https://music.apple.com/gb/album/monkey-bear/204051949?i=204052560

Monkey and Bear (the working class) are exploited for their labour by the farmer (the ruling class). The horses’ escape (revolution) has failed; some overfeed themselves and die, the others end up knowing they should “stay by the gate you are given / remain in your place”

They resign themselves to life on the farm, learning that it is safer to be content with their status as property, living within the rules imposed by their owner. Bear convinces Monkey that they can now escape “fair and square”

He capitalises on the opportunity provided by the horses’ revolution despite not participating in it. “They left the gate open wide”. Their shot at freedom is framed as a concession by their (now former) oppressors rather than the result of an active class struggle

Monkey professes his “just and earnest” love for Bear, turning Bear against and dissociating himself from that “heartless hay-monger”. But these declarations are insincere; he is a capitalist and knows he can profit from exploiting Bear in the exact same way the farmer did

Despite being from the same economic and social background, Monkey immediately asserts a hierarchy of power, with himself in control. He seizes the means of production for himself, rather than as common property, therefore becoming the new ruling class

Monkey’s criticism of the farmer (the old regime, as it were) is hollow. He claims to be revolutionary but refuses to dismantle the capitalist model of production, upholding the status quo and simply shifting the benefits of the exploitation to himself. Nothing changes for Bear

On the farm, they were kept as an organ grinding monkey and dancing bear. Wage slaves to the farmer. Monkey convinces Bear, who we learn is called Ursula, that she must continue dancing, just for now. Importantly, Ursula, a woman, is forced to perform by Monkey, a man

He convinces her that she must keep dancing, out of necessity (“we’ve got to eat something”). He has nothing material to offer, only vague, idealistic promises of a eventually reaching a better life (“oh the hills are groaning with excess... my darling, we will get there yet”)

Monkey appeals to Ursula’s fear of sharing the horses’ fate to maintain the capitalist modes of production and “the boarders that man has girded” His liberal reforms avoid challenging the structures of oppression, but instead frame them as being in the workers’ interests

Revolution does not improve the living conditions of the working class if capitalism is maintained. Monkey soon begins to stop keeping small promises, such as making an excuse to keep walking further than they’d agreed

And they had agreed - he allowed her to throw a stone “to mark where they’d stop”, but that was merely maintaining the illusion of consultation. This could be interpreted as a metaphor for allowing the people to vote but then continuing to act in the ruling classes’ interests

It is also a capitalist slowly negotiating basic rights away from the worker. Monkey dismisses her concerns (“move along Bear... that’s that”) whilst maintaining vague promises of a “feast...which lies a little past the pasture”. Her supposedly temporary wage slavery is extended

And bear continues to dance:

“So, with the courage of a clown, or a cur / Or a kite, jerking tight at its tether / In her dun-brown gown of fur / And her jerkin' of swansdown and leather / Bear would sway on her hind legs / The organ would grind dregs of song...”

Ursula is no longer oblivious to the fact she is being manipulated (“Still, they’d got to pay the bills, hadn’t they? / That is what the Monkey would say”). She realises that Monkey has been the one convincing her this whole time

She feels betrayed, realising the suffering she has endured in service to Monkey. She loses faith in the new regime, who still simply exist to profit off her labour. Monkey’s ideology of democratic reformism doesn’t serve her class interests or improve her conditions

Her dancing is awkward and clumsy. She is forced to wear a gown of fur and leather, made from fellow animals. She doesn’t object as she accepts Monkey’s argument of necessity. He owns the organ, and so she is reliant on him

Ursula’s acceptance of these conditions is not portrayed as courageous, but almost pitiful. She degrades and herself as a wage slave, and is effectively dehumanised. Dancing on two feet, wearing clothes, using currency...

By commodifying herself rather than “bearing her teeth” as promised, she loses what it is to be a bear. Tensions form between the two, and Monkey becomes impatient. His “love” is now explicitly conditional (“IF you dance, darling, I will love you still”)

He is now less committed to maintaining his facade of serving her interests, and believes himself capable of ruling through subtle threats of what would happen if she refused to participate, rather than promises of a better life.

And then comes the turning point:

The extent of Monkey’s exploitative nature is revealed, as well as his contempt for Ursula. He is “miserly”, acting only within his personal interests. He becomes aware of Ursula’s revolutionary sentiment but is too weak to follow her into the caves

He was afraid of Ursula appearing to the village people as a dirty, working class stereotype, no doubt internalising his fears of their own prejudice towards him. He wants Ursula adhere to the standards of her oppressors, which is why he insisted on her wearing gowns of fur

His cruelty becomes apparent and he thinks of her with true disdain. He acknowledges the poor condition of her pelt, but doesn’t care for her attempts to wash it, and prepares to put her down when she returns. He doesn’t understand the point of “washing that face”

But Ursula doesn’t return. She simply wades out further and further into the water. She exercises her free will, de-commodifying herself, washing away her wage slavery to reveal the bear beneath. Taking revolutionary action. Rejecting labour and the life Monkey created

She swims out in an act of true defiance of the conditions imposed upon her, liberating herself from exploitation

As she does so, the physical symbols of her servitude fall away. Not just the clothes she danced in, but her actual body (“legs...arms...diluvial shoulders....burden of belly”). She rejects the parts of her self she sold as a commodity, cleanses herself of them

She also sheds her class identity, and is no longer referred to as “Ursula”, but simply “Bear”. She is no longer defined by the name she was given by humans, by the name she was forced to dance by, by her societal role. She is no longer a wage slave and so rejects her slave name

In the ultimate act of liberation, Bear has transcended her physical body to escape from her oppressive material conditions

The scars that capitalism left on her (“her threadbare coat.. worn translucent in places”) are healed. She now produces by herself for sustenance without commodifying her labour. She uses her own body to quench the hunger that has built up over a lifetime of exploitation

(“Now her coat drags though the water / bagging with a life’s worth of hunger / limitless minnows”). The final line (“sooner or later you’ll bury your teeth”) calls back to Monkey’s promise that she’d eventually “bare her teeth” if she followed him and kept dancing for a while

But she bared her teeth without him after realising that he was responsible for her suffering, and can now bury them, as she is liberated and no longer requires them. She is now at peace. She, the working class, has overthrown her oppressors and fully realised her free self

Bear’s journey represents class struggle and demonstrates the exploitative nature of capitalism. She liberates herself from its oppressive structures after realising she doesn’t need the ruling classes to deliver her freedom

(In reality, within the context of the album, I interpret this through a feminist lens more than a socialist one and see the both structures of oppression and her eventual liberation as very gendered, but in isolation I think this reading works)

[End of Thread]