The Communist Manifesto Booker's Seven Basic Plots Analysis

The Call

The bourgeoisie is oppressing the proletariat, subjecting them to horrible working conditions in cramped factories. Individual laborers get the idea to rebel, one by one.

The Journey

The rebellion spreads from individual laborers to entire workplaces, and from there to groups of workplaces and eventually labor unions. The proletariat even begins to form political parties.

Arrival and Frustration

The bourgeoisie manages to keep the workers in check, even though the proletariat has some political power. The workers decide that a worldwide violent revolution is the only way to win.

The Final Ordeals

The proletariat kills or otherwise gets rid of the oligarchical authorities, seizes all political power, and sets up a temporary vanguard government to transition society from capitalism to communism. The workers run economic, educational, and other programs aimed at changing society, until the means of production and capital are owned by the community in common.

The Goal

A new society without economic classes has been established. Personal belongings remain privately owned, but the former bourgeois property—the means of production, the excess capital (profit)—is shared in common. The organizing principle (not stated in the Manifesto, but popularized by Marx elsewhere) is: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.