To what extent can different aspects of Marxist literary theory be applied to Tony Harrisons poem, The Red Lights of Plenty?

It is for this reason, perhaps, that Harrison refers to the leaves as “red welcomes on the pavements” in the second stanza. In retaining a sense of ambiguity, Harrison forces the reader to infer a connection between the leaves and the initials “VIPs” that appear two lines later. Our familiarity with the Celebrity means we immediately surmise that the red leaves form a red carpet, creating a sense of the upper class metaphorically walking over the lower classes. Because it is natural for the reader to make this inference, Harrison criticises the ease with which we legitimise inequality between classes, thus ensuring the continuation of capitalist dominance. Conversely, it could be argued that the red carpet serves to raise the worker up to the level of the profiteers - to elevate the status of “the least pedestrians” to that of “VIPs” - thus challenging social order. Indeed, Marxist thought states that the proletariat are of equal or greater value than bourgeois classes and given Harrison’s working class background, it is unsurprising that he should share this view.

However, as the poem progresses, the colour red warns of the wider implications of capitalism’s push for resources that according to Marxism, would result in another world war. This, coupled with the fact that Harrison was writing during the Cold War (a time of tension regarding nuclear fallout), positions America as the cause of destruction in the poem. He describes “her cornucopia” as “a guttering torch” “hot enough to scorch the whole Earth dry.” Through this clear reference to the Statue of Liberty, Harrison also creates irony by subverting what the statue stands for – freedom. Throughout the poem the workers are portrayed as anything but free. The poem’s form as a whole is dedicated to emphasising this point. Each line acts as a measurement of the number of “new souls” born into and stuck in the perpetual cycle of capitalist production. The last stanza is shorter, a quatrain, to strengthen this message. Indeed, in ‘Marxism and Form’ (1971) Jameson describes form as “the working out of content”.

Harrison also subverts the positive connotations of plenty, an ideology which could be seen as an aspect of the ‘American dream’. According to Marxism, literature challenges the ideology it is faced with and “transcends the ideological limits of its time, yielding us insight into the realities in which ideology hides from view.” This is what Harrison essentially achieves. Through the poem’s first person narrative, Harrison makes direct judgements of America, each stanza forming a separate critical observation, where lines such as “I stroll around Washington”, act as discourse markers. The first person narrative also emphasises that Harrison is distanced from America by reminding the reader that he does not live there. By not being a part of America’s social system, he removes himself, theoretically, from the country’s socio-economic circumstances – the country’s base - and is therefore, ‘immune’ to the ideology that emerges from the base as part of the superstructure. This prevents Harrison’s work from becoming hypocritical – after all he is claiming that everyone else “can’t see as [he] can” the injustices that the social system engenders. Harrison stresses this fact through the pumpkin image in stanza seven.  He creates irony through the way in which the pumpkin (“PLENTY’s head”) is effectively blind yet its “gouged eyes” are still “glued” to the sight of “some unbelievably bright glare.”

It could, however, be argued, that the nuclear “bright glare” of “World War Three” will be the result of social unrest, as the increasing “fever” builds “floor by floor”. Indeed, throughout the poem there is a sense that the worker will rise up and topple those in power, for as Marx believed, “the capitalist run system would eventually and inevitably break down, due to the chasm of inequalities it engenders”. This is illustrated in the third stanza where the workers have been forced underground – “bulldozed by Buick and by Cadillac.” However, despite being “buried” they are not passive, quite the contrary; Harrison emphasises how they come alive. He achieves this by collectively alluding to them as “thousands of Poe’s tell-tale hearts”. Through this simile Harrison explores how although “hack[ed]”, as the old man was hacked in Poe’s story, their hearts keep beating and unify, “pound[ing] with a bass and undissembled beat”. The stress on “beat” creates a masculine ending, further emphasising people power. Indeed, the onomatopoeic ‘sound’ of the heart creates “demolition” below the streets of America, a cataphoric reference to the final stanza, where the “wreckers’ ball” “throbs” “beneath the White House”. Marxist thought dictates that “the State, for as long as it has existed, has used its power to oppress and exploit the labouring masses for the benefit of the wealthy elite”. The White House of the final stanza is the state, thus Harrison suggests that the workers will topple the American government by undermining the very foundations of power upon which it has been built.  

Harrison’s criticisms are not, however, confined to America. The poem’s warning is also directed at “countries like [Harrison’s] own” - Britain. This is due to the fact that at the time when the poem was produced, Thatcher’s Britain and Reagan’s America had similar political policies, particularly since Britain’s shift to the right on economic and foreign policy, providing the capitalist classes with more power. Indeed America “chokes back tears” for those countries with similar political systems.

Different aspects of Marxist literary theory can be applied to nearly all areas of the poem because it deals with the multiple effects that a capitalist society has on the lower classes. Effects such as worker alienation, reification and exploitation are the most easily addressed, yet Harrison’s criticism of America’s ideology through use of subtle irony provides in some ways, a more powerful message. Although ambiguous, we see how both capitalist excess (as represented by the motif of plenty) and social unrest are likely to coalesce, causing destruction. Whether this is taken literally (the reality of World War Three) or metaphorically (perceived social disharmony) would differ according to the time in which the poem is read. Today, the threat of World War Three is less relevant than it was in the 1980s. Social and racial discontent, however, will always be an issue.

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