Eng123 Fourth essay: Response Analysis of the Men We Carry in Our Minds
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Course
BUS/MKTG (ENG123)
Institution
Thompson River University (TRU
)
In his article, The Men We Carry in Our Minds, Scott Russel wonders through the years of his childhood. He recalls his first encounter with men; his father, and field workers in a cotton field toiling away under heavy guard and extreme conditions. He was just a young boy. Too young to perceive the ...
Response Analysis of the Men We Carry in Our Minds
In his article, The Men We Carry in Our Minds, Scott Russel wonders through the years of his
childhood. He recalls his first encounter with men; his father, and field workers in a cotton field
toiling away under heavy guard and extreme conditions. He was just a young boy. Too young to
perceive the difference between men and women and the roles each played in society. The men
he remembers were hardworking men, most of them worked menial jobs and spent evening and
weekends doing more menial work at home. A young boy looks up to his father and other men.
Sander was no different. In this article he explores the struggles of women that were so easy to
overlook back then but which existed nonetheless. Women looked younger than men, he
remembers, men were as though someone was whipping them (Sander, 317). Seeing that he grew
up in the 1950s American countryside, the memories of his perception of men was not mistaken.
He proceeded, in light of this, to predict his future as a man in the United States as that of
hardship and struggle. The image of men has since changed since Sander’s childhood days but
the pressure on men remains to this day.
According to Sanders, men have a harder time than women think and appreciate. He
realizes this after joining an urban college where he meets people whose experiences and
lifestyles challenge his views on gender. He realizes that some men in the college he attends
have an easier life than he imagined and some women have a difficult life. Some women, whom
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he interacts with, contend that some men have made American life difficult for women. In his
exposure to different views and sections of society that challenge his view of it, the writer
incorporates in his narrative the experiences of every American. This shift from one’s held ideas
to a more universal idea of life can also be experienced today. Interaction with a diverse group of
people washes away remote ideas cultivated by experiences of living in remote non-diverse
regions. In the era of globalization, this kind of enlightenment is occurring on a daily basis.
People’s ideas about gender, sex, and social status are being changed through interaction with
different cultures and societies.
Having grown up in the nether echelons of the Chinese urban centers; the best example of
social patriarchy, I, same as Sanders had a very limited view of society. I grew up believing that
men did all the important things in the world and women supported them and took care of
families. My father was a government bureaucrat who left in the morning and came back in the
evening baring the proverbial bread for the family. Unlike the author I thought men to be the
happier of the genders because they did ‘important things’. However, as I grew older this opinion
of gender roles were disproved and new ones formed. Joining college in the United States gave
me the same experience as the author when it comes to social organization and the role of
genders within the society. In a way, I had in mind the men the women the author met in college
had. Not those he had grown up seeing in the field toiling under the scotching sun.
Changing the view and perception of the role of each gender in society does not change
the pressure on men to be successful. The ideas of masculinity change for the author as he goes
through different stages of life. His childhood environment presents a hardworking male to him
while his college days give him a peek at women engulfed in their own struggle to find meaning
and contentment in a male dominated society. They question the status of men in the American
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