ENGL 200 D: Reading Literature: Literature in the Marketplace

“Consciousness is, therefore, from the beginning a social product, and remains so long as men exist at all” (Marx 158)

Marx is trying to say that your interactions with the environment and life have a big effect on your consciousness. Your place in society, your idea and ideals all interact with one another and make up this entity of consciousness. How you interact with people and live your life make up your consciousness. As long as there are people, there will be interactions and social involvement which will shape your outlook. These experiences that you have will help you make a kind of tool to make sense of what life is. People think that consciousness comes to you when you are born, but Marx says that consciousness has to do with society. Consciousness is integrated into society and is part of your everyday life. It is developed from opinions, interactions, the choices that you make and the goals you set.

An example would be the interactions with your friends and family that shaped how you see the world. Knowledge gained through those experience and even school can develop your consciousness further. Society has a great effect on your everyday life therefore, consciousness is a social product, it comes from others not just yourself. This is important because if consciousness is a social product we can relate it to concrete ideas that we can understand rather than relying on the idea that consciousness is just there and isn’t influenced by practical or material things.