

In this case, the topic about class struggle as the impact of oppression by another class or people considered as the ruling class that is voiced in a work of literature is very interesting to be studied because it allows us to study about the feeling, thought, and experiences of the characters in the work of literature that lead them to the struggle against the ruling class.

Class struggle voiced in a literary work is closely related to the society in a real condition. When one class is oppressed by another class, class consciousness appears to lead the class struggle. In Formalism and Marxism by Tonny Bennet, a Marxist writer named George Lukacs argues that literary works have to voice class struggle in order to get real human freedom toward an unfair socio-economic production, or mode of production in terms of Marxism. Therefore, it has to be

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able to stimulate and awake class-consciousness, class of workers (Bennet,

1979: 39).

The writer chooses Clifford Odet’s drama entitled Waiting for Lefty as the literary work to be studied because some characters that are represented by the members of workers union, in this case taxi drivers union and their relations, represent the struggle of an oppressed class against the ruling class that is represented by the other characters which are the employer, his servant and also the industrialist.

By writing Waiting for Lefty, Odets tries to give a critical opinion toward the condition of society and economical life related to human rights. He stands behind an oppressed class that resists a fairness of life, in this case, the working class people represent by the group of taxi drivers. Odets defend against the oppression that is experienced by the labor especially in social and economical aspect caused by the arbitrariness of the employer and even despotism done by the government.

Odets uses the drama to criticize the society that is much related to the capitalism since ideology adopted by United States at that time is capitalism system. He was a member of Communist Party when he wrote the play, so there is a tendency to criticize capitalism system since it stands as the opponent of communism. As seen in Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels’ The Communist

Manifesto, what the bourgeoisie, therefore, produces, above all, is its own grave- diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable (1967: 94).

In this case, the bourgeoisie means the capitalist, according to Karl Marx and

Friedrich Engels, by bourgeoisie is meant the class of modern Capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labour (1967: 79).

The ideology of communism believed by Odets at that time gives a great influence to the play related to the struggle by the oppressed class against the ruling class. The ideology of communism itself tends to break the hegemony of capitalism as seen in Alan Ebenstein, William Ebenstein and Edwin Fogelman in their Today’s Isms :

Under capitalism, Marx argued in the Manuscripts, people are alienated from their work, the things thay produce, their employers, their fellow workers, themselves…Money is the most visible symbol and expression of alienation under capitalism…Marx postulating communism as the only solution to the human alienation engendered by capitalism (1994: 120- 121).

So, Odets offers the ideology he believes, which is communism, to the people that might be inspired by the play because the setting of time when he writes the play is known as the Great Depression Era when people in United

States in a depressed situation in facing economical problems as a result of economical crisis at that time. Thus, the play is closely related to the idea of

Marxism. The play also allows the writer to understand the humanistic value about welfare for people. The conflict faced by the taxi drivers is related to their economical life. In Waiting for Lefty, Odets describes the taxi drivers’ problem in their standard of living due to the small wages that they earn. While the industrialists exploit their employer because they think they have power over their employer. Proper wages should be given to all the workers in order to get the equality of welfare among the people. The people should deserve the rights they have to deserve in order to build a better community. Through the point of

equality of welfare that is demanded and struggled by the working class in the play, the writer feels the issues are very worthy to be studied. The writer hopes the study can give its contribution to the society in seeing the world in general, related to the equality of welfare that is supposed to be had by everyone without exception.

A. Problem Formulation

There are three problems that are raised in the analysis, they are:

1. How are the characters described?

2. How is the oppression experienced by the oppressed characters portrayed?

3. How is the class struggle as the impact of oppression portrayed?

B. Objectives of the Study

Based on the problem formulation, this study has several aims to be achieved. First, the writer analyzes the description of the characters. The characterization of the characters will be connected to the experience of oppression by the ruling class toward the lower class, in this case is the working class. The identification of oppression experienced by the characters through the characterization becomes the second aim of the writer. The third aim is to find out how the class struggle as the impact of oppression experienced by the oppressed characters can appear to the surface. Those three objectives of the study will give evidence about the unique characteristic of Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty in

arranging the expression of feeling through literary work that is closely connected with ideological perspective of Marxism.

D. Definition of Terms

In order to avoid the misunderstanding of the terms used in the study the writer feels important to give the definition of the terms.

1. Class Struggle

The term class struggle based on Henry B. Mayo’s Introduction to Marxist

Theory: the class struggle is the human or social expression of the conflict of economic forces. To be more accurate, it is, or should be, the conflict of economic forces with legal forms (1960: 93).

2. Marxism

According to Peter Barry in his Beginning Theory, An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory, Marxism sees progress as coming about through the struggle for power between different social classes. This view of history as class struggle

(rather than as, for instance, a succession of dynasties, or as a gradual progress towards the attainment of national identity and sovereignty) regards it as

“motored” by the competition for economic, social, and political advantage (2002:

157).

CHAPTER II

THEORETICAL REVIEW

This chapter provides some reviews related to the work of literature and also some theories relevant to support the analysis on the topic discussed in this thesis. The reviews and theories will be arranged into two subchapters. Firstly, review of related studies that contain some criticism and comments about the work of literature. While the second subchapter consists of some theories used to analyze the topic.

A. Review of Related Studies

Waiting for Lefty is considered as the most remarkable work of literature written by Clifford Odets. It represents the condition of the Great Depression Era in the United States where so many strikes happened at that time. As written in

Paul Reuben’s review in his article entitled PAL: Perspectives in American

Literature- A Research and Reference Guide perhaps the most popular play Odets wrote in the thirties was Waiting For Lefty. Harold Clurman, one of Odets’ influences, said, “[the play] was the birth cry of the thirties.” The play itself, as

Murray says, “was inspired by the New York taxi strike of February, 1934, [yet]

Odets, according to his testimony in Washington, had ‘never been near a strike’(www.csustan.edu/english/reuben/pal/chap8/odets.html).

Many people are influenced by Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty. Though it represents the banality of the Great Depression Era, but it still gets its

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appreciation. While in a review entitled Waiting for Lefty: a depression-era opus written by Carol DeMartino, an Assistant of an Art Editor, published in The

Lamron, 24 October 2003 Waiting for Lefty is considered as a prevalent drama in the Great Depression Era but it has a strong influence to the people concerning the spirit of struggle in demanding their rights, fight against the oppressors.

This past weekend, Clifford Odets’ play “Waiting for Lefty” was performed in the Black Box Theatre. Presented through Veg S.O.U.P. and directed by Tara Williams, this play dealt with a New York City cabdriver strike that occurred during the Great Depression. The play originally opened in 1935 to a forty-five minute long-standing ovation. The fervor of the working-class characters meshed with the general spirit of economic discontentment present in America at that time, which led to an instant smash hit. While these sentiments may not be as overwhelmingly prevalent today, the play still has the power to remind people of a very important struggle between working-class and big business (www.geneso.edu/~lamron/showarticle.php?id=170).

From the article above, the fact that Waiting for Lefty still gets high appreciation is clearly revealed because it is still performed in the modern theater although the play brings the sentiment of the Great Depression Era which is economical problem. The spirit of struggle excerpted from Odets’ Waiting for

Lefty is the one that attracts the people to perform and to watch the play on the theatre.

The spirit of class struggle is highlighted by Clifford Odets in describing the actual event about the taxi drivers strike in New York. It is depicted through the representation of the class-consciousness experienced by the taxi drivers that leads to the mass action in demanding the rights they have to deserve. The idea of striking action is used by Odets in representing the solution of the conflict in the play. As Barnet said in his book Types of Drama:

Written in white heat in three days, was based on contemporary event, a recent taxicab strike that had inconvenienced New York. But rather than document the actual labor disturbance, Odets used the idea of a strike as a theatrical metaphor (2001: 766).

Waiting for Lefty is considered as propaganda of the Communism since

Odets is known as a member of Communist Party in the United States which known as a capitalist State when he writes it. As a member of the party, he has to spread the ideology of the party that he believes in. Instead of got bad criticisms, his play reached its famous that led Odets to the American playwright’s hall of fame. As Lauter wrote:

“It was quite clearly written in response to the urging of Odets’ Communist friends(Odets had joined the party for his bried dalliance in the fall of 1934)…Even when the play was condemned as mere propaganda, it managed to crate enough of a stir the enhance the young playwright’s reputation ( 1994 : 1787).

The consistency of Clifford Odets as an author that always resists and struggle against the capitalism is also seen in review written in The New Yorker article. Odets’s plays showed a way for the next generation of playwrights to combine linear movement with psychological complexity and depth. He brought a new demotic music to stage speech. His subject was always the struggle of the heartbroken American soul under capitalism

(http://www.newyorker.com/archive/2006/04/17/060417crat_atlarge).

The focus of the study in this thesis is the spirit of Karl Marx’s idea of class struggle as the impact of oppression portrayed in Clifford Odets’ Waiting for

Lefty. Thus, the writer focuses on the special characteristic of the Leftist author that somehow has a tendency to attach Karl Marx’s ideas in his literary works.

However, the study about class struggle as the impact of oppression in this thesis

is quite different from other studies because the writer acts as a Marxist, so in regard the other theories, the perspective of Marxism as the main point to reveal the class struggle is applied in the thesis.

A. Review of Related Theories

In order to do the analysis in this study, the writer uses several theories that will support the analysis.

1. Theory of Character

According to Barry in his The Doubleday Pictorial Library of the Arts,

Man’s Creative Imagination, there are two kinds of characters based on the basis of importance. They are major and minor characters. The major character is the focus of the story, or in another word, the story is about this character.

However, the major character cannot stand by himself. There must be another character to make the story convincing. Here, the major character needs minor one (1974: 71). In A Glossary of Literary Terms written by M.H. Abrams, the characters are the persons described in a literary work, who have moral and natural qualities that can be identified by seeing what they say as in the dialogue and what they do in as the action (1981: 23). To understand what the characters say and act is very important in analyzing the character because through the analysis of what the characters say and act in a literary work, we can go further in doing the analysis on the characterization of the characters. Mario Klarer in his An Introduction to Literary Studies argues that characters in a text can be rendered either as types or as individuals. A typified character in literature is

dominated by one specific trait and is referred to as a flat character. The term round character usually denotes a persona with more complex and differentiated features (1999: 17).

2. Theory of Characterization

In doing the characterization Hugh Holman in his A Handbook to

Literature: Fifth Edition writes that characterization can be done in three ways.

The first is the explicit presentation, which means that the author gives direct exposition of the characters so that the readers can grasp directly the characteristics of the character that are already certain. The second is the presentation of character in action, which means there is no explicit comment by the author, and the readers examine the characters’ characteristic by seeing the action of the characters. The last is the representation from within a character,

“without comment on the character by the author, of the impact of actions and emotions on the characters inner self” (1986: 83).

