ENGL 4310

I never really liked the “overall” Marxist theory that seems to be what everyone knows about and has to do with money, classes, etc. I have always gravitated to parts of the Marxist theory that have little to do with money itself such as Althusser’s ISAs. Be that as it may, I know there are plenty of things dealing with money in these stories that we just read (“Noon Wine” and “Displace Person”). Both of these stories have people come to a failing farm and help save it. Both times the women owners of the farm start to have a “problem” with their financial saviors. During this second bout of reading, I tried to focus on why this turnabout takes place in each story. The reasons that I saw for “Displace Person” is a difference in Ideological State Apparatuses (ISA). Louis Althusser describes ISAs as a private and social organization, institution, or group that perpetuates ideologies (the way we think about ourselves). In “Displaced Person” (though granted it might be a bit of a stretch) Mrs. McIntyre holds to the ISA of racism. Society at that time had many “rules” to how the races were divided. When Mr. Guizac tries to get one of the black workers to pay for his niece to come over and then they can get married, Mrs. McIntyre flips. She calls Mr. Guizac a monster for even suggesting that a white girl marry a black man. Mr. Guizac’s difference in belief when it comes to races is enough to make Mrs. McIntyre be so upset that she finds him utterly irritating. She cannot understand the difference in ISA between herself and Mr. Guizac. She says, “I cannot understand how a man who calls himself a Christian could bring a poor innocent girl over here and marry her to something like that. I cannot understand it. I cannot!” (314). In response to this, Mr. Guizac says, “She no care black…she in camp three year” (314). Each person has a different thing that they value: She values keep the races “pure” and he values life away from Poland (as anyone probably would). Mrs. McIntyre does not question her beliefs in this particular ISA, but she is deeply shaken after this run-in with Mr. Guizac. “Her heart was beating as if some interior violence had already been done to her” (315). Finding someone who questions her ISA has deeply hurt Mrs. McIntyre, yet she still clings to it saying that he is upsetting her other workers and that they would be better off without him around.