...Oppression and Freedom of Women in Literature In the Nineteenth Century, women are viewed as inferiors to men. They are considered to be on the same level as children. Their role in society is that of housewives, child bearers and caretakers. However, women desperately needed more out of life and aspired to be like men. Throughout history women have fought for freedom and for society to view them as equals to men. Unfortunately, marriage in the Nineteenth Century is the only acceptable position for a woman. In Margaret Fuller’s book, Women in the Nineteenth Century, she describes the different types of marriages. The first type, the household partnership, is merely a convenience and a mutual dependence. The man is the provider and the woman is the caretaker. The second type is a mutual admiration, where man and woman share pure feelings with one another. The last is a marriage of intellectual companionship, where the man and woman are friends. The “transition of marriage in earlier times is that of convenience” (Fuller). These marriages lead many women to feel heavily burdened, both mentally and physically. In the literary works “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin, both women are characterized as victims oppressed by their marriage and their strong desire to be free. In each story, the women depicted are oppressed in their marriages. In “The Yellow Wallpaper,” the unidentified woman is taken to a summer...
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...In Tera W. Hunter’s “To Joy My Freedom,” Hunter discusses the lives of southern black women once the civil war ended. After the civil war, many black women were able to create new identities for themselves, as it related to their freedom. They were now able to pursue a new life and not have to worry about the reparations that came with their freedom. However, many black women realized that life after the civil war didn’t give them the life they dreamed for. Instead, black labor made them resemble the lives they lived when they were enslaved. The struggle of resisting systematic oppression points out how black women in the south had to fight for their dignity. Constantly being looked down upon, black women were still being seen as inferior,...
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...The loosening social strictures weaken the social influence during the modern society. For most of people in modern society, their responsibilities and functions for society are no longer become their first duties. People can enjoy their freedom and spend more time and to focus on their own lives. In “Selections from Hard to Get: Twenty-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom”, Leslie Bell points out that many young women face a very harsh situation in this society because they are suffering from stress that form main social value. During her essay, she aids some real personal sexual experience and feeling from Claudia, Jayanthi and Alicia and talks about both positive and negative impacts, which bring by their sexual experience....
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...westerners would argue that they had greater amounts of freedom than their sisters in eastern countries who were living under communist regimes. This assumption was based on the fact that the westerners saw that easterners under these regimes had fewer consumer choices than they had. Due to the lack of consumer choices, many western women would argue that their sisters living under the communist regimes had less freedom than they did. However, the freedom that an individual has does not come from the amount of consumer choices that they have; rather, freedom comes from God. Therefore, even if the system of government that one lives under limits the amount of consumer choices that they are presented with,...
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...that freedom means different things to people. Few women sought independence and freedom from their husbands. Some women expressed their freedom by gaining notoriety on stage. Enslaved women longed for freedom from their masters. Sadly enough, some women of the time saw death as the greatest freedom from a cruel world. One of the most touching stories this week was Charity Bowery’s. After she learned that her son had been killed Bowery said “Well he’s free now. God be praised, he’s free now; and I shall soon be with him”. Bowery and her family lived difficult lives especially after being sold to different people and separated. In her interview Charity explained that she attempted several times to buy her children’s freedom but was refused. While slavery is a very literal absence of freedom, many people...
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...of the ideas of feminism, the treatment of women, and the control of women’s bodies. Feminism in The Handmaid’s Tale. Women have been treated very poorly through the years and in the novel, The Handmaid’s Tale women have no control of their bodies, the treatment they get from other is terrible and there is no freedom. Offred the main character is presented in the novel has a handmaid who’s only propose in life is to have a baby with the commander. She lives in the Republic of Gilead, a totalitarian state that has replaced the United States of America. She like other women have no freedom and are only allowed to go for shopping trip, but still someone is always watching. Therefore in the novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, the women have limited rights, limited freedom and limited control of their bodies. The women in Gilead have no rights and have to listen to the rules or the consequences result in death, getting send to the colonies or become a prostitute at Jezebel’s. They don’t really have a choice they can be handmaids to the commander and his wife or become a prostitute at Jezebel’s, but it’s not really a choice thy only have two options. The women in Gilead have to do play their roles in the society and not complain about it. The roles include: Handmaids, Marthas, Econowives and the wives of the commander. Even in these society women don’t stick together there aren’t many friendships being made and the women are all carry jealously with them, “The voice...