According to Murphy in his Understanding Unseens; An Introduction to

English Poetry and English Novels for Overseas Students (1972: 161-173) there are nine ways to make the characters easier to be understood that the authors usually use: a. Personal Description

The author can explain a character from his physical appearance such as his body or his clothes.

b. Character as Seen by Another

The author can describe a character by using the perspective of the other characters.

c. Speech

The character can be described through speech done by the character or what the characters says. Whenever a person speaks, whenever he or she is in conversation with the other characters, whenever he or she puts forward an opinion, he or she is giving the reader some clues to his or her character.

d. Past Life

By letting the readers know about the character past life, the author can give some clues to the readers to understand the character itself. This can be done by the direct comment of the author, a character’s thought, his or her conversation and also through the medium of other person.

e. Conversation of Others

The readers can understand a character by noticing conversations of the other characters and the things they say about him or her. f. Reaction

The readers can get to know the characteristics of a character in his or her reaction to various situations and events because every reaction shows the character’s tendency.

g. Direct Comment

In direct comment, the author gives comments or personal opinion directly to the character he creates.

h. Thoughts

The author can show the characteristics of a character by using thought of a character. If the readers are subjectively involved in the character’s thought, they can easily understand the personalities and the position of a character, as if they are the character itself.

i. Mannerisms

The author can describe the character’s mannerisms, habits, or idiosyncrasies to let the readers understand the characteristics of a character.

3. Theory of Marxism

Marxism is known as a theory that is developed by Karl Marx with some helps by his closest friend, Friedrich Engels. It concerns about the condition of society related to the struggle of the people in society. In the field of Marxism, the struggle is known as class struggle, one of the many theories developed by Karl

Marx. Karl Marx and Frederick Engels state in their The Communist Manifesto about class struggle:

The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle. Free man and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and

journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes (1967: 79).

The polarization of the two different classes emerges the class struggle of one class against the other. In the Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory (2nd edition) Peter Barry writes, the aim of Marxism is to bring about a classless society, based on the common ownership of the means of production, distribution, and exchange. Marxism sees progress as coming about the struggle for power between different social classes. This view of history of class struggle (rather than as, for instances a succession of dynasties, or as a gradual progress towards the attainment of national identity and sovereignty) regards it as “motored” by the competition for economic, social, and political advantage. The exploitation of one social class by another is seen especially in modern industrial capitalism, particularly in its unrestricted nineteenth-century form (2002: 156-157). In his Class Structure and Social Transformation, Berch

Berbeglu writes that Marx and Engels stressed that such an analysis must be placed within the framework of the dynamics of social change in the world historical process and that in this context the crucial task is to identify and examine the primary motive force of social transformation that defines the parameters of societal development: class struggle (1994: 19). Since this thesis concerns about the class struggle as the impact of oppression, so the writer decides to use the five of many theories in Marxism, which are the theories of

social class, oppression, alienation, class consciousness, and also class struggle itself.

a. Theory of Social Class

In An Encyclopedic Dictionary of Marxism, Socialism, and Communism by Jozef Wilczynski, class is defined as a basic Marxist concept for a large social group, indicating its relation to the means of production, thus reflecting its source and level of income and its attitude to the social system in force (1981: 78). In

Gary Day’s Class, Marx called the class who owned the means of production the bourgeoisie and the class who sold their labour power the proletariat. According to Marx, the interests of these two classes were fundamentally opposed since the bourgeoisie, in order to make a profit, paid the workers the lowest possible wage while demanding that they attain the highest level of productivity (2001: 7).

According to Nicolai Bukharin in his book entitled Historical

Materialism: A Sociological Study, he defines social class as the aggregate of persons playing the same part in production, standing in the same relation toward other persons in the production process, these relations being also expressed in things (instrument of labor) (1969: 276). In other words, the members of a social class consist of persons who share the same relation to certain persons, for example the textile factory workers and the shoe factory workers are in a same social class because they bear the same relation to certain persons which are the owners of the factory (capitalists) that control their work in the factory. Similarly, the owners of textile and shoe factory (capitalists) are in a same social class

because they occupy a common position with regard to the persons engaged in the process of production, which position is also expressed in things, in this case, capital. Here it is sufficient to emphasize that for Marx the theory of class was not a theory of cross section of society arrested in time, in particular not a theory of social stratification, but a tool for the explanation of changes in total societies

(1966: 19).

In Ralf Dahrendorf’s Class and Class Conflict in Industrial Society, it is written that the determinant of classes is “property”. Property, however, must not be understood in terms of purely passive wealth, but as an effective force of production, as “ownership of means of production” and its denial to others (1966:

20-21). Therefore, the possession of property as a means of production determines the classification of people in certain society. The people who have means of production will be classified as the upper class, while those who do not have any means of production will be placed in the lower class. In Alan

Swingewood’s Marx and Modern Social Theory, Marx and Engels assert that our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses … this distinctive feature: it has simplified the class antagonism. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other:

Bourgeoisie and Proletariat (1975: 115).

b. Theory of Oppression

Oppression is a widely used – and misused – term. Marxists, social democrats and some liberals all agree that something called “oppression” exists;

that certain groups in society do not enjoy the full legal, political or economic rights enjoyed by others (www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/gayleft/towardstheory.rtf).

However, oppression of a group towards another group will take place if a group named as the oppressor that has power to the other group named as the oppressed, uses its power to exploit and treat them wrong concerning its superiority.

As written in International Encyclopedia of Ethics by John K. Roth, there are as many names for the varieties of oppression as there are for the categories of target and dominant groups based, for example, on race (racism), ethnicity or patriotism (ethnocentrism, chauvinism, imperialism, xenophobia), biological sex

(sexism, misogyny), sexual orientation or identity (homophobia, biphobia, heterosexism), economic status (classism), age (ageism), and mental and physical ability (ableism) (1995: 632). Thus, the form of each oppression is different one another because the oppressor and the oppressed group is also different. This does not mean that all groups experience forms of oppression similarly. The experiences of victims of racism, for example, are not identical to those of the victims of homophobia. The forms of oppression, however, run parallel and at points intersect. All involve negative prejudgments whose purpose is to maintain control or power over others. Oppression can be the result of a deliberate, conscious act, or it may be unconscious and unintentional yet still have oppressive consequences (1995: 632).

oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones (Marx & Engels, 1967:

80). By modern bourgeois society, it means the capitalism society since by bourgeois is meant the class of modern Capitalists, owners of the means of social production and employers of wage labor (1967: 79). Therefore, the conditions of oppression are existed in capitalism society where the setting of the play takes place. As written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, hitherto, every form of society has been based, as we have already seen, on the antagonism of oppressing and oppressed class (1967: 93). Ralf Dahrendorf writes that an oppressed class is the condition of existence of every society based on class conflict. Thus the liberation of the oppressed class necessarily involves the creation of a new society. The history of all societies up to the present is the history of class struggles (1966: 18). The quotations above emphasize the basic point of Marxism which is about class struggle that causes the changing of the society, especially the struggle to form a new society that is free from exploitation and oppression.

c. Theory of Alienation

Despite its popularity in the analysis of contemporary life, the idea of alienation remains an ambiguous concept with elusive meanings, the following variants being most common:

(1) Powerlessness, the feeling that one's destiny is not under one's own control but is determined by external agents, fate, luck, or institutional arrangements,

(2) Meaninglessness, referring either to the lack of comprehensibility or consistent meaning in any domain of action (such as world affairs or interpersonal relations) or to a generalized sense of purposelessness in life,

(3) Normlessness, the lack of commitment to shared social conventions of behaviour (hence widespread deviance, distrust, unrestrained individual competition, and the like)

(4) Cultural estrangement, the sense of removal from established values in society

(as, for example, in intellectual or student rebellions against conventional institutions),

(5) Social isolation, the sense of loneliness or exclusion in social relations (as, for example, among minority group members)

(6) Self-estrangement, perhaps the most difficult to define and in a sense the master theme, the understanding that in one way or another the individual is out of touch with himself.

Perhaps the most famous use of the term was by Marx, who spoke of alienated labour under capitalism: work was compelled rather than spontaneous and creative; workers had little control over the work process; the product of labour was expropriated by others to be used against the worker; and the worker himself became a commodity in , the labour market. Alienation consisted of the fact that workers did not gain fulfillment from work

(http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/15408/alienation).

In his International Encyclopedia of Ethics, John K. Roth writes that in the

Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts (1844), Marx specified four forms of

alienation in the section entitled “Alienated Labor”. The first form of alienation is the separation between the laborer and the product of labor. Alienation occurs because the object, as the realization of the life activity of the worker under capitalism, does not belong to labor. Therefore, the loss of the object represents the loss reality to the worker (1995: 26). Thus, the worker is alienated from the product of his labor. It means that the worker cannot fully gain the product he produces. He produces something for someone else, other than himself. In Views on Capitalism, Richard Romano and Melvin Leiman writes that: when the individual feels that the good or service he helps produce neither reflects his personal contribution through its properties and attributes nor contributes to his welfare either personally or through those with whom he has bonds of community, the goal of his work activities becomes meaningless and absurd: he is alienated from his product (1975: 377).

The second form of alienation is the alienation of a worker from the act of production. If the result of production is alienation, then the process is also alienating. The case that the worker is alienated from the product he produces causes the condition of alienated worker in the act of production. In productive activity, the worker becomes self-alienated because the labor is the life-activity of the worker. Rather than becoming self-affirming activity, work becomes self- denying activity. Rather than becoming the satisfaction of a need for human self- fulfillment, work becomes only a means to satisfy the basic needs of human survival (Roth, 1995: 26). A worker is alienated from the act of production because he is powerless to determine the nature of work roles that regulate over

his life. It means that the worker is forced to produce the products. Thus, the life- activity of the worker is merely to fulfill his needs for surviving in life.

The third form of alienation is that of alienation from species-being

(society, social consciousness) (Roth, 1995: 26). In other words, alienation from the society he or she lives within. The roles open to the individual allowing him to relate his social community are among the most central to his welfare and personal development, and they define his contact with social life. Aside from his work and his basic living and consumption unit –be it nuclear family or more extended commune- social community is the most important potential contribution to his well-being. Yet when his community is ugly, vast, and impersonal and through its fragmented and impotent role structure it fails to provide adequate personal outlets, the individual becomes estranged from his community (Romano and Leiman, 1975: 376-377).

The last form of alienation is the estrangement between the self and the other. Each person is equally estranged from his or her true human essence (Roth,

1995: 26). We are alienated from ourselves when we are not what we really could be –when we cannot love, play, run, work, spiritualize, relate, create, empathize, or aid as much as our potential allows (Romano and Leiman, 1975: 377). In capitalism society, the workers cannot do what they want to do because the capitalists have power over them. They control the life of the workers, so what the workers do is just the expression of losing their essence as a human.

d. Theory of Class Consciousness

According to Jozef Wilczynski, class consciousness is described as the awareness and understanding by members or groups of a particular layer of society belonging to a distinct social class (1981: 78). Theory of class consciousness becomes one of many theories that are emphasized in Marxism.

The concept is Marxist in origin, expounded particularly by Engels and Lenin who stressed a need for the development of an antagonistic class consciousness of the proletariat against the bourgeoisie. In this context, class consciousness involves:

1. Realization amongst the workers that they constitute a distinct and fraternal social class, both nationally and internationally, and separate from the rest of society.

2. The workers’ pride in their belonging to the largest class, united by common problems and a struggle for the just cause

3. The conviction that the interests of the proletariat are irreconcilably opposed to those of the bourgeoisie, against which the workers must unite and fight to ensure social justice and to achieve a classless society (1981: 78).

