1) What was the expected role of women in Shakespeare’s time?
In the time and age of Shakespeare the role of women was much different from what is seen today. Just as you begin to read this piece of writing, you come upon the following quote, “Women are poorer then men because – this or that” (Woolf 764). I thought that this showed the general role of women as being under classed and unaccepted in society. “Wife beating…was a recognized right of man, and was practiced without shame by high as well low…” (Woolf 765). This I thought was very disturbing and disgusting because giving permission to someone to beat someone else is morally wrong. “It was still an exception for women of the upper middle class to choose their own husbands…” (Woolf 765). Not begin able to choose your own husband shows that women’s role is only seen as being objects to the society for pleasure. The fact that it states that this is a practice seems that it had became a culture of some sort in their time. Women were stripped of their personality and were basically ruled by men. Women were expected to be clean, meaning not only physically but mentally. The big difference now a day is that women have become more equal to men, both in education and in the work force. As time has passed, over time women have fought and gained many rights which have helped them achieve a proper respected role in today’s society. Although it does seem that both men and women are equal, the reality is that there still are many obstacles that women need to over come in order to have 100% equality.
Works Sited
Virginia Woolf. “Shakespeare’s Sister” A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. 7th ed. New York: Bedford St. Martins,2006 pp 761-777.
Monday, November 26, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Mary Wollstonecraft – Pernicious effects arise from the unnatural distinctions established in society.
3) What happens to people who are born to wealth and have nothing to do?
This text by Mary Wollstonecraft was a fairly difficult read, I thought that Mary was trying to get to the point that when you’re wealthy you’re enjoying life to the max, and when your poor you just end up being tormented. In this case those women who were born in a wealthy family really have nothing to do. They have everything at their feet, but these types of people, as stated by Mary were major gamblers. They had no worries and didn’t really care much of what was going on around them. This is very similar to today’s society, where the rich people are living in their own world and the poor in their own. The rich are busy enhancing their lives and are looking for places and ways to burn money by shopping, casinos, cars, etc. On the other hand the poor are busy just trying to survive and are living their lives day by day. Most people do say that if “I was rich I would still be the same person”, but in reality overtime money takes over without you even knowing. Don’t get me wrong there are rich people in today’s world that do associate with their community but the majority doesn’t. Also I thought that according to Mary that if a women is born in to a wealthy home, she will be let off on her duties. Meaning there wouldn’t be much expected from the women “for when they neglect domestic duties, they have it not in their own power to take the field and march and counter-march like soldiers,” (Mary 753).
Works sited
Mary Wollstonecraft. “Pernicious effects arise from the unnatural distinctions established in society” A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. 7th ed. New York: Bedford St. Martins,2006 pp 102-110.
This text by Mary Wollstonecraft was a fairly difficult read, I thought that Mary was trying to get to the point that when you’re wealthy you’re enjoying life to the max, and when your poor you just end up being tormented. In this case those women who were born in a wealthy family really have nothing to do. They have everything at their feet, but these types of people, as stated by Mary were major gamblers. They had no worries and didn’t really care much of what was going on around them. This is very similar to today’s society, where the rich people are living in their own world and the poor in their own. The rich are busy enhancing their lives and are looking for places and ways to burn money by shopping, casinos, cars, etc. On the other hand the poor are busy just trying to survive and are living their lives day by day. Most people do say that if “I was rich I would still be the same person”, but in reality overtime money takes over without you even knowing. Don’t get me wrong there are rich people in today’s world that do associate with their community but the majority doesn’t. Also I thought that according to Mary that if a women is born in to a wealthy home, she will be let off on her duties. Meaning there wouldn’t be much expected from the women “for when they neglect domestic duties, they have it not in their own power to take the field and march and counter-march like soldiers,” (Mary 753).
Works sited
Mary Wollstonecraft. “Pernicious effects arise from the unnatural distinctions established in society” A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. 7th ed. New York: Bedford St. Martins,2006 pp 102-110.
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
Robert B. Rich – Why the Richer Are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer
2) What are “routine producers”? What will be their fate in the future?
