Neo-Marxism in John Lennon’s Working Class Hero | By Kate Reiner

Photo credit: Pixabay John Lennon statue at Hard Days Night Hotel in Liverpool, U.K.

A neo-Marxist perspective in narrative criticism calls to our attention the complexities of class distinction, hegemony, and social struggle that are continuously reinforced or challenged in everyday popular culture (Sellnow, 2018). Popular culture is rich (…pun intended) with texts demonstrating how class distinction is perceived and managed in our culture. Sellnow (2018) describes these texts as sites of struggle that “reinforce or call into question taken-for-granted beliefs about what is normal regarding empowerment” (p. 119). And from a neo-Marxist critical perspective, that struggle typically pertains to materialism or wealth. 

John Lennon’s (2016) song “Working Class Hero” is a good example of a site of struggle. Though originally released in 1970, its messages are still relevant today. The song describes the evolution of a working-class person who is born into an underprivileged situation, weathers the nuances of that life, and then recognizes that it’s possible to ascend to a more privileged status. To illustrate, the song begins by saying: 

As soon as you're born, they make you feel small

By giving you no time instead of it all

Til the pain is so big, you feel nothing at all

A working class hero is something to be

A working class hero is something to be 

(00:00:06)

Here the subject of the song is introduced, a person presumably born into the working class and immediately oppressed by that status. The song goes on to recount a coming-of-age progression of scenarios describing the working-class experience (not covered here for the sake of brevity) to arrive at the following implication in the second to last stanza: 

There's room at the top they are telling you still

But first you must learn how to smile as you kill

If you want to be like the folks on the hill

A working class hero is something to be

A working class hero is something to be 

(00:02:44)

Lennon’s references to the “room at the top”, and “folks on the hill” are indicative of a stereotypical class distinction, of poor versus wealthy, and the suggestion that one can traverse from one class to another serves to reinforce hegemonic class distinction. In Lennon’s account of the song’s intended message, he divulged that “The thing about the song that nobody ever got right was that it was supposed to be sardonic – it had nothing to do with socialism, it had to do with ‘If you want to go through that trip, you’ll get up to where I am, and this is what you’ll be’” (As cited in Havers, 2023, para. 11). The trip of course being what it takes to traverse a working-class status and attain a higher one. This is emphasized in the final stanza of the song, where he says:

If you want to be a hero, well, just follow me

If you want to be a hero, well, just follow me 

(00:03:23)

Lennon’s song demonstrates an ascent narrative, a rags-to-riches-type story that is inherently indicative of the neo-Marxist perspective. Ascent narratives are stories that center on the ascension of someone from an underprivileged social position to a more privileged one, thereby overcoming perceived material and/or social limitations attributed to the previous class distinction (Wartenberg, 2003). 

Lennon’s song also delivers what Sellnow (2018) describes as an inflected-oppositional reading of class distinction and hegemony in our culture, which is to say that it reaffirms the hegemony of prevailing ideologies about class distinction. This is a common reading for many popular culture texts, be it music, film, literature, product advertising, etc., where accounts of real-life struggles and triumphs are represented, and on the surface seem to disrupt the status quo and subvert hegemonic ideology but end up reaffirming it instead. 

Now this begs the question, does a neo-Marxist perspective and inflected-oppositional reading diminish the value of Lennon’s song or other texts like it? I don’t think so. On the contrary, I believe it contributes to its value by rendering it a true humanitarian critique and asking the listener to consider the realities of hegemony and the perceived consequences of class distinction. As Lennon once famously said, “My role in society, or any artist’s or poet’s role, is to try and express what we all feel. Not to tell people how to feel. Not as a preacher, not as a leader, but as a reflection of us all" (Taylor, 2021, para. 6).

I chose Working Class Hero as it’s one of my favorite songs from Lennon’s solo compositions. But the question always remains: Wherein lies the heroism in Lennon’s working class hero narrative? Is it in enduring the struggles of the working class? Or in ascending from it? And is one form of heroism in this regard necessarily better than the other? 

References

Havers, R. (2023, December 11). John lennon/plastic ono band’: how john lennon looked to his future. U Discover Music. https://www.udiscovermusic.com/behind-the-albums/john-lennon-plastic-ono-   band/#:~:text=There's%20%E2%80%9CWorking%20Class%20Hero%2C%E2%80%9D,through%20that%20trip%2C%20you'll

Lennon, J. [@johnlennon]. (2016, December 18). Working class hero (ultimate mix, 2020) - John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band (official music video) [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/iMewtlmkV6c?si=E2OETBaiI6fhLTXL

Sellnow, D. D. (2018). The rhetorical power of popular culture: considering mediated texts (3rd Ed). Sage Publications. 

Taylor, T. (2012, December 20). John Lennon decries the role of the artist in his final interview. Far Out. https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/john-lennon-decries-the-role-of-the-artist-in-his-final-interview/

Wartenberg, T. E. (2003). What’s a smart boy like you doing in a class like this? Intelligence and class in good will hunting. In J. Sakeris and M. Pomerance (Eds.), Popping culture (pp. 15-23). Pearson/Education.