Class Consciousness Theme Analysis

Over the course of Ernesto “Che” Guevara’s youthful motorcycle trip across South America, he learns about the class system that structures South American societies, and he comes to understand the injustice of oppressing the working class (called the “proletariat” in the Marxist terminology that Ernesto uses). Ernesto, an ambitious young man from the middle class who has many opportunities available to him, does not at first understand the importance of class-based analysis of social issues. At the beginning of the memoir, he depicts his experience without a significant focus on class, but seeing firsthand the dire and unjust effects of poverty causes him to shift his analytical frame, recounting his experiences to highlight the plight of the working class and the unjust behavior of the ruling classes. Ernesto’s observations lead him to correctly predict that drastic inequality between classes (and, in particular, the oppression of the lower classes) would have revolutionary consequences in South America—consequences which, the reader knows, Ernesto would ultimately help to bring about.

Ernesto’s realization that social class affects every aspect of a person’s life begins on a personal level. When others treat him and his traveling companion Alberto differently based on arbitrary and shifting signifiers of their social class, Ernesto comes to see that people offer respect, kindness, and help not based on who he is, but based on what class they perceive him to be. Ernesto and Alberto come from middle-class backgrounds, but they’re treated like poor people for the first time when their motorcycle breaks. Becoming “bums without wheels” makes finding people to help them on their journey much harder. For example, during a boat trip, the first-class passengers are unwilling to associate with two young men who they believe to be of small means.  By contrast, when Ernesto and Alberto convince people that they are leprosy experts (when the truth is that they’re medical students), they are perceived as upper class professionals, so the townspeople are eager to feed and help them.

Ernesto and Alberto recognize, however, that these kindnesses do not extend to people who seem less wealthy. A soldier who was “so kind to [Ernesto and Alberto] just the day before” is cruel when he’s in charge of a group of poor and indigenous conscript soldiers, showing clearly that people are more helpful to those of higher class status. In one telling episode, the local police procure mountain horses for the “doctors” by stealing from some passing indigenous people (the lowest group on the class ladder). The rightful owners of the horses follow Ernesto away from the town and ask for the return of their property. Ernesto’s inability to communicate with them until a translator arrives demonstrates his initial naivety, but his immediate return of the horses and refusal to be complicit in class oppression shows that his experiences of differential treatment based on class have led to a moral conviction not to benefit from class privilege.

Ernesto’s political evolution is not just one of awareness, but also one of action. Just as he becomes more aware of the effects of class oppression, Ernesto begins to admire people he meets who work to alter the status quo, which foreshadows his becoming a political revolutionary. The doctors Ernesto and Alberto meet in the leprosy colonies leave a profound impression on Ernesto. Instead of using their profession to enrich themselves personally and socially, these doctors work to ameliorate the lives of the most neglected and despised groups. By noting that “the people who are in charge do a great job, even if it goes unnoticed,” Ernesto stresses that it’s noble to work for the betterment of others with little possibility for reward.

Ernesto also finds inspiration in working class and poor people, which marks a more radical departure from his middle-class upbringing. When Ernesto and Alberto are staying near some Chilean mines, Ernesto has an inspiring encounter with a working class couple who have been labeled Communists (at the time, this was illegal in Chile) and barred from employment because they agitated for better wages. Describing the husband as having “a mysterious, tragic air,” Ernesto portrays him in almost mythic proportions despite his lowly circumstances. Subsequently, Ernesto declares that this couple is “a living representation of the proletariat in any part of the world,” thus showing that he sees the couple as a general example of how class struggle can better the lives of the poor. This reveals that Ernesto is transforming his personal experiences into both moral convictions and political strategies.

Ernesto’s sprawling journey across his home continent eventually leads him to sweeping conclusions about South America’s political future. Noticing the dire living conditions and simmering frustrations of the impoverished proletariat, Ernesto expresses grave doubts as to “how long this present order, based on its absurd idea of caste” can persist. Similarly, after parting from the Communist mining couple, Ernesto concludes that Communism is only “a natural longing for something better” and “a protest against persistent hunger,” which rebrands Communism—an ideology feared and despised by the middle classes—as a rational and sympathetic reaction to an unjust world. This is one of Ernesto’s most explicit indications of his revolutionary future, showing that he believes that a Communist rebellion against the status quo is the only way to liberate oppressed South Americans.

While Ernesto begins his trip with little awareness of the injustices of social class, his experiences and observations give him a strong sense of the oppression faced by those in the lower classes. By the end of the memoir, Ernesto sees everything through the lens of class, and his critique of class-based oppression solidifies his commitment to working to better the lives of others. Notably, Ernesto does not, in the face of oppression, commit himself to compassion or charity; instead, he comes to believe that the simmering resentment of large swaths of oppressed people has the potential to overthrow oppressive systems. As such, he commits himself to helping those people revolt.