The routine production workers in the United States are going for a down fall. As stated by Robert B. Reich, the improvements in production facilities which resulted in men being replaced my machines. Also modern factories often scramble to locate in places where production costs are lowest. These places are where people tend to the same job at a fraction, in most cases they just need enough money to survive. Another prime factor is that the relocations of factory are relatively cheap to establish, they can be easily moved. In today’s society this raises the issue of foreigners taking over the Americans jobs. For example: The big 3, Ford, GM, and Chrysler having there productions moved places such as Mexico where the companies can have mass production at dirt cheap costs. This leads people being laid off and unemployed in the U.S. B. Reich discusses an interesting example dealing with Maquiladora. “…Maquiladora factories cluttered along Mexican side of the U.S border in the sprawling shanty towns of juana, Mexicali, Nogales, Agua Preita and Ciudad Juarez—factories mostly owned by Americans, but increasingly by Japanese- which more than a half million routine producers assemble parts into finished goods to be shipped into the United States” (Reich 421). Reich also states that these jobs have been vanished in traditional unionized industries, where average wages have kept up with inflation. “…. This is because the jobs of older workers in such industries are protected by seniority; the youngest works are first laid off…” (Reich 424).
Work Sited
Robert B. Rich." Why the Richer Are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer” A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. 7th ed. New York: Bedford St. Martins,2006 pp 102-110.
The routine production workers in the United States are going for a down fall. As stated by Robert B. Reich, the improvements in production facilities which resulted in men being replaced my machines. Also modern factories often scramble to locate in places where production costs are lowest. These places are where people tend to the same job at a fraction, in most cases they just need enough money to survive. Another prime factor is that the relocations of factory are relatively cheap to establish, they can be easily moved. In today’s society this raises the issue of foreigners taking over the Americans jobs. For example: The big 3, Ford, GM, and Chrysler having there productions moved places such as Mexico where the companies can have mass production at dirt cheap costs. This leads people being laid off and unemployed in the U.S. B. Reich discusses an interesting example dealing with Maquiladora. “…Maquiladora factories cluttered along Mexican side of the U.S border in the sprawling shanty towns of juana, Mexicali, Nogales, Agua Preita and Ciudad Juarez—factories mostly owned by Americans, but increasingly by Japanese- which more than a half million routine producers assemble parts into finished goods to be shipped into the United States” (Reich 421). Reich also states that these jobs have been vanished in traditional unionized industries, where average wages have kept up with inflation. “…. This is because the jobs of older workers in such industries are protected by seniority; the youngest works are first laid off…” (Reich 424).
Work Sited
Robert B. Rich." Why the Richer Are Getting Richer and the Poor, Poorer” A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. 7th ed. New York: Bedford St. Martins,2006 pp 102-110.
Friday, November 9, 2007
John Kenneth Galbraith – The Position of Poverty
1) What is case poverty?
If we look at the dictionary definition of case poverty it states the following; “Focuses on individuals who, for some reason, are unable to support themselves and to gain the basic necessities without assistance” (Britannica). Galbraith seems to have a similar idea to this and describes it as the following. “Case poverty is restricted to an individual and his or her family and often seems to be caused by alcoholism, ignorance, mental deficiency, discrimination, or specific handicaps it is an individual and not a group” (Galbraith 404). I think that the people with problems and issues such as alcoholism and ignorance are the ones that are at a advantage compared to those who are handicapped and have metal deficiency. Meaning that handicaps can only try so much to get them self’s out of poverty but the fact is they can only do so much without support. On the other hand people with alcoholism and ignorance, etc. can get help which can possibly get rid of their illness for good. “Case poverty is commonly and properly to some characteristic of the individuals so afflicted. Nearly everyone else has mattered his or her environment; this proves that it is not intractable. But some quality peculiar to the individual or family involved in metal deficiency, bad health, inability to adapt to the discipline industrial life…” (Galbraith 407). Overall I think that people don’t want to be classified in this category of “case poverty”; they have just been forced to do so because of their deficiencies.
Works Sited
John Kenneth Galbraith. “The Position of Poverty” A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. 7th ed. New York: Bedford St. Martins,2006 pp 403- 413.
