Noreen Patricia V. Nombre – PL4A Reaction Paper International Political Economy

A Bug’s Life: A Political Analysis

Class consciousness is not fully recognized at the society at the contemporary Era. Why? The answer is because we are not used to changes in the norms or traditions that we encountered for the past years, especially on the categorization of classes. For instance, an employee works 8-9 hours a day but is paid tightly, employers works the same hours as the employees but is paid highly, or above that of a regular employee. My Mom and Dad experienced this up until now without realizing the difference, since they thought that our standing in the societal is and normal due to the fact that we are able to have things we need and want. However, as exemplified in the movie, the ants are obliged to collect pieces of petty foods and after every season the grasshoppers grab the collected food easily, and rather forcefully. This happens because of the fear, fear against the harm of violence brought about by the Grasshoppers. Same as the fear that the employee’s feel when they go against the administration of the companies, corporations, and other institutions. Exploitation is clearly seen in the movie as the ants keep on working in order to fill the container of the food for the Grasshoppers. On the latter part of the movie, class consciousness becomes the primordial tool for the ants to rebel against their antagonists as they discovered who they really are as part of nature, how many they are and what they can do for the benefit of the colony. Class consciousness was a problem as shown in the movie and also Karl Marx quoted: “It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but, on the contrary, their social being determines their consciousnesses”. Ants believed that they are under the grasshoppers so they let the exploitation and abuse continue for several years.

Luckily, there is an incident brought up by “Flik”, the protagonist who invented most of the equipments for harvest in order to easily collect food, however, the machine caused the collected foods to vanish.. Just like in reality, this is the same with the process of production in a Capitalist society. The Grasshoppers came to the anthill viciously and knowing that there is no food left due to the unforeseen incident, “Hopper” the leader of tough grasshoppers, warned them that if they go back and still not enough food, they will violently attack the ants. This fear leads them to work very hard each day and also decided to send Flik to the city for some help. Help was found but it was technically and basically unnecessary as those people were not skilled in combat fighting. Class consciousness was manifested when the colony heard the murmur of Hopper as he said that: "those puny little ants outnumber us 100-to-1, and if they figure that out, there goes our way of life”. That single line provided an adequate amount of realization that each of and every ant is sharing the same experience of exploitation, and thus questions themselves “why do we do these things” (particularly referring to working for the convenience of the grasshoppers). Fortuitously, they were able to overthrow the oppressors and stoop stand up for the rights and wealth they deserve.

Noreen Patricia V. Nombre – PL4A Reaction Paper International Political Economy

Class struggle cannot be denied as exemplified in the movie. Just like what had Warren Buffet quoted that: “There’s class warfare, all right, but it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” To contextualize, we can say that the grasshoppers is most likely the same that of the rich class today. They are the ones who feel convenience in their life as the workers (as represented by the ants) were suffering physically, spiritually, mentally, financially and other integral aspects of the human person. The ants (workers) were clearly exploited in the movie due to the lack of class consciousness they have before the incident brought by Flik. In a nutshell, the exploitative government of the grasshoppers was overthrown but it turned the colony to be ruled in a monarchial states lead by the Queen. Therefore, democracy or equality was not clearly achieved by the ants. But I guess, as it is presented in the movie, the colony liked it more and became prosperous by accepting the transformation of some norms and traditions they have while working. One of it is the usage of the harvester machine to increase the amounts of food the ants could have every season.