Literary Relevance of “The Men We Carry in Our Minds”
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BUS/MKTG
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Thompson River University (TRU
)
Sanders’ story “The Men We Carry in Our Minds” sheds light on major issues surrounding gender, social roles, race, education, and social class. It has since gained significance in the discussion of the aforementioned issues in the context of the United States in the mid-20th Century. The stor...
understanding the historical context of sanders story
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Literary Relevance of “The Men We Carry in Our Minds”
Every historic development needs to be understood within the respective context. This
way, people can learn about the past and the relevance of various events in the makings of a
society. Sanders’ story “The Men We Carry in Our Minds” sheds light on major issues
surrounding gender, social roles, race, education, and social class. It has since gained
significance in the discussion of the aforementioned issues in the context of the United States in
the mid-20th Century. The story epitomizes the structural imbalance of power between gender
and social classes and the resultant socio-economic and cultural inequalities. Evidently, the
author identifies three classes of men: warriors, toilers, and the education elite. However, his
story is largely about his perception towards women, men, and the entire social system in which
they all coexisted. Principally, it has gained social and cultural relevance by helping the
understanding of gender, social roles, race, education, and social class within that particular
historical context.
As mentioned above, understanding the historical context is vital in shaping the
understanding certain issues. In that respect, historians observe that the 1950s was a period of
conformity with tradition as it appertains to gender roles. Likewise, it was a period of growing
discontent with the status quo in terms of race and gender. The rapid growth of the mass media
and popular culture created an atmosphere in which ideas and thoughts about liberation began to
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emerge. However, as Sanders’ story goes, this change was largely theoretical; in practice, the
traditional place of gender, race, and social class was reinforced by a structural imbalance of
power. In spite of the promise of emancipation, for instance, the African Americans would
continue to experience the social injustices of racism while women fell victim of patriarchal
domination. Likewise, the upper social class continued to systematically exploit the lower classes
in terms of labor and social mobility as well. The struggle was real and the promise of liberation
was largely idealistic since the disparity between various social segments was upheld by the
institutional inequalities.
From what we learn, there was a systematic exploitation of certain segments of the
society in terms of social class. The most affected demographic was the lower class comprising
mainly male causal laborers working in various industries. Sanders had known these men to
labor with their bodies as marginal farmers, carpenters, and welders (187). This is reminiscent of
the 1950s America, which was largely an industrializing society. During this time, women also
experienced their fair share of marginalization. Scholars explain that there was an emergent
social ideal of domesticity of the female gender. However, this ideal was predominantly racist
since it applied largely to white women and systematically excluded African American women
and other minority groupings. Black women were not seen as mothers or wives but as sources of
labor based on economic necessity. Therefore, there was an established socio-economic
inequality in gender.
Evidently, as the story goes, Sanders was particularly indifferent to the plight of women.
We understand that he had always envied them thinking that they had it easy just sitting around
and doing domestic chores while the men labored in exasperating daily pursuits to provide for
the family. Sander’s bias may have been perpetuated, in part, by the patriarchal mindset of the
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