Therefore, class consciousness related with Marxism becomes a significant requirement to do the class struggle. The common interest, which is to achieve the social justice and the common experience, which is the feeling of oppression done by the capitalists elaborate in each workers’ idea. Thus, they unite as one class that share the same interests and form a class struggle as the impact of oppression in order to achieve their final goal which is social justice.

There are two stages of the development of class consciousness adopted in

Marxism. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels adopted the concepts of class “in itself” and class “for itself” proposed by the Hegelian. As written by Jozef Wilczynski, class “in itself” and class “for itself” are Hegelian concepts adapted and used in classical Marxist terminology (especially by Marx and Engels) to describe two stages of the development of class consciousness among the working class. The former indicates the earlier stage, when workers become aware of their grievances against capitalists. If they take any action, it is directed against individual employers, not capitalists as a class. In the second stage, class “for itself”, workers become conscious of their class identity (as the proletariat) and the unbridgeable antagonism that divides them from the class of capitalists (bourgeoisie) (1981:

79). The earlier stage described as class “in itself”, the workers get their consciousness after they experience the oppression done by their own employers.

As the result, they act to fight the oppression merely because they see their employers not as a group of oppressors. The direct action to the employers as the individual described as the stage of class “in itself” soon followed by the stage of class “for itself”. The latter stage is obtained when the workers are fully conscious that their society consists of two classes, which are proletariat and capitalists.

Those two classes stand on each pole that is totally different, so they are in the middle of antagonism atmosphere. Thus, the workers act further –as a class- demanding their rights against the class of capitalists that act as oppressors.

e. Theory of Class Struggle

Introduction to Marxist Theory, the idea of class struggle did not, as we know, originate with Marx. Many people before him had recognized its existence and non-Marxist today subscribe to a modified person of the idea, at least in its application to some countries. But only Marx made it the mainspring of history

(1960: 93).

Jozef Wilczynski writes that class struggle is one of the cornerstones of

Marxist ideology, explaining the course of history in terms of the struggle between conflicting social classes in antagonistic socio-economic formations

(slavery, feudalism and especially capitalism) (1981: 80). The struggle done by the proletariat as the oppressed class against the capitalists as the oppressors become a significant theory in Marxism. The conflict between those two classes brings the struggle up to the surface.

Marxism views the class struggle as an expression of dialectical materialism, where contradictions between classes lead to a struggle which is resolved in a synthesis, the process repeating itself as production forces change.

The class owning the means of production utilizes the State, equipped with

instruments of oppression, to maintain its rule over the exploited class. This rule

and exploitation are opposed by the oppressed class in primarily two spheres:

1. Economic: A struggle for the improvement of the conditions of work and a

change in the principle governing the distribution of the fruits of labour.

2. Political: A struggle for the seizure and maintenance of political power

(Wilczynski ,1981:80).

D. Theoretical Framework

The contribution of theories is extremely needed in order to answer the

problems mentioned. Thus, the review of related studies is needed to add some

more information about critics and comments on Waiting for Lefty. The review of

related theories will accompany the review of related studies to give a deeper

understanding about the study. The elaboration of review of related studies and

review of related theories helps the writer to find out the answer of the problem

formulated previously.

Since the topic is about class struggle, several theories included in

Marxism are used in analysis section. Those theories are theories of social class,

oppression, alienation, class consciousness, and also class struggle itself. All of

those theories are the basic theories in Marxism. Since the writer uses Marxist

approach, those theories are very important. To analyze the play and to answer

problems mentioned in Chapter I, the writer will analyze the character and the

characterization in the play. Later, from the analysis of the character and the

characterization, the writer will analyze how the oppression experienced by the characters. Finally, the writer will find out the portrayal of class struggle that can be found in the play by using the theories found in the Marxism, including theory of social class, theory of oppression, theory of alienation, theory of class consciousness, and theory of class struggle.

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

A. Object of The Study

The object of this study is Clifford Odets’ play entitled Waiting for

Lefty. Waiting for Lefty is originally written by Clifford Odets in 1935. It is included in The Heath Anthology of American Literature, 2nd edition by Paul

Lauter. D.C. Heath and Company which is located in Lexington, the United

States of America publishes it in 1994. Waiting for Lefty is known as the only

Odets’ play to employ such devices as direct address to the audience and placing actors in the auditorium, a different technique of play performance at that time. Odets’ Waiting for Lefty is also considered as a tool for the propaganda of his Communism ideology because the plot of the play tells about how the strike done by working-class people somehow becomes a solution of the era when he writes it that is known as Great Depression.

Odets’ Waiting for Lefty tells about the self-consciousness of the working-class, in this case the taxi drivers, that leads them to the working-class struggle because the feeling of disagree to the way their boss doing their business that makes them feel oppressed. The organization that is formed by the working-class becomes a tool to manage the struggle. Although they doubt the revolution at the very first time, but they finally do the struggle in order to reclaim their rights.

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B. Approach of the Study

In order to find out the analysis of class struggle in this study, the writer uses Marxist approach. Marxist approach is used because Marxism has a great concern toward class struggle, which becomes the topic of this study. As written by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels in their The Communist Manifesto, the history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle (1967: 80).

Thus, attention toward class struggle as the one that becomes a significant factor which creates society is highlighted in Marxism.

The concern about contradiction of classes live within society becomes another reason why Marxist approach is very appropriate in this study.

Raymond Williams in his Marxism and Literature writes that Marxism extended the definition of rule or domination to relations between social classes, and especially to definitions of a ruling class (1977: 108). Rien T. Segers writes about the Marxist’s concern toward social class in his The Evaluation of

Literary Texts. Marxist approach wants to reveal the contradiction in social classes. It considers literature has a political power, as a record of class struggle.

The focus of Marxist approach is on the text as a representation of social attitudes, and as a product of socio-economic and historical factors (1978: 69).

In Beginning Theory: An Introduction to Literary and Cultural Theory written by Peter Barry, Marxism sees progress as coming about through the struggle for power between different social classes. The view of history as class struggle

(rather than as, for instance, a succession of dynasties, or as a gradual progress towards the attainment of national identity and sovereignty) regards it as

“motored” by the competition for economic, social, and political advantage

(2002: 157). Thus, the use of Marxist approach to analyze the class struggle as the impact of oppression in Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty will help the writer to have a deeper analysis.

C. Method of the Study

In doing the analysis of the study, the writer uses library research instead of field research because the research is more suitable since the data to support the analysis are available in the form of textbooks. The most important data source used in this study are taken from library because the books from library contain much information that are very helpful to the writer in doing the analysis of the study, The second data source are taken from the internet in order to complete some of the first data that are incomplete.

The writer used systematic steps to do the analysis. The first was the writer read the play script repeatedly in order to get further understanding about the play itself. Second, the writer collected all the data to support the analysis so that the problem formulation could be stated. The primary data are collected from the books, while the secondary data are collected from the internet. Third, the writer used the theories that were collected as data to answer the problem formulation as the main analysis of the study. Fourth, the writer answered the problems formulated using the theories that had been collected as the main analysis of this study. And finally, the writer did the conclusion to get the summary of the study.

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

This chapter contains the answers of the problems formulated previously.

This chapter consists of three big parts. The first part is about the characterization of the characters in the play. The second part is about the experience of oppression felt by the characters. The third part is discussed about the portrayal of the class struggle as the impact of oppression that appears in the play.

A. The Description of the Characters

In Waiting for Lefty by Clifford Odets, basically the characters can be placed in the two groups. The first group is the proletariat, while the second is the capitalists. The first mentioned group is a bundle of characters that consist of the people who feel the experience of oppression. The latter consists of characters that can be considered as the oppressor. Since the study is considered as a Marxist study that concerns about the existence of classes in society, those two groups are considered as the two main classes in the society. The polarization of the characters into two classes will be the main focus of the analysis in this subchapter.

The writer elaborates the theory of characterization proposed by Hugh

Holman and M.J. Murphy in describing the characters. By using Hugh Holman’s theory, the writer analyses the description of the characters by identifying the utterances spoken and action done by the characters, the description given by the author, and the representation from within the characters. By using M.J. Murphy’s

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theory, the writer can analyze the description of the characters through the identification given by the author in nine ways. Those are personal description, character as seen by another, speech, past life, conversation of others, reaction, direct comment, thoughts, and mannerisms.

The writer classifies the characters into two groups. Therefore the analysis of the characters in this subchapter will also be divided into two parts.

1. The Group of Proletariat a. Joe

This character appears for the very first time in the Opening Scene.

Clifford Odets does not depict this character physically. He is a father who loves his family very much. He is involved in the union committee membership that insists to do a strike. As a father who has to be responsible to feed his family, he feels that the wage of the job as a taxi driver is not sufficient for the life of his family. Although he is condemned as a red boy that refers to the Communist, he is not afraid to do a strike in order to raise the economic life of his family. He believes that the only way to the welfare is just the strike, regardless everything spoken by anyone who against the strike. It is clear that Joe is a confident man. It can be seen when Joe, as a member of the committee of the union, firstly speak about the benefit of the strike in front of the other members.

Joe: You boys know me. I ain’t a red boy one bit! Here I’m carryin a shrapnel that big I picked up in the war. And maybe I do not know it when it rains! Do not tell me red! You know what we are? The black and blue boys! We been kicked around so long we’re black and blue from head to toes. But I guess anyone who says straight out he do not like it, he’s a red boy to the leaders of the union. What’s this crap about goin’ home to hot suppers? I’m asking to your faces how many’s got hot suppers to go home to? Anyone who’s sure of his

next meal, raise your hand! A certain gent sitting behind me can raise them both. But not in front of here! And that’s we’re talking strike-to get a living wage! (Odets, 1994: 1789).

In regard to the persuasive action to do the strike acted by Joe, at the first time Joe feels that the doubt to do the strike is surrounding his head. He is not a brave man by nature. He gets the consciousness and the confidence from his wife,

Edna. In this case, he can be included in the round character category. He speaks about his experience when he gets the consciousness and the confidence in front of the members of the union to persuade them to do a strike.

Joe: …Unless fighting for a living scares you. We gotta make up our minds. My wife made up my mind last week, if you want the truth. It’s the plain as the nose on Sol Feinberg’s face we need a strike. There’s us comin’ home every night-eight, ten hours on the cab. “God,” the wife says, “eighty cents ain’t money-do not buy bean almost. You’re workin for me or the family no more!” She says to me, “If you do not start…” (Odets, 1994: 1789).

Although he is unsure about the strike whether it is going to succeed or not, he decides to go on it. He does everything in order to make his family get out from the poverty. Joe is a kind of father who has a great responsibility to his family.

b. Edna

As mentioned previously, Edna is Joe’s wife. This character can be found in the Scene I, the Opening Scene. She is described as a tired but attractive woman of thirty. She is the one who successfully makes Joe becomes confident to do the strike. The experience of her family’s poverty becomes a massive influence to Edna’s life. She gets desperate because of the condition of the family.

