Essay

Literary Relevance of “The Men We Carry in Our Minds”

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Course
BUS/MKTG

Institution
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...

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Uploaded on January 6, 2021
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Written in 2019/2020
Type Essay
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the men we carry in our minds
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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Literary Relevance of “The Men We Carry in Our Minds”

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