Captive Audience : Alienation and Exploitation in Cory Doctorow's The Bezzle

Abstract

This thesis examines Cory Doctorow’s financial crime fiction The Bezzle, focusing on alienation derived from financial exploitation, and the role that information technology plays in this process. The novel's main character, Martin Hench, is a forensic accountant who engages in financial detective work to resolve cases of embezzlement and fraud and recover funds for his clients. When Martin's friend is imprisoned, he gets involved in uncovering corruption in the private prison system, fueled by excessive financial exploitation of the prisoner population through digital systems. The novel explores neoliberal financial practices against a backdrop of late capitalism and different stages of financial crisis.

Using Marxist concepts, this thesis investigates the novel's depiction of how accumulation of capital leads to widespread commodification, which in turn leads to extensive alienation. Drawing on David Harvey’s notion of accumulation by dispossession, this thesis highlights how the narrative reflects how contemporary capitalists extract value through overlapping legal and illegal means, and leverage debt and privatization as tools of exploitation and accumulation. Moreover, Marx’s theory of alienation is applied to examine how the novel portrays prisoners as commodities who exist to generate profit through digital platforms.

The analysis inspects The Bezzle as a critical commentary of pervasive commodification in the neoliberal system. The novel juxtaposes legitimate yet morally questionable financial practices with outright fraud, blurring the lines between legality and exploitation. By focusing on digital platforms contributing to the extreme alienation of prisoners, Doctorow illustrates the dehumanizing effects of digital and economic systems that prioritize profit over human dignity. Ultimately, the thesis attempts to interpret how The Bezzle serves as an allegory for alienation in contemporary society, reflecting the broader consequences of unchecked neoliberalism and the commodification of everyday digital life.