Edna : …You got two blondie kids sleeping in the next room. They need food and clothes. I’m not mentioning anything else-But we’re stalled like a flivver in the snow. For five years I laid awake at night listening to my heart pound. For God’s sake, do something Joe, get wise… (Odets, 1994: 1790-1791).

After being captured by the desperation, she finally threatens to leave Joe for her old boyfriend. A husband will think twice if he is threatened to be left by his wife. Nevertheless, the act of threatening done by Edna is merely as a result of her desperation. It is just a horde of words that burns the spirit of Joe to improve their economic condition. She does not want to leave her husband in truth because in the end of the Scene I, Edna is directed to stand triumphant after Joe decides to do the strike as a result of Edna’s words. In this case, Edna can be described as a stone-headed woman because she viciously insists her husband to do the strike, otherwise she threatens to leave him.

Edna: Do not you remember my old boy friend? Joe: Who? Edna: Bud Haas. He still has my picture in his watch. He earns living. Joe: What the hell you are talking about? Edna: I heard worse than I’m talking about. Joe: Have you seen Bud since we got married? Edna: Maybe. Joe: If I thought…(He stands looking at her.) Edna: See much? Listen, boyfriend, if you think I won’t do this it just means you can’t see straight. Joe: Stop talking bull. Edna: This isn’t five years ago, Joe. Joe: You mean you’d leave me and the kids? Edna: I’d leave you like a shot! (Odets, 1994: 1793).

Edna is brave woman. She demands a better life from her husband ferociously. As a woman, she dares to force her husband to do what she wants.

She can force her husband to do a strike by expelling all the words that eventually succeed changes her husband’s mind.

Edna: I do not say one man! I say a hundred, a thousand, a whole million, I say. But start in your union. Get those hack boys together! Sweep out those racketeer like a pile of dirt! Stand up like men and fight for the crying kids and wives. Goddamnit! I’m tired of slavery and sleepless nights.

Joe (with her): Sure, sure!.. (Odets, 1994: 1793).

c. Miller

This character appears in the Lab Assistant Episode. Miller was a lab assistant who worked for an industrialist named Fayette before he works as a taxi driver. He is a talented and idealist young man who likes a sobriety in his life. He is trusted by Fayette, an industrialist who admires Miller’s talent and sobriety, but not Miller’s idealistic principle. He got fired from the previous job because he refuses to do an illegal job which is making poison gas and spying. It is clear that he just wants to run positive and legal job, so he rejects the job. This job is ordered by Fayette who argues that the poison gas is going to be used in the new war. Fayette also asks Miller to do a spying job related to the poison gas making.

Despite the bigger wage paid by Fayette, Miller stands still on his view.

Fayette: I want to know what progress he’s making, the reports to be purely confidential-between you and me. Miller : You mean I’m to watch him? Fayette : Yes! Miller : I guess I can’t do that… Fayette : Thirty a month raise… Miller: You said twenty… Fayette: Thirty! Miller : Guess I’m not built that way. Fayette : Forty… Miller : Spying’s not in my line, Mr. Fayette! Fayette : You use ugly words, Mr. Miller! Miller : For ugly activity? Yes! Fayette : Think about it, Miller. Your chances are excellent… Miller : No. (Odets, 1994: 1795).

From the dialogue above, it can be concluded that Miller has no intense concern to money. It is strongly related to his idealistic principle. Miller is a kind of man who concerns about people in general, and family in particular. The experience of losing some relatives strengthens his will to not granting the request to do a negative job.

Miller: They say 12 million men were killed in that last one and 20 million more wounded or missing. Fayette:That’s not our worry. If big business went sentimental over human life there wouldn’t be big business of any sort! Miller : My brother and two cousins went in the last one. Fayette: They died in a good cause. Miller: My mother says “no!” (Odets, 1994: 1794).

Lastly, Miller chooses to lose his job rather than does something he does not agree. Miller is a kind of man who has a strong principle. He also dares to argue with someone else if there is a different opinion in between, although his position is lower than the person he argues with.

Fayette : You understand the consequences? Miller : I lose my raise- Miller : And my job! Simultaneously Fayette : And your job! Miller : You misunderstand- Miller : Rather dig ditches first! (Odets, 1994: 1795).

d. Flor

The character named Flor comes up in the Scene III, the Young Hack and

His Girl Scene. She is a woman who is unable to get married because of the poverty that exists within her family and also her fiance who works as a taxi driver. She thinks that she is not living her own life because she has a

responsibility to take care of her family, especially her mother who is sick. She is a hard worker to the family. This can be seen in her conversation with her brother named as Irv.

Irv : If you thought more about Mom it would be better. Flor : Do not I take care of her every night when I come home? Do not I cook supper and iron your shirts and…you give me a pain in the neck, too. Do not try to shut me up! I bring a few dollars in the house, too. Do not you see I want something else out of life? Sure, I want romance, love, and babies. I want everything in life I can get (Odets, 1994: 1796).

Although she wants to catch her own dream in life, but she still concerns about the condition of the family. She also tries to feed the family and take care of her mother. She is responsible to the family. The poverty that surrounds Flor makes her unable to do anything for her own happiness, which is to marry the man she loves. Despite the feeling of sad because of the inability to get married, she still loves her fiancé. She does not care about anything but the marriage. She is an optimist on the one hand, but also ignoramus on the other hand. She does not think what will happen next when she had marriage, but does not have sufficient money for the family.

Flor (in a burst): Sid, I’ll go with you-we’ll get room somewhere. Sid : Naw…they’re right. If we can’t climb higher than this together- we better stay part. Flor : I swear to God I wouldn’t care (Odets, 1994: 1799).

e. Sid

This character can be found in the Scene III, along with the previous character, Flor . Sid is Flor’s fiance who is desperate. He works as a taxi driver.

He feels like he is a man who lives as nothing. His words are often humiliating

himself. In fact, he considers himself as a rat poison and a dog (Odets, 1994:

1797-1798). They have been engaged for three years, but still, they cannot marry because they do not have enough money. He thinks that the people cannot live properly if they have no money. As seen from the dialogue between Sid and Flor below, it can be concluded that Sid is a pessimistic man. He also has a negative thought.

Sid : But that sort of life ain’t for the dogs which is us. Christ, Baby! I get like thunder in my chest when we’re together. If we went off together I could maybe look the world straight in the face, spit in its eye like a man should do. God-damnit, it is trying to be a man on the earth. Two in life together. Flor : But something wants us to be lonely like that-crawling alone in the dark. Or they want us trapped. Sid : Sure, the big shot money men want us like that. Flor : Highly insulting us- (Odets, 1994: 1794).

In fact, he decides to break off his engagement with Flor because he cannot earn enough money to support their life when they get married. He does not want to see Flor lives in a bad condition when they live together. He is willing to give up the engagement that has been run for a long time without any effort to fix things right. Thus, Sid can be described as man who easily gives up. This can be seen in the dialogue below.

Sid : Hello, Babe. Flor : Hello. (For a brief time they stand as though in a dream.) Sid (finally): Good-bye, Babe. (He waits for an answer, but she is silent. They look at each other.) Sid : Did you ever see my Pat Rooney imitation? (He whistles Rosy O’ Grady and soft-shoes to it. Stops. He asks: ) Sid : Do not you like it? Flor (finally) : No. (Buries her face in her hands. Suddenly he falls on his knees and buries his face in her lap.) (Odets, 1994: 1799).

f. Clancy’s brother

Clancy’s brother appears as the voice character found in Scene IV, the

Labor Spy Episode. He is the one who reveals the true identity of a spy in the union named as Tom Clayton. Tom Clayton’s real name is Clancy. He is loyal to the union. That is why he dares to reveal all of Clancy’s deeds all over the years in order to prove that -as his brother- he knows Clancy very much. It also be concluded that Clancy’s brother concerns about his family. He knows the activity of his brother well. Although his brother Clancy does some bad activities, he still pays much attention to him. It proves that Clancy’s brother does not ignore

Clancy, in spite of all the bad activities he does.

Fatt : Who the hell are years, you to make- Voice : I paid dues in this union for four that’s who’s me! I gotta right and this pussy-footed rat ain’t coming in here with ideas like that. You know his record. Lemme say it out- Voice :Boys, he spent two years in the coal fields breaking up any organization he touched. Fifty guys he put in jail. He’s ranged up and down the east coast-shipping, textiles, steel- he’s been in everything you can name. Right now-(Odets, 1994: 1800).

He reveals his own brother identity because he does not want him to break up the plan to do a strike. Although he reveals his own family’s disgrace, but it does not mean that he does not love his family. He considers Clancy as an outsider in this case. What he does is merely to put everything back on the track, to do the strike.

Voice : Boys, I slept with him in the same bed sixteen years. HE’S MY OWN LOUSY BROTHER. Voice : …The Clancy family tree is bearing nuts! (Odets, 1994: 1801).

g. Benjamin

Benjamin is a Jewish Doctor that is oppressed by the board of the hospital’s directors. This character can be found in the Scene V, the Interne

Episode. He is a hard worker and a talented Doctor. He loses his job as a surgeon because of the policy given by the hospital’s directors. He is replaced by Leeds who is the nephew of the Senator. Although Leeds is incompetent compared to

Benjamin, Benjamin cannot do anything to maintain his job regarding the fact that

Leeds is Senator’s nephew. He is a confident man because he believes that he is much better than Leeds. It can be seen from the dialogue below.

Benjamin : It’s important-excuse me-they’ve got Leeds up there in my place- He’s operating on Mrs. Lewis-the historectomy- it’s my job. I washed up, prepared…they told me at the last minute. I do not mind being replaced, Doctor, but Leeds is a damn fool! He shouldn’t be permitted- Barnes (dryly) : Leeds is the nephew of Senator Leeds (Odets, 1994: 1801).

Benjamin cares about his family very much. From the excerption below, it is known that he gets the job because the merit of his parents. He is afraid to disappoint his parents, especially his father, if he loses the job.

Benjamin :For myself I don’t feel sorry. My parents gave up an awful lot to get me this far. They ran a little dry good shop in the Bronx until their pitiful saving went in the crash last year. Poppa’s peddling neckties…Saul Ezra Benjamin-a man who’s read Spinoza all his life. (Odets, 1994: 1803).

Despite all the bad things happen to him, Benjamin is an optimistic man.

He also has a positive thought. He tries to make his life to be better by doing some effort that might be giving a massive alteration to his life.

Benjamin : Yes, to know I’m right? To really begin believing in something? Not to say, “What a world!”, but to say, “Change the world!” I wanted to go to Russia. Last week I was thinking about it-the wonderful opportunity to do good work in their socialized medicine- …

Benjamin : Fight! Maybe get killed, but goddamn! We’ll go ahead (Benjamin stands with clenched fist raised high) (Odets, 1994: 1803).

h. Barnes

This character appears in the same scene with Benjamin, which is Scene

IV. He is described as an elderly distinguished man, a senior Doctor who works with Benjamin in the same hospital. He is an old man who easily gets angry.

Although he knows that the dismissal of Benjamin is caused by the board of the hospital’s directors’ bad system, he is powerless against it. He understands the job of a Doctor very well. He believes that the State is the one who controls the hospital instead of the Doctors. It can be seen from the dialogue between Barnes and Benjamin below.

