ENGL 200 D: Reading Literature: Literature in the Marketplace

John Locke and Stephen Duck both write on the topic of labor and how much entitlement a laborer has based on his work.  In Locke’s opinion whoever works the land is entitled to whatever it produces because of that labor, any man can work as much land as he wants as long as no space or produce is wasted. If a man takes more than he can handle and some goes to waste it is considered depriving someone else the chance of successfully working the land and it can be taken away. The world Duck lives in not only disagrees with but is completely backwards from Locke’s theories. He works the master’s land and if he were to take any of the produce that he worked for without permission it would be considered stealing. His labor produces the value, but none of it belongs to him, while the landowner doesn’t work for it at all and gets all of the profit before dealing out wages.

If the philosopher and the poet were to have a conversation I think that Locke would try to inform Duck of his rights as a hard working man. That he should be working his own land, that all he has to do is move further out to where there is wild land, ripe for the working for any free man. Duck would probably think this sounds nice but understands that he needs other people to make a living, he needs the other people to work the land with him and despite that his family has most likely worked on this spot for generations. Even though he doesn’t own this land, he might feel a connection to it. To which Locke would say something along the lines of “Nonsense!” there is a whole world out there ready to be tilled and planted. Why not try America? They have endless amounts of workable land out there!

In the end, Locke and Duck never would agree on what a laboer is entitled to. Because though Locke’s philosophies sound nice and utopic, Duck works in the real world, or at least what he thinks his reality has to be. His labor does not entitle him to the fruits of the fields he works, and this is the cycle in which he will live his life.