You Think Your Life is Difficult?
In his essay “The Men We Carry in Our Minds,” Scott Russell Sanders explains his perspective on the relationship between gender roles and social class in both men and women. Sanders argues that individuals create opinions and prejudices about the gender roles of men and women based on their own personal experiences. In the majority of his essay, Sanders effectively uses the appeal of pathos to gain the sympathy of his readers towards the struggles men face. However, many of Sanders’s claims are incomplete and unfair.
In the first section of his essay, Sanders begins by revealing memories of his personal upbringing; he does this in order to lay the foundation for his initial perspective of the different duties …show more content…
Sanders claims that these women told him that “men were guilty of having kept all joys and privileges of the earth for themselves (240).” Sanders asserts that this statement was “baffling” to him. Sanders did not consider the toiling labor that the men he knew performed joys nor privileges. Sanders moves on to state that he was slow to understand the struggles women faced because as a child, he envied them. Sanders, as a boy, didn’t think women had it rough; he saw them as the ones that got to enjoy life’s amenities. However, Sanders does admit that if he had been more observant of the lives of women, he would have envied them less. Sanders also acknowledges the fact that there are women whose jobs are just as tedious and toiling as the men’s. Sanders admits that he could see “what a prison a house could be” and “how exhausting it was for a mother to cater all day to the needs of young children (240-1). Even so, Sanders asserts that as a child, if he had been given the choice to tend to a baby as opposed to tend to a machine, he would have chosen to tend to a baby. Sanders explains that because of his opinion on the duties and grievances of women, he was baffled when the college women accused men of having “cornered the world’s pleasures (241).” Sanders asserts that when his female classmates thought of the joys and privileges of men, they weren’t taking into consideration all of the hardships different sorts of men face when working. Sanders argues that instead, his female classmates only thought about their own affluent fathers who worked in positions that were significantly more rewarding than the positions of the toiling men Sanders knew. Sanders claims that his female classmates only felt this way about men because they wanted to share the power and glory that they had. Sanders states that these women “yearned for a
In his essay “The Men We Carry in Our Minds,” Scott Russell Sanders explains his perspective on the relationship between gender roles and social class in both men and women. Sanders argues that individuals create opinions and prejudices about the gender roles of men and women based on their own personal experiences. In the majority of his essay, Sanders effectively uses the appeal of pathos to gain the sympathy of his readers towards the struggles men face. However, many of Sanders’s claims are incomplete and unfair.
In the first section of his essay, Sanders begins by revealing memories of his personal upbringing; he does this in order to lay the foundation for his initial perspective of the different duties …show more content…
Sanders claims that these women told him that “men were guilty of having kept all joys and privileges of the earth for themselves (240).” Sanders asserts that this statement was “baffling” to him. Sanders did not consider the toiling labor that the men he knew performed joys nor privileges. Sanders moves on to state that he was slow to understand the struggles women faced because as a child, he envied them. Sanders, as a boy, didn’t think women had it rough; he saw them as the ones that got to enjoy life’s amenities. However, Sanders does admit that if he had been more observant of the lives of women, he would have envied them less. Sanders also acknowledges the fact that there are women whose jobs are just as tedious and toiling as the men’s. Sanders admits that he could see “what a prison a house could be” and “how exhausting it was for a mother to cater all day to the needs of young children (240-1). Even so, Sanders asserts that as a child, if he had been given the choice to tend to a baby as opposed to tend to a machine, he would have chosen to tend to a baby. Sanders explains that because of his opinion on the duties and grievances of women, he was baffled when the college women accused men of having “cornered the world’s pleasures (241).” Sanders asserts that when his female classmates thought of the joys and privileges of men, they weren’t taking into consideration all of the hardships different sorts of men face when working. Sanders argues that instead, his female classmates only thought about their own affluent fathers who worked in positions that were significantly more rewarding than the positions of the toiling men Sanders knew. Sanders claims that his female classmates only felt this way about men because they wanted to share the power and glory that they had. Sanders states that these women “yearned for a