Barnes :Turn your gimlet eyes elsewhere, Doctor. Jigging around like a cricket on a hot grill won’t help. Doctors do not run these hospitals. He’s the Senator’s nephew and there he stays. Benjamin : It’s too bad. Barnes : I’m not calling you down either…Goddamnit, do you think it’s my fault? Benjamin : I know…I’m sorry (Odets, 1994: 1801).

However, he fires up Benjamin spirit to fight in order to demand his rights.

Instead of letting Benjamin down, he tries to support Benjamin to get a new life.

He is a motivator to Benjamin.

Barnes : That ‘s right…that’s right. Young, hot, go, and do it! I’m very ancient, fossil but life’s ahead of you, Dr. Benjamin, and when you fire the first shot say , “This one’s for old Doc Barnes!” Too much dignity-bullets. Do not shoot vermin! Step on them! If I didn’t have an invalid daughter-(Barnes goes back to his seat, blows his nose in silence): I have said my piece, Benjamin (Odets, 1994: 1803).

i. Agate

This character can be found in the last scene. He uses glasses and always talks with shrill of voice, showing his seriousness and madness. Agate is the one who dares to incite the members of the union to do a strike after they wait Lefty for a long time, but they cannot see him. He is proud to be a member of working class. When he was eleven, his eyes got injured because the factory where he worked does not provide shield to protect the labor from injury.

Agate : …Maybe I got a glass eye, but it come from working in a factory at the age of eleven They hooked it out because they didn’t have a shield on the works. But I wear it like a medal cause it tells the world where I belong-deep down in the working class! (Odets, 1994: 1804).

Agate is a confident man. He believes that the only way to the welfare is doing the strike. As an agitator, he successfully brings the members of the union to do the strike by giving speech in front of the union. He tells the union to do a strike if they want a better life.

Agate : …This is your life and mine! It’s skull and bones every incha the road! Christ, we’re dyin’ by inches! For what? For the debutantes to have their sweet comin’ out parties in the Ritz! Poppa’s got a daughter she’s gotta got her picture in the papers. Christ, they make’em with our blood. Joe said it. Slow death or fight. It’s war!...Working class, unite, and fight! Tear down the slaughter ouse of our old lives! Let freedom really ring (Odets, 1994: 1804).

2. The Group of Capitalists a. Harry Fatt

This character can be found in the Opening Scene and the last scene. Harry

Fat is described as a fat man who has a porcine appearance. It means that he is strongly associated with someone who is lazy and dirty. By saying dirty, it does not mean physically. He is dirty because he acts as a person who represents the company of the taxi drivers who wants to break up the strike. Although he is also the member of the union, but he insists to refuse the strike. It is because Fatt already got a better life as a result of his corrupt leadership. It can be seen from the description of Harry Fatt given by Odets in the first Opening Scene. He is described as a well fed and confident man.

… A fat man of porcine appearance is talking directly to the audience. In other words he is the head of a union and the men ranged him are a committee of workers. They are now seated in interesting different attitudes and present a wide diversity of type, as we shall soon see. The fat man is hot and heavy under the collar, near the end of a long talk, but not to hot: he is well fed and confident. His name is Harry Fat (Odets, 1788).

Fatt :You’re so wrong I ain’t laughing. Any guy with eyes to read knows it. Look at the textile strike-out like lions and in like lambs. Take the San Fransisco tie-up-starvation and broken heads. The steel boys wanted to walk out too, but they changed their minds. It’s the trend of the times, that’s what it is. All we workers got a good man behind us now. He’s a top man of the country-looking out for our interests-the man in the White House is the one I’m referrin’ to. That’s why the times ain’t ripe for a strike. He’s working day and night- (Odets, 1994: 1788).

From the excerption above, it is known that Harry Fat extremely refuses the strike. He is a betrayer to the union. In fact, he provides some strikes that met a dead end to stir up the union not to do the strike. He is equally a “boss” and

enemy of the workers, for his corrupt leadership subverts their struggle for a better life. He often uses the word “red” that refers to the communist to everyone who wants to do the strike in order to mock them (Odets, 1994: 1788). Thus, it can be concluded that he does not like the ideology of communism because “red” refers to the communist.

b. Gunman

This character is the fellow of Harry Fatt. He also appears in the Opening

Scene and the last scene. He is described as a young man who always chewing a toothpick. Gunman acts as a person who always does bullying action to the members of the union who try to oppose Harry Fat. In other words, he is Fatt’s bodyguard.

Fatt :…Because we gotta stand behind the man who’s standin behind us! The whole country- Another Voice: Is on the blink! (The Gunman looks grave) Another Voice: Says you! Gunman : Sit down, Punk! (Odets, 1994: 1788).

He gets the authority because he is with Fatt. Thus, he always tries to intimidate the people who argue with Fatt. He uses physical and verbal action in order to shut up everyone.

Agate (continuing to the audience) : And when I finish-(His speech is broken by Fatt and Gunman who physically handle him. He breaks away and gets to other side of stage. The two are about to make for him when some of the committee men come forward and get in between the struggling parties. Agate’s shirt has been torn) (Odets, 1994: 1804).

c. Fayette

This character can be found in the Scene II. He is the boss of Miller that works an industrialist. As an industrialist, he has an authority to control his employee. Thus, he forces Miller to do a spying job. He argues that the job is to serve the country but clearly, the case of business is the one that more significant to him. He is a pragmatic and unsentimental man.

Miller (addressing his pencil) : They say 12 million were killed in that last one and 20 million more wounded or missing. Fayette : That’s not our worry. If big business went sentimental over human life there wouldn’t be big business of any sort! (Odets, 1994: 1794).

He does everything in order to gain what he wants. However, as an industrialist who has sufficient money to feed his family, he uses his position as a boss to oppress his employee. He does not bargain with his employee. In the case of Miller, the options that Fayette offers are just do the job or lose the job. He is also not a sensitive toward anyone else. He does not show his condolences when

Miller tells a story about the death of his brother and his two cousins. In fact, he ignores every word come up form Miller’s mouth, cutting Miller’s word forever.

He just cares about the job he offers to Miller.

Miller : My brother and two cousins went in the last one. Fayette: They died in a good cause. Miller : My mother says “no!”. Fayette: She won’t worry about you this time. You’re too valuable behind the front. Miller : That’s right. Fayette: All right, Miller. See Siegfried for further orders. Miller : You should have seen my brother-he could ride a bike without hands…

Fayette: You’d better move some clothes and shaving tools in tomorrow. Remember what I said-you’re with a growing organization. Miller : He could run the hundred yards in 9:8 flat… Fayette: Who? Miller : My brother. He’s in the Meuse-Argonne Cemetary. Mama went there in 1926… Fayette: Yes, those things stick. How’s your handwriting, Miller, fairly legible? (Odets, 1994: 1794-1795).

B. Oppression Experienced by the Oppressed Characters

As seen in Ralf Dahrendorf’s Class and Class Conflict in Industrial

Society, it is written that the determinant of classes is “property”. Property, however, must not be understood in terms of purely passive wealth, but as an effective force of production, as “ownership of means of production” and its denial to others (1966: 20-21). Therefore, the possession of property as a means of production determines the classification of people in certain society. The people who have means of production will be classified as the upper class, while those who do not have any means of production will be placed in the lower class.

In Alan Swingewood’s Marx and Modern Social Theory, Marx and Engels assert that our epoch, the epoch of the bourgeoisie, possesses … this distinctive feature: it has simplified the class antagonism. Society as a whole is more and more splitting up into two great hostile camps, into two great classes directly facing each other: Bourgeoisie and Proletariat (1975: 115). Since this thesis deals with Marxism, so the upper class is named as capitalists while the lower class is called proletariat. From the characterization above, there is one big distinction that separates the two classes, which is power.

In Gary Day’s Class, Marx called the class who owned the means of production the bourgeoisie and the class who sold their labour power the proletariat. According to Marx, the interests of these two classes were fundamentally opposed since the bourgeoisie, in order to make a profit, paid the workers the lowest possible wage while demanding that they attain the highest level of productivity (2001: 7). The capitalists have power over the proletariat to control them, in fact, to oppress them. The polarization of the characters into these two classes is merely to show the different social classes where they belong. Thus, in the next subchapter the writer can show the conflict happens between them. To say conflict, it means that there is something happen between them that called as oppression.

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels write that the modern bourgeois society that has sprouted from the ruins of feudal society has not done away with class antagonism. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones (Marx & Engels, 1967: 80). The new classes appear in the modern bourgeois society are the bourgeois or capitalist and the proletariat. By new conditions of oppression, it means that the oppression still exists within the society but in a different way from the previous society. Of course, there are the oppressor and the oppressed as the actors of the oppression.

Marxists, social democrats and some liberals all agree that something called “oppression” exists; that certain groups in society do not enjoy the full legal, political or economic rights enjoyed by others

(www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/gayleft/towardstheory.rtf). However, oppression of

a group towards another group will take place if a group named as the oppressor that has power to the other group named as the oppressed, uses its power to exploit and treat them wrong concerning its superiority. In the analysis of oppression experienced by the oppressed characters in Odets’ Waiting for Lefty, the writer categorizes it in the form of economic oppression, social oppression, and legal oppression.

1. Economic Oppression

In the previous subchapter, the description of the characters produces the polarization of the characters into two groups. Those are the capitalists and the proletariat. Waiting for Lefty is a literary work that was born in the capitalism society which is the United States of America, in the Great Depression era in particular. Regarding the class antagonism that exists in the capitalism society, therefore, there is an oppression done by the capitalists towards the proletariat.

The Great Depression suffered by the people all over the United States of

America makes them become very concerned about their economic condition.

Moreover, they live in a country that is known as capitalist or bourgeois country in which money plays an important role in the society. Money becomes one thing that can determine the life of someone. As written in Fundamentals of Marxism-

Leninism edited by Clemens Dutt, money functions as a means of accumulation. It is a universal token of wealth, for money can always buy any commodity. In bourgeois society, therefore, money is the most mobile form of the accumulation of wealth (1963: 216).

The same thing is also experienced by some characters in Waiting for

Lefty. As seen in the dialogue between Flor and Irv below.

Flor: “Maybe Later” never comes for me, though. Why don’t we send Mom to a hospital? She can die in peace there instead of looking at the clock on the mantelpiece all day. Irv: That needs money. Which we don’t have! Flor: Money, Money, Money! Irv: Don’t change the subject. Flor: This is the subject! (Odets, 1994: 1797).

The need of money is covering the need of humanity if the subject is capitalism.

As written by Tucker, capitalism crushes our particularly human experience. It destroys the pleasure associated with labor, the distinctively human capacity to make and remake the world, and the major distinguishing characteristic of human from animals (Tucker, 1978: 98).

In Waiting for Lefty, Joe is described as a father of a poor family that stands on the edge of misery that is ready to come. Wage from the job as a taxi driver cannot fully feed the family. Although he has been working so hard to feed the family, but it meets a dead end. It is because the company where he works has a certain policy to limit the wage, regardless the economic condition of the employee. Hence, the oppression exists here. Here is the dialogue between Joe and Edna that expresses their miserable condition because of the company where

Joe works.