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...Title Freedom is like a rose. Both are beautiful, but must be well kept up with in order to remain blemish-free. When it comes to freedom, there are all sorts of types to consider, such as freedom to and freedom from. There is also free will, and God given, or natural rights. While there are many certain types of freedom, it all comes down to the one that truly matters; freedom to. Freedom can be defined and looked at in many different ways. According to the Oxford dictionary, “freedom” is defined as “the power of self-determination attributed to the will; the quality of being independent of fate or necessity” (Oxford). Freedom is never free. It always comes at a price. Take for instance, U.S. citizens during World War I did not have the...
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...Sartre’s Bad Faith Sartre’s says that a man is free and responsible for himself. Many people can agree and many disagree, but Sartre’s has many good points in thinking this way. With freedom comes responsibility is a well-known saying. Which is basically part of what Sartre’s is trying to explain? Freedom is existence and source of all values. We are free to do what we want, but the things we do and the way you act determines your qualities. Each of us is responsible for everything we do because we are free to make our own decisions and choices. We are our choices and within everything we do we make a choice. Therefore, if you chose to do anything or whatever you have chosen to do, you are responsible for that choice. Even if you don’t choose, you have “chosen” to not choose, so you did still make a choice. You can only either chose sincerity or self-deception which is to be or not to be. According to Sartre’s, Bad faith is not accepting freedom and responsibility and the outcome of them. One of the main forms of bad faith believes in God. Humans use religion to escape from the reality of human situations. They try to escape because they can’t accept or deal with the consequences of human responsibility. Humans have to make decisions and live with their decisions; not God, nature, nor society has anything to do with it. Good faith is living in reality and accepting the fact that God does not exist. Presidential candidate Herman Cain was accused of sexual harassment. He claims...
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...JEmma Goldman: The Most Dangerous Anarchist in America Emma Goldman, known as the most dangerous anarchist in America, committed her life on absolute freedom. The definition of absolute freedom in the mind of Goldman is the freedom of expression, freedom of free love, equality and independence for women, and worker’s rights. Although Goldman took many risks to fight for these freedoms; however, at the end she was left with disappointments, still she never gave up. Goldman believes in the liberty, harmony, and social justice of modern society. A true non-conformist is a person who takes risks and committed to make changes in the society that will have benefits. Emma Goldman is a true non-conformist for the risks she took to challenge the idea...
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...210-ONR01 16 February 2017 Unit 2 AS3-Part3 Women in Ancient Greece Women in ancient societies all had one universal purpose, childbearing. In ancient Athens, girls were sent at a young age to their husbands for this purpose. In ancient Sparta, however, girls were encouraged to participate in sports and were educated. Aristotle believed that these freedoms weakened the morale of the Spartan state, while Xenophon and Plutarch believed that it benefited the Spartans. The freedoms and equality Spartan women had counters Aristotle’s characterization of a “good wife” in his story “On a Good Wife.” Aristotle, who lived in Athens for the majority of his life, depicts the ideal wife as a wife that is ruled over by her husband. Athenian women were considered inferior when compared to men. As a result of this, Athenian women had fewer rights than their Spartan counterparts. The general purpose of Athenian women was to bear children, take care of the children, and obey her husband. Girls in Athenian society usually did not receive a formal education and were rushed to bear children when they were “ready,” usually in their teens. In contrast, Spartan women were somewhat equal to men. Spartan women were trained and educated, but the Spartan government did not train girls as much as men. The focus for...
