I thought Alien Nation was a T.V. show?....An overview of Marx and Dancer in the Dark

Keith Garcia

At the beginning of the reading Marx talks about how as workers the labor we put into an object is confined in that object. He goes on to explain that the worker puts his heart and soul into an object only for it to remain trapped in that object; (The greater this product, the less is he himself) Marx 297. Marx describes this as the alienation of labor in which this labor is external; that the work is not essential to that person. "His labor is therefore not voluntary, but coerced; it is forced labor"(298).

The same can be said for the character Selma in Lars von Trier's Dancer in the Dark. She spent many hours at the factory making what looked like sinks or basins. At the factory she is no longer herself and thus becomes a product of labor. She works hard all day for a paycheck which she uses sparingly, only paying for necessities and putting the rest away for her son's eye operation. She fears he will suffer from blindness which she is also battling. Scolded for almost ruining the machine line and falling behind on products produced, she starts to feel as less of a person. This brings in a sense of alienation because she feels that she is not cut out for any other work because her current occupation is all she knows and without eyesight she can not learn anything new.

With all this talk of alienation what does it have to do with Selma? How does the director show this in his film? Marx says that alienation is labor of self-sacrifice and that's exactly what Selma has done. She has sacrificed herself to the work line so that her son would be able to have his vision the rest of his life. However, her labor was taken away by her eyesight as she broke one of the machines in the production line. This caused her to lose her work and source of income for Jean's operation. Marx also states that whatever the product of his labor is, he is not (297) and that is how Selma felt after losing her job. She felt like she wasn't capable of doing anything else and when put in a confrontation between her neighbor Bill and her stolen money, she had to make the ultimate sacrifice. He wasn't going to give her the money back unless she killed him, which she did and refused a 2nd trial and lawyer so that she could use the money for the operation. She lost all hope for herself and in return wanted Jean to pull forward. She did not want him to become a harsh object of labor.