Joe : Well, we’re averaging six-seven dollars a week now. Edna : That just pays for the rent. Joe : That is something, Edna. Edna : It isn’t. They’ll push you down to three and four a week before you know it. Then you’ll say, “That’s somethin’,” too! (Odets, 1994: 1791).

From the dialogue above, it is clear that they are in the middle of dispute because Joe acts as a person that has no firmness. Edna feels that Joe is too soft in facing the company because he accepts anything that the company pays. Although the company pays a low wage to Joe, he thinks that it is sufficient for the family.

Edna : I know this-your boss is making suckers outa you boys every minute. Yes, and suckers out of all wives and the poor innocent kids who’ll grow up with crooked spines and sick bones…(Odets, 1994: 1791).

What Edna says above is directed to her husband, Joe and indirectly to

Joe’s friends that also work as a taxi driver. The oppression done by the company is not just destroying the workers, but also the family of the workers. The act of oppression of the company takes the momentum of that time, which is the Great

Depression. The limited job offered by another company is really used by the taxi company to oppress the workers. It is clear that the company makes Joe’s family stands in front of the gate of a broken family.

Joe : I’d get another job if I could. There’s no work-you know it. Edna : I only know we’re at the bottom of the ocean (Odets, 1994:1790).

In the case of Sid and Flor for their inability to get married, economic factor also plays a great role. They have a similar experience as Joe and Edna. The low wage given by the company to Sid makes him unable to build his own family, his own life. Their engagement is not supported by Flor’s brother, Irv and also her mother. Irv mentions that the wage of a taxi driver cannot be used to feed the family.

Irv : Mom told you ten times-it ain’t him. It’s that he ain’t got nothing. Sure, we know he’s serious, that he’s stuck on you. But that do not cut no ice. Flor : Taxi drivers used to make good money.

Irv : Today they’re makin’ five and six dollars a week. Maybe you wanta raise a family on that. Then you’ll be back here living with us again and I’ll be supporting two families in one. Well…over my dead body Flor : Irv, I do not care-I love him! Irv : You’re a little kid with half-baked ideas!(Odets, 1994: 1796).

Sid and Edna feel that the people like them, the working class, are intentionally placed in the darkest place on the earth by the capitalists. In other words, the capitalists deliberately oppress the working class.

Flor : But something wants us to be lonely like that-crawling alone in the dark. Or they want us trapped. Sid : Sure, the big shot money want us like that. Flor : Highly insulting us- Sid : Keeping us in the dark about what is wrong in the money sense. They got the power and mean to be damn sure they keep it. They know if they give in just an inch, all the dog like us will be down on them together-an ocean knocking them to hell and back and each singing cuckoo with stars coming from their nose and ears. I’m not raving, Florrie-(Odets, 1994: 1798).

Thus, the oppression experienced by those two couple as the oppressed character is counted as economic oppression. As the one that has power, in this case is capital or means of production, the company feels free to control the wage of their workers. Hence, the workers who are powerless become the object of the action. Therefore, they are economically oppressed by the company.

The character who also gets the experience of oppression is Agate. He is in the age of eleven when he gets the oppression firstly. The factory in which he works does not provide any shield to protect the safety of its workers. Therefore, he works without the safety assurance. Thus, he wears glasses as the effect of it. A factory has to assure the safety of its workers in truth. The fact that the company disobeys Agate by not providing any shield for the work becomes evidence that the company does the act of oppression. This is the politics of the company when

they do not provide any shield for their workers. In order to prevent the bigger cost of the expenditure, they do whatever it takes, including the oppression.

In Today’s Isms: Socialism, Capitalism, Fascism, and Communism written by Alan O. Ebenstein, William Ebenstein, and Edwin Fogelman, Marx says that in the modern industrial society of the last two hundred years, the ownership of the means of industrial production is the master key: The capitalists- the owners of the means of production- not only determine the economic destiny of society but also rule it politically (regardless of formal and legal facades to the contrary) and again set its social standards and values (1994: 112). Thus, although the workers are under oppression, the capitalists as the one who are superior to the proletariat feels that they can do anything because they have the key of life, the means of productions.

Voice: Sit down, cockeye! Agate: Who’s paying you for those remarks, Buddy?-Moscow Gold? Maybe I got a glass eye, but it come from working in the factory at the age of eleven. They hooked it out because they didn’t have any shield on the works…(Odets, 1994: 1803-1804).

Agate the agitator also gets oppressed by the taxi company. He feels that his work is merely to give the welfare to the company instead of himself. He thinks that his life is robbed by the boss. Agate thinks that the poverty that is in the corner of his life is caused by the greed of the company. The correlation between the two groups -capitalists and proletariat- is a contradictory, binary opposition. The capitalists are wealthy, secure, and have high status; meanwhile the proletariat is lacking a subsistence minimum.

Agate: …Hell, some of us boys ain’t even got a shirt to our backs. What’s the boss class tryin to do-make a nudist colony outa us?

… Agate: This is your life and mine! It’s skull and bones every incha the road! Christ, we’re dyin’ by inches! For what? For the debutantees to have their sweet comin’ out parties in the Ritz! Poppa’s got a daughter she’s gotta get her picture in the papers. Christ, they make’em with our blood…(Odets, 1994: 1804).

2. Social Oppression

The condition of the society within the proletariat or working class is poorer compared to the capitalists or the ruling class. As the ones who have no means of production they depend their social life to the capitalists. In George

Lichteim’s Marxism: An Historical and Critical Study, he explains that under capitalism, labour itself-the precondition of human existence- become a commodity, and the workman a proletarian who owns nothing and is in fact(though not in form) owned by someone else (1982: 50).

As a lab assistant, Miller has a limited authority towards his job. What he does is fully controlled by his boss or his employer. Fayette, the industrialist who owns Miller knows this condition clearly. At that time, the United States of

America is facing the new world war. During that period, the nationalism and patriotism seem to be the biggest issue buzzed around the whole country. Fayette uses his power and the circumstances at that time to treat Miller wrong. As an industrialist who lives in the United States of America that known as a capitalist country, he has a capitalist’s ideology: money rules.

Miller is in the middle of social oppression when Fayette questions how big his nationalism and patriotism are. Instead of serving the country in a right way, the loyalty to the country is measured by what you can do for your country

to lift it up, no matter how you do it. Of course, if Miller rejects the job, the society where he belongs to will give him the label of anti-nationalist. The people will definitely expel him from the society because of it.

Fayette : You’re doing something for your country. Assuring the United States that when those goddamn Japs start a ruckus we’ll have offensive weapons to back us up! Do not you read your newspaper, Miller? … Miller : But sneaking-and making poison gas- that’s for Americans? (Odets, 1994: 1795-1796).

Clancy’s brother who appears as just a voice in the play also gets the social oppression from the capitalists. He is separated from his own brother,

Clancy whose job is to break every strike all over the country. It is very ironic because there is a possibility that the power of money causes Clancy accepts the job and therefore against his brother who approves the strike plan, even denies their family relationship. If Clancy does not get much money from the act of breaking every strike in all over the country, he will not keep doing the job.

Instead, he will join the strike to get a better life. It is definitely the case of something extremely significant if the relationship of the family is taken as a stake. In the case of Clancy, he has no other option but to break off their family relationship. Thus, Clancy’s brother loses one of the members of the family.

Voice (to Clayton) : Scram, before I break your neck! (Clayton scrams down center aisle. Voice says, watching him: remember his map-he can’t change that- Clancy!...The Clancy family tree is bearing nuts!(Odets, 1994: 1801).

In the case of Benjamin, the blood of Jew that flow in his body also makes him cornered into the oppression. Benjamin also gets oppressed because he is a

Jew. The stigma is described as a disease that desperately needs an antitoxin. It depicts the vicious of the oppression clearly. Although he has worked so hard for the hospital, but still, he gets fired because of his ethnical group.

Benjamin : But after all I’m top man here. I do not mean I’m better than others, but I’ve worked harder. Barnes : And shown more promise… Benjamin: I always supposed they’d cut from the bottom first. Barnes : Usually. Benjamin: But in this case? Barnes : Complications. Benjamin: For instance? (Barnes hesitant) Barnes: I like you, Benjamin. It’s one ripping shame. Benjamin: I’m no sensitive plant-what’s the answer? Barnes: An old disease, malignant, tumescent. We need an antitoxin for it. Benjamin: I see. Barnes: What? Benjamin: I met that disease before-at Harvard first. Barnes: You have the seniority here, Benjamin. Benjamin: But I’m a Jew! (Barnes nods his head in agreement. Benjamin stands there a moment and blows his nose)(Odets, 1994: 1802).

3. Legal Oppression

In the case of Miller, the country or the State apparently legalizes the social oppression towards Miller because the spying job offered to Miller is a job in order to serve the country. In Robert C. Tucker’s The Marx-Engels Reader (2nd edition), Karl Marx says that State objectives are transformed into objectives of the department, and department objectives into objectives of the state (1978: 24).

By saying department, it refers to the capitalism. Thus, the State gives a special authority to the capitalists to control their workers.

Miller : May I ask the nature of the new work? Fayette (looking around first): Poison gas… Miller : Poison!

Fayette : Orders from above. I do not have to tell you from where. New type poison gas for modern warfare (Odets, 1994: 1791).

It seems that the capitalists are legally patronized by the State to do the oppression. Karl Marx argues that the State is the form in which the individual of a ruling class assert their common interest (Tucker, 1978: 187). The State exists to maintain the power of the ruling class, the capitalists who have means of production.

The oppression towards Benjamin takes place when his position as a

Doctor who is going to operate a patient is unfairly replaced by the board of hospital’s director and eventually got fired. Although the person who replaces

Benjamin is far from Benjamin’s competence, but Benjamin is powerless because the person is the nephew of the Senator that has power over him. In this case, once again the State plays a big role in the act of oppression by the capitalists.

Benjamin:…I do not mind being replaced, Doctor, but Leeds is a damn fool! He shouldn’t be permitted- Barnes : Leeds is the nephew of Senator Leeds. Benjamin: He’s incompetent as hell. Barnes (Obviously changing subject, picks up lab jar): They’re doing splendid work in brain surgery these days. This is a very fine specimen… Benjamin : I’m sorry, I thought you might be interested. Barnes (still examining jar): Well, I am, young man, I am! Only remember it’s a charity case! Benjamin: Of course. They wouldn’t allow it for a second, otherwise. Barnes : Her life is in danger? Benjamin :Of course! You know how serious the case is! Barnes : Turn your gimlet eyes elsewhere, Doctor. Jigging around like a cricket on a hot grill won’t help. Doctors do not run these hospitals. He’s the Senator’s nephew and there he stays (Odets, 1994: 1801).

C. The Class Struggle as the Impact of Oppression

The class owning the means of production utilizes the state, the capitalists, equipped with instruments of oppression, to maintain its rule over the exploited class (Wilczynski, 1981: 80). Since the rule consciously turns into oppression, it is anyhow opposed by the oppressed class, in this case the proletariat. The class struggle as the impact of oppression in the form of real action found Waiting for

Lefty comes to the surface after passing through two fundamental phases that eventually lead the workers to the class struggle, namely alienation and class consciousness. Thus, the writer will discuss the alienation suffered by the workers and also the liberation of the class consciousness among the workers firstly before starting to discuss about the class struggle.

