The Free Peach

Our generation remembers Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events saga well, and now that we’re old enough to have taken a sociology class, it’s time to give the series a Marxist analysis. Was Count Olaf really evil? Or was he simply a Marxist with goals of restorative justice?

1.) Wanted to redistribute wealth from the elite.

First and foremost, we must recognize that Count Olaf was a modern-day Robin Hood. He was after the Baudelaire fortune, but not for selfish reasons. He was more than willing to redistribute the fortune to his comrades that were a part of his theater troupe. 

2.) Wanted to undermine Nepotistic wealth concentration practices.

Secondly, we must acknowledge how the Baudelaire orphans came about their fortune. They simply inherited it from their capitalist parents, demonstrating the deep flaws of inheritance laws in this day and age. Count Olaf was targeting one of the key policy failures that allow billionaires and millionaires to proliferate when he chose the Baudelaire children as targets of his redistribution mission.

3.) Wanted to redistribute wealth to the disabled community.

Count Olaf wasn’t simply about class consciousness. He also was deeply aware of intersectional issues and recognized the importance of distributing money to marginalized communities. His theater troupe included a “hook-handed man,” and later included the circus “freaks” from the Caligari Carnival. Count Olaf was thus committed to redistributing wealth to his disabled friends, ranging from the ambidextrous to the hook-handed. 

4.) Wanted to redistribute wealth to the non-binary community.

Intersectional feminist Count Olaf was also committed to redistributing wealth to the non-binary/gender-fluid community. His theater troupe notably included the person who “looked neither like a man nor a woman,” and Count Olaf planned to share the wealth with this individual. Count Olaf understood the importance of redistributing wealth to all marginalized communities. 

5.) Count Olaf emulated Karl Marx.

Finally, Count Olaf embodied Karl Marx. They both had a greying beard and head of hair, and they similarly gathered mass followings. Count Olaf had his theater troupe, and Marx has hordes of sociology undergrads. Both amassed a significant amount of literature, such as the A Series of Unfortunate Events saga and The Communist Manifesto. They held shared charisma, and most importantly shared beliefs.

Don’t let the capitalist propaganda fool you! Count Olaf was no villain. He was simply a Marxist trying to redistribute capital from a nepotistic family to less fortunate often overlooked communities.