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Heathers: Marxism and the truth behind High School Politics
Yo - so here’s an essay I did last summer in prep for my English Literature coursework. Just be aware that I did get Marxism and Capitalism mixed up throughout the essay, so if you spot that, it’s because at the time I was just learning about Marxist interpretations of film and literature. So I apologise in advance for that.
In films, American high schools are traditionally depicted as treacherous battlefields with popularity and social acceptance being the ultimate symbol of superiority. Such is the case in Michael Lehmann’s dark comedy, Heathers. However, the 1988 film could also be interpreted as a microcosm of the Marxist society in which the popular and beautiful take on the role of the bourgeoisie, and the remaining population of Westerburg High School – namely the characters of Betty Finn, Jason “J.D.” Dean and Martha “Dumptruck” Dunstock – adopt the role of the proletariat.
In Heathers, the proletarian revolution - which will always fail due to the overwhelming power of the Marxist society – takes the sinister form of Veronica and J.D. killing off the bourgeoisie (the popular but exploitative Heather Chandler, Kurt Kelly and Ram Stoker) and making each murder appear to be a suicide. Such a revolution appears unsuccessful in breaking the mould of the bourgeoisie and proletariat segregation, as another member of the Heathers – this time, Heather Duke – merely takes Heather Chandler’s place as the head of the Heathers clique. Although Heather Duke was seen as the least acknowledged of the Heather clique at the beginning of the film, she is the one to take over after Heather Chandler’s death, and is even more ruthless than her predecessor. In one scene, Veronica asks Heather Duke why she is “such a megabitch”. Heather’s reply is simply “because I can be”, showing how the power of the bourgeoisie, and the power of a capitalist society in general, can corrupt the seemingly naive into becoming ruthless
Heathers presents high schools in general as microcosms of the Marxist society. In the scene before he and Veronica murder two of the bourgeoisie of Westerburg High School – Ram and Kurt – J.D. says that throughout seven schools and seven states, “the only thing different is my locker combination”. This can be interpreted as the politics present across all American high schools are the same – the popular and beautiful hold all the power and the “regular” students are just there to make life easy and fun for them. After all, for there to be a bourgeoisie, there has to be a proletariat.
The first scene of the film, in which the three Heathers are playing croquet in a colour co-ordinated fashion, displays the mould and exclusivity of the bourgeoisie. A sport commonly associated with the upper class and the elite, it only seems fitting that we would see the Heathers playing croquet. This parallels a later scene in which Betty Finn – a minor character much lower on the social ladder of Westerburg High – plays the game with Veronica. Though Veronica comes from a wealthy family and is a half-hearted member of the Heathers clique, seeing Betty play the game seems out of place, as she isn’t a member of the popular clique, nor is she high in her social standing. When told to knock Veronica’s croquet ball out, Betty states “Nice guys finish last. I should know.” Betty’s statement emphasises that to become the bourgeoisie, one must exploit others, and the proletariat must remain passive and, as Betty Finn puts it, “finish last” as the “nice guys” do.
Furthermore, the beginning scene of Heathers also depicts Veronica Sawyer as an obstacle in the Heathers’ croquet game. In the critical anthology, Marx states that “capitalism thrives on exploiting its workers”. As an outsider but also a member of the Heathers clique, Veronica reflects the exploitation of the proletariat. Although she is a member of the clique, Veronica is only part of it to be used by Heather Chandler, Heather Duke and Heather McNamara to humiliate and degrade the other students of Westerburg High School. Later used to forge the suicide notes of hers and J.D.’s victims, the Heathers use Veronica’s skill of accurately forging other people’s handwriting to humiliate Martha “Dumptruck”, a classmate much lower down on the Westerburg social ladder. In this sense, Veronica Sawyer is merely a tool for the bourgeoisie – the Heathers – and is only given the taste of being a Heather because they want to exploit her and use her for their personal gain, much like the bourgeoisie want to use the proletariat for their personal gain in a Marxist society.
It is outwardly stated that high schools in general are a reflection of the society they stand in. As J.D.’s proletarian revolution fails, he states that he didn’t attempt to present his blowing up of Westerburg High as a mass suicide pact because society didn’t care, but because “the school is society”. As such, J.D. presents Westerburg as a microcosm of society, and infers that one day, society will one day self destruct, and there is nothing anybody can do about it. Consequently, his self-declared revolution backfires completely, and he just ends up blowing himself up as attempting a proletarian revolution corrupted him to the point of attempted genocide. In that sense, the entire story of Heathers is that of the inevitable failure of any proletarian revolution. Validation of the need for a Marxist society is also given by J.D. in an earlier scene. When confronted by Veronica about his plans to blow up the school, he justifies his actions by saying “the only place where different social groups can get along is in heaven”. This implies that the only way for the proletariat and the bourgeoisie to co-exist on the same level is for the society to be destroyed and for everyone in it to be killed. Ultimately, Heathers sends the message that the only society that is capable of succeeding is the Marxist society.
And - - - he's gone. [ The sentence took on a teasing tilt, despite the shock that was running through him. The Doctor, gone, abandoning the one thing the Planner had been certain he would never leave.
He should have expected the Doctor to not act as predicted. As it was, he now had to recalculate everything, a buzzing of thoughts that she was sure to notice. ]
[ yo! html is in the cog thing in the corner! I haven't used it yet though so idk if it works the same as before ]
yo! thank you for letting me know!! I just checked it out and tbh I actually like it it has both a html window and preview window. Where it now shows exactly how the elements will look. Unlike before if you use a
element in the text area you would only see a change in font style unless the post was published and viewed on dash/blog. :)
"How do you feel about black markets? Or dinosaurs? Or a black market ran
by dinosaurs? Although I should say that they're not technically dinosaurs.
Dinosaur-ish would be more accurate, I suppose."