1. Alienation Suffered by the Workers

In Waiting for Lefty, the oppression does exist within the relationship between the possessing class or capitalists and the proletariat. This inherent hostility between social classes causes the class struggle to come up. However, the oppression causes the feeling of alienation suffered by the proletariat. In Robert C.

Tucker’s The Marx-Engels Reader 2nd edition, Karl Marx says that the possessing class and the proletarian class represent one and the same human self-alienation.

But the former feels satisfied and affirmed in this self-alienation, experiences the alienation as a sign of its own power, and possesses in it the appearance of a

human existence. The latter, however, feels destroyed in this alienation, seeing in its own impotence and the reality of an inhuman existence (1978: 133). In the

Socialist view, alienation has been regarded as a phenomenon in pre-socialist societies and not in a communist or socialist society, where the means of production belong to the workers and where there is no class struggle

(Wilczynski, 1981: 11). Thus, in the capitalism society as in Odets’ Waiting for

Lefty, alienation obviously exists in the society. As the effect of it, class struggle also exists within the society. Alienation results from a certain form of organization of society. More concretely, only in a society which is based on commodity production and only under the specific economic and social circumstance of a market economy, can the objects which we project out of us when we produce acquire a socially oppressive existence of their own and be integrated in an economic and social mechanism which becomes oppressive and exploitative of human beings (Mandel and Novack, 1973: 16). In the domain of

Marxism, there are four aspects of alienation suffered by the proletariat. They are alienated from the product they produce, from the act of production, from the society they live within, and also from themselves. a. Alienated from the Product They Produce

As a taxi driver, Joe does not produce a product. He produces a service. In this case, he produces transportation service. The experience of oppression he feels is followed by the experience of alienation. As a worker who has no property, he does not have a full authority toward the job he gets. The company fully controls his job. As the effect of it, the service he produces does not belong

to him but it belongs to the company. It happens because Joe has no authority toward his job. Thus, his contribution in producing the service is just merely to fulfill the need of the company instead of himself or his family. It is clearly revealed when Joe speaks, repeating what Edna says to him: …“God,” the wife says, “eighty cents ain’t money-don’t buy bean almost. You’re workin’ for the company,” she says to me, Joe! You ain’t workin’ for me or the family no more!”…(Odets, 1994: 1789). In other words, he is alienated from the product or service he produces.

As seen in Views on Capitalism, Richard Romano and Melvin Leiman write that when the individual feels that the good or service he helps produce neither reflects his personal contribution through its properties and attributes nor contributes to his welfare either personally or through those with whom he has bonds of community, the goal of his work activities becomes meaningless and absurd: he is alienated from his product (1975: 377). This feeling of alienation is also experienced by Sid who also works as a taxi driver. He cannot get married because he does not get enough money from the company he works for. This can be seen from the words that come up from Irv. Irv is Flor’s brother who completely disagrees with the marriage of Sid and Flor.

Irv: Today they’re makin’ five and six dollars a week. Maybe you wanta raise a family on that. Then you’ll be back here living with us again and I’ll be supporting families in one. Well…over my dead body (Odets, 1994: 1796).

Another character who is also alienated from the product he produces is

Agate. He has a similar experience to Joe and Sid. The job as a taxi driver cannot fulfill his own contentment. Instead of being satisfied, he feels that the company

as a tool for the capitalists owns Agate’s life so that Agate acts as a slave that merely serves his owner. It means that he produces services to satisfy the company instead of himself. It can be seen from the excerption below.

Agate: Don’t laugh! Nothing’s funny! This is your life and mine! It’s skull and bones every incha the road! Christ, we’re dyin’ by inches! For what? For the debutantes to have their sweet comin’ out parties in the Ritz! Poppa’a got a daughter she’s gotta get her picture in the papers. Christ, they make ‘em with our blood…(Odets, 1994: 1804).

Joe, Sid, and Agate who work as a taxi driver become a good example of alienated labor. They drive for all day long, but the money they got has to be given to the company. They only get a small part of it. As the impact, they cannot gain their own welfare.

b. Alienated from the Act of Production

The case that the worker is alienated from the product he produces causes the condition of alienated worker in the act of production. If the result of production is alienation, then the process is also alienating. In his International

Encyclopedia of Ethics, John K. Roth writes that in productive activity, the worker becomes self-alienated because the labor is the life-activity of the worker.

Rather than becoming self-affirming activity, work becomes self-denying activity.

Rather than becoming the satisfaction of a need for human self-fulfillment, work becomes only a means to satisfy the basic needs of human survival (1995: 26).

Therefore, the three taxi drivers, which are Joe, Sid, and Agate are alienated from their act of production. They sell their labor to the capitalists in order to survive in life. Thus, they have a lack of control toward the job they get.

Although, they have worked hard to get more money, the final decision is fully owned by the company. In other words, the company decides whether they can have a better life by giving higher wage to them, or they will just live in a poor condition since the company gives them a lower wage. As the evidence, there is

Joe’s utterance: Honey, I rode the wheels off the chariot today. I cruised around five hours without a call. It’s condition (Odets, 1994: 1790). As a matter of fact,

Joe has tried to get the passengers, but there is no valuation of it given by the company. Thus, Joe still lives in a poor condition.

The same experience of alienation is also experienced by Miller. As a lab assistant who works for an industrialist, he has to obey every task given by his employer. He cannot own the thing he produces because he merely acts as a worker who sells his labor to the capitalists. Thus, the products belong to the capitalists. In capitalism society, it is clear that the capitalists want a society that has a massive concern to money. In other words, money can be used to control human’s life. As seen from the dialogue between Miller and Fayette, Miller’s employer below.

Miller: I guess I can’t do that… Fayette: Thirty a month raise… Miller: You said twnty… Fayette: Thirty! Miller: Guess I’m not built that way. Fayette: Forty… Miller: Spying’s not in my line, Mr. Fayette! (Odets, 1994: 1795).

The dialogue above happens when Miller insists to refuse the task ordered by

Fayette. He uses his power which is money in order to force Miller.

The consequence of disobeying the task is of course the threat of losing his job. If he loses his job, then he will find it difficult to gain his needs in life. Thus,

Miller is alienated from the act of production because he only does the task ordered from above, the capitalists who own him. He does not produce something because he wants to produce it. Instead, he produces something because the capitalists ask him to produce it.

Dr. Barnes and Dr. Benjamin are also alienated from the act of production.

Both of them work as a Doctor in a hospital. The irony takes place when Dr.

Benjamin is ridiculously replaced by someone who is incompetent but a nephew of a Senator and eventually fired regardless his ability, and Dr. Barnes who is a senior Doctor in the hospital cannot do anything to prevent it. It happens because according to Dr. Barnes, the Doctors do not run the hospital but the State. It is very ironic because the Doctors are directly responsible to the patient, so they are supposed to be the ones who run the hospital because they have a better knowledge concerning the hospital.

Barnes: Doctors don’t run medicine in this country. The men who know their jobs don’t run anything here, except the motormen on trolley cars. I’ve seen medicine change-plenty-anesthasia, sterilization- but not because of rich men- in spite of them! In a rich man’s country your true self’s buried deep… (Odets, 1994: 1803).

The State seems to ignore the patient because an incompetent Doctor is asked to handle a patient who is dying. This patient is supposed to be handled by

Dr. Benjamin. As the result, they cannot save the life of the patient because in the end, the patient is dead (Odets, 1994: 1803).

c. Alienated from the Society

A social role is a slot that people fit into, carrying with it characteristic duties and obligation, and defined by what other people expect of the person in that role. These expectations become institutionalized, so the same behavior is expected of any individual who occupies a particular role (Romano and Leiman,

1975). Thus, each person in each society has their own social role. When the workers are alienated from the act of production, they are also alienated from the society. It happens because the workers just work in order to survive.

As seen in Roth’s International Encyclopedia of Ethics, because labor serves only to further basic survival, the worker exists only as an egoistic individual and not as a social being; that is, he or she thinks egoistically, not communally (1995: 26). This experience is felt by Sid, the taxi driver who fails to get married. He thinks that he is not welcomed by his family’s fiancée, the society he lives within, because his wage as a taxi driver is considered far from enough to build his own family. As a result, he breaks up his engagement without considering his fiancée opinion. In other words, he acts individually.

Flor (in a burst): Sid, I’ll go with you-we’ll get a room somewhere. Sid : Naw…they’re right. If we can’t climb higher than this together-we better stay apart (Odets, 1994: 1799).

Clancy’s brother also has a similar experience to Sid. Because of the power of the capitalists, he is separated from his own brother. His brother, Clancy, denies their family relationship in order to prevent the striking action of the union.

Clancy is well paid by some capitalists to break up every plan to do the strike in the country. As a result of it, Clancy’s brother loses his own brother. Thus, he is

estranged from his society. Dr. Barnes also acts individually when he decides not to help Dr. Benjamin to prevent him from fired. It is because he has a responsibility towards his daughter who is invalid (Odets, 1994: 1803). There is a possibility that he will also lose his job if he stands behind Dr. Benjamin because the State has a full authority over the hospital. In other words, Dr. Barnes acts egoistically, saving his own life rather than put his life in danger by helping Dr.

Benjamin though he knows that the firing of Dr. Benjamin is not supposed to be happened.

d. Alienated from the Self

In capitalism society, the workers cannot do what they want to do because the capitalists have power over them. They control the life of the workers, so what the workers do is just the expression of losing their essence as a human. We are alienated from ourselves when we are not what we really could be –when we cannot love, play, run, work, spiritualize, relate, create, emphatize, or aid as much as our potential allows (1975: 377). It happens to Sid and Flor who have been engaged for three years, but they have to end it. They cannot build their own family because the lack of money they have. They cannot fulfill their own needs therefore they lose their essence as human. Thus, they are alienated from themselves. As uttered by Flor below:

Flor: …Don’t you see I want something else out of life. Sure, I want romance, love, babies. I want everything in life I can get (Odets, 1994: 1796).

In Tucker’s The Marx-Engels Reader: 2nd Edition, Marx says that the less you are, the more you have; the less you express your own life, the greater is your

alienated life-the greater is the store of your estranged being (1978: 96). Joe works for all day long, working hard to fulfill the needs of the family every single day.

But the fact that he cannot bring enough money to home despite his effort makes his family on the edge of separation. The wage he accepts is not in balance with his effort to get the money. He expects that home can be a place for him to refresh his life from the regular activity but he finds that the home cannot give him the refreshed life (Odets, 1994: 1790).

In capitalism society, money becomes the main purpose in life. Thus, the need of money becomes a particular and fundamental theme in doing the job. As a result, working is no longer to express the self creativity or expression but merely as a basic activity to gain the money. As seen in The Marxist Theory of Alienation written by Ernest Mandel and George Novack, normally everybody has some creative capacity, certain talents lodged in him, untapped potentialities for human development which should be expressed in labor activity. However, once the institution of wage labor is prevalent, these possibilities become nullified (1973:

22-23).

