QUEANO, Chriszel Ann I.

4POL2 POL 265: Reflection Paper A Bugs Life The movie A Bugs life recounts the narrative of a colony of ants who seasonally gather food for themselves and for a cruel bunch of grasshoppers led by Hopper. One of the members of the colony, Flik who is always unappreciated by his invention accidentally threw the food supply into the river when the day of offering had come; the angry leader of the grasshoppers threatens to kill the ants if they do not provide a new supply of food by the time they return, which would be an impossible task for the ants. Flik leaves the colony with the hope that he will find other warrior bugs to help wage a war against the grasshoppers, he stumbles across a group of bugs who are suffering because they were fired by their ringmaster. This group also believes that Flik is a talent agent and they agree to travel back to Ant Island with him. When the group becomes aware of the agreement they have with Flik, they leave Flik but re-join the colony when they save the Queens daughter Dot from a bird attack. This attack inspires Flik to devise a plan. They will build a fake bird to scare away Hopper and his gang. When the bird is finish, however the circus ringmaster arrives searching for the circus bugs. The colony rejects Flik and he finds himself banished by Princess Atta, heir to the throne of Ant. Meanwhile with Flik banished, the ants desperately try to gather enough food for the grasshoppers but are unable to do so. Dots mistakenly overhears Hoppers plan to kill the queen. Dots looks for Flik to convince him to return and use his fake bird. The bird is almost a success until it is accidentally set on fire; Hopper orders an attack on Flik. Before he proceeds to kill him, Princess Atta gets on the way defending Flik. They encourage the rest of the colony to fight against the grasshoppers scaring them off with Hopper but the rain suddenly drops and Hopper grabbed the opportunity to kidnap Flik. Flik leads Hopper to an actual birds nest but Hopper mistakenly thought it is only one of the fake birds Flik made. Hopper taunts the bird and the bird picked him up and fed to her chicks. Flik was welcomed by the ants again. Marxism is the theory of Karl Marx and Fredrich Engels that emphasizes the importance of class struggle in society. In the film, the colony of ant and the gang of grasshoppers could be said the two classes. This is the first manifestation of Marxist thought on the film. Seasonally, the ants are expected to give offerings to the grasshoppers The colony of ant (workers/servants) which work to have food offerings for the grasshopper are referred to as the working class or the servants. While the grasshoppers who are few in numbers could be referred to as the master class. This master class behavior could be described as oppressive. They are not working hard enough like the ants and yet they have foods from the hard work of the ants. They are few in numbers but have the same amount of food like the ants who have a larger population. According to Marx a class is defined by the relations of its members to the means of production.

The worker is alienated because he has no control over the labor or product which he produces. The ants get no pay or no appreciation for working so hard collecting food for the grasshoppers. Second manifestation of Marxism for me that was seen in the movie is the struggle of ideas. The grasshopper especially the leader wants to keep the ants to have class consciousness. And in order to do so, there must be an ideological control. Hopper keeps the ants from believing that they have right for food and allowed them to believe that the ants need the grasshoppers. The grasshopper had tried to prevent the revolution of new ideas but failed to do so when the ants recognize that they outnumber the grasshoppers. Last manifestation of Marxism in the movie was the Historical materialism. One key idea of historical materialism is that in order for human beings to survive and continue existence from generation to generation, it is necessary for them to produce and reproduce the material requirements of life. In the movie, in order for the ants to survive and not to experience cruelty from the grasshoppers, they keep working and passing it to the generation of the ants for them to continue living. They wont produce enough food in time if their production level is low. The movie showed a clear manifestation of Marxism. The struggle of class, idea and importance of survival was seen in the movie. It also let me realized that Marxism is a great thought to eliminate inequality. In my perspective, eliminating the classes is not a bad idea after all. For the people to survive, they must work and get what they deserve, not just depend on the fruit of labor to other. Because of this thought, we could promote cooperation in order to have high productivity level.