Alienation is a central aspect of Marxist thought. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels argue in The Communist Manifesto that capitalism is the cause of alienation. The theory is that the estrangement, or alienation, of people is a consequence of living in a society with social classes. Social classes lead humans to be separated from each other and ultimately from themselves. Marx and Engels argue that capitalism causes workers to distance themselves from others due to class struggle, their act of production, and the human species. Throughout the Communist Manifesto, capitalism is shown to worsen the alienation of the worker in each of these aspects. As communism offers unity among workers, alienation, for Marx and Engels, is an effect of capitalism and its exploitation of the proletariat and communism is the solution they propose. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why violent video games should not be banned”?Get the original essayThe Communist Manifesto writes: “The history of any society up to now is the history of class struggles” (Marx and Engels, The Communist Manifesto 10). The idea of ​​class is a struggle for anyone oppressed by the boundaries of social class. This struggle is what shaped the society in which Marx and Engels lived. The authors argue that history is a constant battle, "...a struggle now open, a struggle which each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society as a whole, or in a common ruin of the class in competition” (10). This fight is due to alienation and oppression. Those who are oppressed feel alienated, which causes them to revolt against their oppressors. Marx and Engels use these historical examples to show how capitalism led to revolution and war, “freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guildmaster and journeyman…” (10). Why are these people separated? This is due to social classes. Capitalism leads those in power to take what they can from the weaker party. This idea of ​​class creates an unfair system for the lower classes. They write: “Our era, the era of the bourgeoisie, however, has this distinctive feature: it has simplified class antagonisms. Society as a whole is divided more and more into two large hostile camps, into two large directly opposed classes: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat” (10). What the bourgeoisie and the proletariat have in common is that they are opposed to each other. The Bourgeoisie and the Proletariat rely on each other, but it is the workers who feel distant from each other because they benefit less from this relationship. The upper class enjoys the benefits of lower class workers, while the lower class does not receive the same reward for their harder physical labor. Communism is the solution to class struggle proposed by Marx and Engels, sharing that without class, no one would feel separated from others. Another aspect of Marx's theory of alienation is the alienation of the worker and his product. When the worker creates the product, the product generates wealth which is given to the bourgeois and not to the worker, and then the condition of the worker deteriorates. The worker creates the thing that will eventually take control of him. This devalues ​​the worker. Capitalism also removes the value of labor: “in bourgeois society, living labor is only a means of increasing accumulated labor. In communist society, accumulated labor is only a means of expanding, enriching,.