The Men We Carry in Our Minds

825 Words4 Pages
In the passage, “The Men We Carry in Our Minds,” by Scott Russel Sanders, he expressed his views on men and women, and the problems that exist between sex and social class issues. This essay demonstrates troubles that lie between the rich and poor. The time period in which this piece was written tells of issued dealing with the earlier part of the 20th century. During Sander’s childhood, he witnessed many men working the same job, day in and day out. Many of them were performing back breaking labor in order to support their families. Sanders claimed that, “As a boy, he knew another sort of man, who did no sweat and break down like mules” (Sanders, 348). While living on a military base in Ohio, he saw soldiers, who didn’t work in the factories or fields, as far as he could tell they didn’t work at all. He knew the life of a soldier conceived of little excitement except for in the time of war. As a young man, he saw the differences in the way women and men worked. His ideas of woman were very narrow-minded. “I thought, in the days of mothers, they went to shop in town, to run errands, at school, at the library, at church” (Sanders, 350). In his mind, this was a life of luxury. But as Sander’s said, “I was slow to understand the deep grievances of women” (Sanders, 350). He was jealous in a way at the same time very naïve. He didn’t understand that just because woman didn’t have a job that was making money, didn’t mean that they weren’t busy with things at home. “Like the menfolk, they fretted about money, they scrimped and made-do. But, when the pay stopped coming in, they were not the ones who has failed” (Sanders, 350). Sanders understood that the wife, the woman of the house, made do with the money that their men brought home. What he failed to understand is that just because the man couldn’t bring home enough money, or money has stopped coming
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