Conditions Endured by the French Working Classes Essay

Conditions Endured by the French Working Classes - Essay Example Related to the plight of the French working class throughout time, from Sands fictional portrayal of the life of the working class person to the concept of the Paris Commune of 1871 as espoused by Bakunin, and the account of the Paris Workers’ Revolution as given by Marx. Each has a different perception, and likely none contributed to garnering tremendous sympathy for the very French individuals they were designed to invoke as such. The Paris Commune is predicated on the premise that the Church and the State are primarily responsible for the plight of the working class in French. As such, they should be abolished, as a society would be better off without these institutions. Take from the perspective of an Anarchist, Bakunin makes the effective argument that government exists for the elite and, apart from its complete abolition, the French people would continue to suffer under a sort of tyrannical rule. Sands’ notion of the Black City is reflective of this reality as well, as she paints a picture of French society as being largely reprehensible towards the common man. At the same time, the working class seems to have a misplaced ambition that precludes them advancing in society, held back by Marxist teaching and tendencies1. Her ambition was to support the poor and working class, and she used much of her writings to support this important objective. The Black City itself was a precursor to the newspaper that she started shortly after the 1848 Revolution. Through this fictional account, Sands presented the reality that the French Working Class have no escape from the life that they find themselves in. They have become complacent and accepting of this fact, lending to the reality that a true worker’s revolution would be the only way out of the strife and difficult that the church and state had placed them in.