Hardships of a Man
Scott Russell Sanders starts his essay off by talking to his friend about how he feels that women have a hard time deciding what to do. He feels that women have to do so much to catch up to what men did back in the early 1900's. He looks upon men as the stronger person in the husband and wife team. He remembered men going to fight wars and dying. He also remembered that men would work in factories. He said that the men would get up at dawn and work until dusk. You could tell by looking at them, just how hard they had been working. He says that as a boy, he feared growing up. He feels that men had a burden on them of taking care of everything, while the women went out shopping and socializing all day. When he went to college, he met girls whose fathers did not work hard like the men he knew growing up. These men were doctors and other professional working men. Their sons did not worry about growing up to become mill workers. He also talks about how the girls of the college he attended; felt that men had taken all the privileges of the world upon themselves. Sanders did not agree with this. He felt that what he saw when he was growing up was not a privilege, but a curse. He did not want to be one of those men. He says later on in his essay, that because he did not want to be like those men, he could not see how ‘a home could be a prison.’ He said that if he could have chosen back then, between mill work or keeping a baby, he would have chosen the baby. Even today, he says that he still would have chosen the baby.
10 comments:
I understand the point Sanders tries to make in his essay. But I also think that women’s jobs weren’t as easy as he claims in the essay. I don’t think that women whose husbands had to work in mills were able to go out shopping all the time. I think that might be a little exaggerating. Women had it hard on them because they had to take care of the children, keep the house clean, cook for her husband when he came home, wash clothes, etc. Taking care of a baby is not as easy as it would have seemed for Sanders.
I do think that back then life was hard on men but I also think that today things are harder on women. I think that today’s society expects more from women just because women have began developing and overachieving a lot. For example, when I say that society expects more from women that means that in the worlds eyes a woman has to be able to be a house wife and to become something greater like an entrepreneur or an actress, model, or singer. Another example is Hillary Clinton; society has a lot of expectations from her. A lot of people want her to become the next president. I think that that is a lot of pressure.
Personally I think that the more women achieve in life the harder and the more society expects from them. Yet I am not saying that men don’t have pressure either because I know that there is a lot of men pressured to do better.
I also think that men and women could share roles like Mr. Barnette said in another blog. I don’t think that a woman’s role is to take care of the children. I think that there are men in society today in which men take care of their children and do a lot of things women would be ‘expected’ to do.
I think that Sanders is not wanting to choose raising a baby in the sense that he would have chosen to change lives iwth regualr women but more witht eh women that were priviledged.
It seems that he thinks these women don't understand hardships because they have not seen them not even in men that they lived with because they had all the priviledges and did nto really have to worry too much about working hard. things came easy to these women and that is more of why he wants to trade places with them.
I agree with amanda, I do understand the point that Sanders tries to make about men and there hardship life. The reason why I agree with amanda is that if Sanders did have a chance to take the roll of a woman he would not last a week. Females have hardship also.
I agree with Lyzetth in that women had it hard. Yes, the men worked hard all day but it is not so easy being at home all day cooking, cleaning and taking care of the children. It might not be hard physical labor but it will wear you out.
As far as the job positions go in a family I have a different point of view to contribute to the discussion. Growing up my mother stayed at home caring for me while my father worked third shift. In my middle school years my father became seriously injured and had to go on disability. Since that time my mother has ‘stepped up to the plate’. She now holds down a job with an eleven hour workday and still comes home to wash clothes, cook dinner and take care of my younger siblings.
Growing up in this environment has perhaps skewed my view of traditional family positions. However, I believe it has also helped me have a more open-minded view of our current topic of discussion. Most men may have ‘the burden of taking care of everything’ (both financial and otherwise); however, this does not mean that women like my mother are not also capable of working as hard men.
I agree with lyzetth, I think that when Sanders said he would choose a baby over common men's jobs he is really trying to show how women are priviledged. But I don't agree with that statement: women's jobs are as hard as men's jobs, even if they just stay at home and take care of the kids. There's a huge responsibility in raising a person.
I agree with the author, I believe that women do have it good. Things have started to level off when it comes to supporting a household but back in the time that the writer talks about cash flow what solely on the shoulders of the men. The woman had to run the house but there was no dead line or sense of urgency like that of the men’s burden. Women today are striving for equality and are for the most part achieving it. What I wonder is when they finally do get total equality will they actually want it. With equality comes shared responsibilities, my feeling is that they want all of the perks and none of the negatives. Will they give up their spot on the life raft and go down with the titanic like the men are expected to do?
I know what Sanders is talking about too. when i younger i saw how hard my father worked and all the troubles and burdens that fell upon his shoulders. I feared growing up a little due to the fact that i may not be able to support a family as my father did.
But then when my father died and my mom took over the responibilties i saw that it was not just the man who could take care of the problems and it wasnt only him doing it in the first place. So the thought of raising a family was not as scary as i thought it would be.
I agree with Sanders point. It is hard growing up under all of the pressure of being a man today. You have to provide for yourself which is growing increasingly harder each day, and when you get married your expected to provide for your family. Not saying that your wife won't help but men are expected to provide the bulk of the income.
I agree with Justin. It's difficult for anyone to mak it these days. The Job market is so competitve, and if there is a need for a certain job it's usually a job that harder to achieve like the medical field.
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