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...revolution of the 1960's, women were the victims of a strict double standard; single men had freedom to be promiscuous but women did not. This double standard revolved around the risk of pregnancy for women that men obviously did not have concern for. One of the main events that triggered the revolution that changed women's sexual freedom was an oral contraceptive, also known as "the pill". This new effective form of birth control changed many major aspects of society including women's freedom, social morality, and informed consent on prescription medications. Women's Freedom The birth control pill was developed in the 1950's but the FDA approved it to be released to the public in 1960. (1) The release of the pill was "welcomed by [the] generation" of young women because of the freedom it gave them; they could do whatever they pleased without the high risk of pregnancy. (2) The freedom to control contraception allowed women freedom of dependence on men and to pursue careers because they could control when they had children. After being distributed for two years, 1.2 million women took the pill every day. (3) Before the it was available, men had a significant advantage over women in the workforce because women had the risk of becoming pregnant. Also, women did not have control over when or how often they became pregnant. So many women used the pill to pursue a career and achieve new goals. This freedom leveled the playing field between men and women in the business world. It...
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...Throughout the early to mid-19th century, there was a huge religious revival; commonly known as the Second Great Awakening. The historical skill being assessed is contextualization. The reform movements throughout the Second Great Awakening has shown the U.S. sought to expand the democratic ideals such as the rise of the common mans’ want in political and social freedom, and the want of basic human rights. In the search for political freedom, there has been a cartoon drawn by Patrick Reason in document 3. As you can see in document 3, the woman is chained up; this is to show how women in their society have little freedom compared to men. Some could say that this picture could be about slaves due to the chains and the looks of the female but...
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...Douglas are two documents that portray their own explanation of freedom and independence. These two activists portray their justification in their own way, one heavily towards women the other towards the African American people. Freedom should be for all not for some, it should be for blacks, whites, men, and women. Elizabeth Cody Stanton follows the framework of the Declaration of Independence very closely when writing the Declaration of Sentiments. She uses the wording to show connections between women and the rest of the American people during this time. The Declaration of Independence states, “We hold this truth to be self evident that all men are created equal. However, Stanton throughout her declaration re-phrases this in a way that all men and women are created equal. Throughout the Declaration of Sentiments, Stanton mimics the style of the Declaration of Independence, in this case it directs its anger towards the King of England “He has obstructed the Administration of Justice” and “He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly.” She instead uses the word “He” not to refer to the king but to refer to the controlling males in society during this time period. Along with those issues Stanton also has concerns with the freedom of women in their marriages. While the Declaration of Independence believes the major concern is political freedom, the Declaration of Sentiments points it concerns at marital freedom. In some cases Stanton describes the man as the woman’s master...
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...A major social issue in our society is feminism because in the late 1800s women had no rights and were property. Kate Chopin believed that women should have more freedom and rights. In her short-story “The Story of an Hour”, feminism plays a major role in the story’s purpose which is Mrs. Mallard getting “an hour” of freedom. The short-story must have the element of feminism because the purpose of the story would change. Mrs. Mallard was a woman who had an illness of heart problems and felt trapped by her husband which is a typical woman during this time period. She talks about being “free, free, free!” (Chopin180). Mrs. Mallard feels suffocated and wants “freed from a constricting marriage” (Foote85). When Chopin uses words like “free”, the...
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...laws, which kept hold of the key to really understanding human behavior, the Philosophers took grasp on to the idea of freedom. They thought that if individuals have more freedom and the government didn’t take full control over them that it would indeed make society better. More explicitly, individual freedom was key to creating a decent working government, effectual economies, religious harmony, and equality for women. Philosopher, John Locke, thought that in order to have a moral government individuals had to have freedom. In his Second Treatise on Civil Government, he goes on to tell that people are free only in a state of nature and they can preserve that freedom. The only way that it would be a respectable outcome was to construct a government with a legislative & executive branch. (Doc. A) To continue if the government is waning them in some way, Locke states that people are able to prevent it and step in and “provide for oneself.” (Doc. A) .John Locke is a person of many words but no word is more vital than freedom. Philosopher, Voltaire, believed that governments who denied free religious practices triggered difficulties. He compared benefits of religious freedom to economic. “A society works best and most peacefully when all participants can freely sell their goods or practice their beliefs.” (Doc. B)Therefore, when people have religious freedoms they will get along better at economic exchanges. If to confine religious practices to one faith or two, you will have...
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