2. Liberating the Class Consciousness

Another important phase after the experience of alienation before reaching the class struggle experienced by the proletariat is class consciousness. According to Jozef Wilczynski, class consciousness is described as the awareness and understanding by members or groups of a particular layer of society belonging to a distinct social class (1981: 78). In Waiting for Lefty, to liberate the class consciousness among the workers, all the oppressed characters involved in the

union speak up their own experience of oppression that is certainly followed by the experience of alienation one by one. “…the consciousness of alienation occurs not through the moral exhortations of the converted but the day-to-day experiences of people themselves…” (Romano and Leiman, 1975: 379).

The oppressed characters have a particular experience of oppression done by the capitalists. Thus, they speak up the deeds in front of the members of the union to awake the class consciousness among them. Joe with his experience of oppression that threats his family (Odets, 1994: 1789-1793), Sid with his experience of oppression that prevents him to get married (Odets, 1994: 1796-

1799), Miller and Benjamin with their experience of oppression that causes the discharge comes to them (Odets, 1994: 1793-1796 and 1801-1803), and Agate with his experience of oppression that causes the damage in his eyes and also poverty he gets (Odets,1994: 1803-1804) contribute to the awaking of class consciousness among the workers, the worker class. As written by Jozef

Wilczynski, class “in itself” and class “for itself” are Hegelian concepts adapted and used in classical Marxist terminology (especially by Marx and Engels) to describe two stages of the development of class consciousness among the working class. The former indicates the earlier stage, when workers become aware of their grievances against capitalists. If they take any action, it is directed against individual employers, not capitalists as a class. In the second stage, class “for itself”, workers become conscious of their class identity (as the proletariat) and the unbridgeable antagonism that divides them from the class of capitalists

(bourgeoisie) (1981: 79).

In Waiting for Lefty, it seems that the workers have reached the “class for itself” stage. They are said to be in the stage of “class for itself” because they act as a distinct social class, the proletariat, feel that they have the same opposition which are the capitalists. In this case, they act as a group of taxi drivers that is oppressed by the company, so they feel that they need to fight against the company that oppresses them. One character who particularly contributes to liberate the class consciousness among the workers is Agate. After being fed up because he finds that the life of the workers is miserable under the capitalists, he ferociously stimulates the union to do the strike. In fact, he is willing to be called as a Communist regarding his desire to do the strike to get a better life.

Agate (to audience): What’s the answer, boys? The answer is, if we’re reds because we wanna strike, then we take over their salute too! Know how they do it? (Makes Communist salute.) What is it? An uppercut! The good old uppercut to the chin! Hell, some of us boys ain’t even got a shirt to our backs. What’s the boss class tryin’ to do-make a nudist colony outa us? (Odets, 1994: 1804).

In the end, the workers decide to do the strike. In this case, the strike can be described as the realization of the class struggle. It happens because they get the final stage of the class consciousness after they experienced the oppression that leads them to the alienation. Only the consciousness of the proletariat can point to the way that leads out of the impasse of capitalism. As long as this consciousness is lacking, the crisis remains permanent, it goes back to its starting- point, repeats the cycle until after infinite sufferings and terrible detours the school of history completes the education of the proletariat and confers upon it the leadership of mankind. But the proletariat is not given any choice. As Marx says,

it must become a class not only “as against capital” but also “for itself”; that is to say, the class struggle must be raised from the level of economic necessity to the level of conscious aim and effective class consciousness

(http://www.marxists.org/archive/lukacs/works/history/lukacs3.htm). “Class for itself” as the final stage of the class consciousness leads the workers to do the class struggle.

3. Class Struggle

In Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution, Draper says that the working class moves toward class struggle insofar as capitalism fails to satisfy its economic and social needs and aspirations. There is no evidence that workers like to struggle anymore than anyone else; the evidence is that capitalism compels and accustoms them to do so (1978:42). Thus, it is very clear that the cause of the class struggle is the deeds of the capitalists toward the proletariat. The capitalists do not give any satisfaction to the proletariat in the capitalism society since it has its own interest. In the capitalism society, the main protagonist of class struggle is the capitalists on one side and the proletariat on the other side. Put crudely, employers desire high profits and workers want high wages. This is the source of struggle between the classes.

For Marx and Engels, no government or State is really above, or neutral in, the class struggle. Far from being impartial, the State is itself the historical product of class society. That is, the State was established (and later its power expanded) because of the need the dominant class had for protection from the

exploited (Roth, 1995: 161). Hence, the State also plays a significant role in the act of class struggle done by the proletariat. It is because the State has become a tool for the capitalists as the oppressor to oppress and exploit the proletariat. It also can be found in Waiting for Lefty, particularly in the Lab Assistant Episode scene when Miller is asked to do an illegal job. The job is to spy and to make a poison gas. Ironically, it is ordered by the State (Odets, 1994: 1793-1796).

After experiencing the oppression that is resulted in the form of alienation and the final stage of class consciousness, the “class for itself”, the proletariat in

Waiting for Lefty decides to do the strike. The strike is the real action of the class struggle to demand the better life. In the domain of Marxism, a strike within a company done by the workers in order to demand a better life can be included in the category of class struggle. However, a strike is not identical to a class struggle.

The strike is just the means of the class struggle. There are two basics of class struggle. Those are economic and political.

1. Economic: A struggle for the improvement of the conditions of work and a change in the principle governing the distribution of the fruits of labour.

2. Political: A struggle for the seizure and maintenance of political power

(Wilczynski ,1981:80).

The economic motive is merely the fundamental one because the proletariat wants a better economic life. It happens because the capitalists as the one who has power over the proletariat can do anything to the proletariat, including oppresses them.

Joe:…”God,” the wife says,” eighty cents ain’t money-don’t buy beans almost. You’re workin’ for the company,” she says to me, “Joe! You ain;t workin’ for me or the family no more!”…(Odets, 1994: 1789).

Thus, the oppression is followed by the class struggle. The oppressed characters generally have a bad condition of economic life. For example Joe who cannot fulfills the needs of the family, and also Sid who cannot get married because he does not have money. They are trapped in that kind of situation because they belong to the distinct social class that is oppressed by another class. Hence, they have to do the struggle to liberate themselves from their poor economic life. In other words, the economic oppression has an impact which is the class struggle.

Joe: …What’s this crap about goin’ home to hot suppers? I’m asking to your faces how many’s got hot suppers to go home to? Anyone who’s sure of his next meal, raise your hand! A certain gent sitting behind me can raise them both. But not in front here! And that’s why we’re talking strike-to get a living wage! (Odets, 1994: 1789).

The political struggle is done because they want to make sure that they can have a stable condition of life, regarding their economic condition. The struggle will give an impact to the life of the proletariat if they can maintain the condition struggled. The desire to completely liberate the class for the oppression is very strong since they experience the extreme oppression in their life.

Agate (crying): Hear it boys, hear it? Hell, listen to me! Coast to coast! Hello America! Hello. We’re stormbirds of the working- class. Workers of the world…our bones and blood! And when we die they’ll know what we did to make a new world! Christ, cut us up to little pieces. We’ll die for what is right! Put fruit trees where our ashes are! (To audience): Well, what’s the answer? All: Strike! (Odets, 1994: 1805).

Led by Agate, after knowing that Lefty has been killed, they do the strike, demanding their right. Agate says that they want to make a new world. It means that they want to make a better world for them. The new world means the world without oppression. Thus, the strike as the means of the class struggle results in political struggle. It is the struggle to seizure the power of the capitalists so that they can form their own world. Anyhow, the proletariat experiences the alienation firstly, following the experience of the oppression. Sooner, they get the class consciousness from the experience of alienation they get. As a result, they launch a class struggle. The struggle is launched to fight the oppressors. Eventually, the class struggle as the impact of the oppression comes to the surface.

CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

The oppression can be described in the three main forms of oppression.

These three forms are different one to another. They are economic oppression, social oppression, and legal oppression

In Waiting for Lefty, the proletariat gets an economic oppression by the capitalists. The economic condition of the proletariat is getting worse day by day because of the greedy capitalists. The low wage given to them put them into the misery of life. While the proletariat works harder to earn more money, to get a better economic condition, the capitalists do not appreciate their hard work by giving them a better wage. The other case, the capitalists have its decision not to give the employee a safe situation of work. The interest towards profit makes the capitalists oppress the proletariat.

The social oppression in Waiting for Lefty takes place when the unfair treatment done by the capitalists touches the proletariat’s social life. In one case, the threat of bad stigma label as an anti nationalism to the society is brought by the capitalists when they order the proletariat to do an illegal job. The options are just doing the job so that they are safe, or refusing the job and then losing the occupation. Another case is related to the family membership. The treatment of the capitalists makes a family becomes ruined. The last case, the anti Semit sentiment makes the proletariat losing the job, regardless their competence.

70 71

The oppression can be described in the three main forms of oppression.

These three forms are different one to another. They are economic oppression, social oppression, and legal oppression

A State is supposed to be helping the people to get the welfare. But it cannot be found in a capitalism society. The State plays a big role, helping the capitalists maintain their position in the society. As the effect of it, the proletariat loses their job since they oppose the capitalists that own the State as the back up. 72

Now, the conclusion comes to the final stage, the class struggle. The class struggle is acted by the proletariat after they experience the alienation and the class consciousness. Since this thesis is connected to Marxism, the oppression done by the capitalists gives a bad impact toward the proletariat. The proletariat is experiencing the alienation.

There are four kinds of alienation proposed in Marxism suffered by the proletariat. Firstly, they are alienated from the product they produce. The proletariat cannot gain their welfare because the product or service they produce by working belongs to the capitalists. Thus, the product or service is alien to them.

Secondly, they are alienated from the act of production: the proletariat is alienated from the product they produce. As an impact, they are also alienated from the act of production. They produce something because the capitalists want them to produce it. In other words, the act of production is merely to serve the capitalists instead of themselves. Thirdly, they are alienated from the society: the proletariat is alienated from the society because the society where they live is poisoned by capitalism. The capitalism forces them to do egoistically instead of collectively.

And lastly, they are alienated from the self: the proletariat suffers the alienation of man from himself because they cannot develop themselves as a human being.

They cannot gain their own satisfaction in life since they are fully controlled by the capitalists that seem to prohibit them to get developed.

Soon after the proletariat experiences the alienation, they try to liberate the consciousness within the class. It is called class consciousness. Each of the characters tells their own story about how the capitalists oppress them. The 73

oppression causes the alienation in their life. The class consciousness is necessarily needed to do the class struggle. In Waiting for Lefty, the proletariat gets the class consciousness as an oppressed class that needs to be liberated. The class consciousness they get is followed by a form of class struggle, in this case, a strike. The strike is directed to the capitalists, in this case the owner of the taxi company, because the proletariat is tired of oppression they experience. The class struggle in Waiting for Lefty has two different forms, namely economical struggle and political struggle. Economical struggle is done because the proletariat wants a better economic condition while political struggle is done because the proletariat wants to completely remove the oppression.

It is obvious that the class of proletariat is crudely oppressed by the capitalists in capitalism society. It is clearly described in Clifford Odets’ Waiting for Lefty. However, the oppression might be ended when the class of proletariat does the class struggle. The struggle becomes a lethal weapon that is launched as the impact of oppression they get as a class that has no power in the society.

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