If we look at the dictionary definition of case poverty it states the following; “Focuses on individuals who, for some reason, are unable to support themselves and to gain the basic necessities without assistance” (Britannica). Galbraith seems to have a similar idea to this and describes it as the following. “Case poverty is restricted to an individual and his or her family and often seems to be caused by alcoholism, ignorance, mental deficiency, discrimination, or specific handicaps it is an individual and not a group” (Galbraith 404). I think that the people with problems and issues such as alcoholism and ignorance are the ones that are at a advantage compared to those who are handicapped and have metal deficiency. Meaning that handicaps can only try so much to get them self’s out of poverty but the fact is they can only do so much without support. On the other hand people with alcoholism and ignorance, etc. can get help which can possibly get rid of their illness for good. “Case poverty is commonly and properly to some characteristic of the individuals so afflicted. Nearly everyone else has mattered his or her environment; this proves that it is not intractable. But some quality peculiar to the individual or family involved in metal deficiency, bad health, inability to adapt to the discipline industrial life…” (Galbraith 407). Overall I think that people don’t want to be classified in this category of “case poverty”; they have just been forced to do so because of their deficiencies.
Works Sited
John Kenneth Galbraith. “The Position of Poverty” A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. 7th ed. New York: Bedford St. Martins,2006 pp 403- 413.
Tuesday, November 6, 2007
Karl Marx – The Communist Manifesto
1) What is the economic condition of the bourgeoisie? What is the economic condition of the proletariat?
As stated by Karl Marx, there were two main classes, Bourgeoisie and Proletariat. “The modern bourgeois society that has grown from the remains of the feudal society, it has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones” (Marx 357). America was the freshest place to open and raise bourgeoisie, there where many factors which played a great role in its economic success. “…The East-Indian and Chinese markets, the colonization of America, trade with the colonies, the increase in the means of exchange and in commodities generally, gave to commerce, to navigation, to industry, an impulse never before known, and thereby, to the revolutionary element in the tottering feudal society, a rapid development” (Marx 357). From here on the markets continue to grow and the modern industry begins to establish a world-market place. The modern working class developed, “…a class of laborers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labor increases capital. These laborers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market” (Marx 362). They were then pretty much stripped, because they could not even become masters of the productive forces of society and they had nothing they truly owned that they could secure. Their mission then became the destruction of all previous securities. “The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable” (Marx 367).
Works Sited
Karl Marx. “The Communist Manifesto” A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. 7th ed. New York: Bedford St. Martins,2006 pp 353- 377.
As stated by Karl Marx, there were two main classes, Bourgeoisie and Proletariat. “The modern bourgeois society that has grown from the remains of the feudal society, it has not done away with class antagonisms. It has but established new classes, new conditions of oppression, new forms of struggle in place of the old ones” (Marx 357). America was the freshest place to open and raise bourgeoisie, there where many factors which played a great role in its economic success. “…The East-Indian and Chinese markets, the colonization of America, trade with the colonies, the increase in the means of exchange and in commodities generally, gave to commerce, to navigation, to industry, an impulse never before known, and thereby, to the revolutionary element in the tottering feudal society, a rapid development” (Marx 357). From here on the markets continue to grow and the modern industry begins to establish a world-market place. The modern working class developed, “…a class of laborers, who live only so long as they find work, and who find work only so long as their labor increases capital. These laborers, who must sell themselves piecemeal, are a commodity, like every other article of commerce, and are consequently exposed to all the vicissitudes of competition, to all the fluctuations of the market” (Marx 362). They were then pretty much stripped, because they could not even become masters of the productive forces of society and they had nothing they truly owned that they could secure. Their mission then became the destruction of all previous securities. “The development of Modern Industry, therefore, cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products. What the bourgeoisie therefore produces, above all, are its own grave-diggers. Its fall and the victory of the proletariat are equally inevitable” (Marx 367).
Works Sited
Karl Marx. “The Communist Manifesto” A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers. Ed. Lee A. Jacobus. 7th ed. New York: Bedford St. Martins,2006 pp 353- 377.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)