I have used “The Men We Carry in Our Minds” and “I Want a Wife” in this paper to develop the thesis that “every person faces difficulties in life in their attempts to make the lives better for themselves and for their loved ones or only to survive; regardless of their gender”.
The Men We Carry in Our Minds – This story shares the thoughts of the author on the lives of men. The author spent his childhood in a town and was exposed to the hard lives of men and their struggles to earn livelihood for their families. From the day author was able to understand the world around him, he saw men toiling themselves at factories or becoming soldiers. Either way of life was hard on them, with the first crushing them with huge amount of mechanical work making them susceptible to several diseases and loss of body parts like fingers. Second option of becoming soldier meant a life of boredom, and waiting for war to happen. Their lives were defined by waiting – waiting for every change that can break their monotonous lives. Author is piqued by the women accusing men to be guilty of their unjust behavior towards women and questions that men should exactly be guilty of what advantages; to toil themselves in mills, to die in war, to kill others, and to feel ashamed of the lay-off from work. If one thinks on shallow level, the men and boys are bound to envy women because of their privileged lives, their staying in the comforts of home and their running errands at church and schools. The graces of women life were easily viewed by author in comparison to hard, tough life of men. The author wonders that; is men really guilty or have the advantages of being men which the women accuse them of being?
I Want a Wife – The story describes the predicament of the lives of women as wives as narrated by author. The author leads the life of a wife and interestingly describes the duties of the wife. The article in a argumentative manner describes the benefits of having a wife, thereby asserting the advantages of the men. The wife is supposed to perform her marital duties, cook and clean house, bring up children, fir properly in the role of a good wife and good mother. The duties of a wife and mother start from the dawn and goes on till late night. The plight of the women as wife doesn’t end here; somewhere in between all these roles and duties, the wife has to carry on with her professional duties to share the financial burden with the husband. When husband is studying to occupy better position in the company, the wife should manage home, children and run home efficiently with earning money; however, with the advent in husband’s income, wives is supposed to leave her job and remain at home to take care of the family. The article poses women as a desirable character, performing all the duties perfectly that everyone would like to have a wife.
Development of Thesis
Both the readings suggest that men and women have no comprehension for the difficulties endure by their counterparts in their respective lives.
The readings suggest that men and women consider their own life to be difficult in comparison to their counterpart. The troubles endured by them is described in detail in both the articles, however in “The Men We Carry in Our Minds” discusses the position of men being advantageous over women ironically. The physical labor and its aftermaths in terms of diseases and lost body parts endured by men are overlooked by women while discussing their plights. The women, while talking about men being guilty and inconsiderate of women’s troubles doesn’t take into account the difficulties undertaken by the men to provide women a safe and comfortable home. Men also suffer varied type of difficulties during their lifetime and suffer from shame if they aren’t able to provide their families a respectable life. Whole life of hard physical labor reduces the life span of men, with women outliving men in most of the cases as described by the author of the story. Author, in his young age seeing only the graces in women life considers them lucky. The story “I want a Wife” is a contrasting example of the story “The Men We Carry in Our Minds” and shed light on the predicament of the women life by stating that women strives hard in their life to nurture children and make their husbands happy.
Both the readings suggest that men and women have hard lives
This is demonstrated in both the readings that both, men and women have equal share of hard lives, though the nature of difficulties endured and overcome be them are different. In the story “The Men We Carry in Our Minds”, the men as described by the author have a tough and difficult life. Their prime concern remains to earn the livelihood for their families for which they toil themselves in the factories, mills or their workplace for five days a week for 10 hours every day. They fight with the monotony of their lives at the workplace and consciously, incur diseases which make their chances to survive in old age meek and make their life painful. Their weekends also goes in performing errands at home like mending the roof and other works, their lives are full of physical labor which leaves negative impact on their health and their bodies. Similarly, the story “I want a Wife” describes the hard life of women endure as wife. Their lives are consumed by daily chores of house, performing their duties towards children and husband and balancing it with their marital duties and providing financial support to their family. Women as wives play an important role of balancing their work at home and at office to satisfy everyone. The life of wives is spent in their attempt to balance their tasks and to keep everyone happy and satisfied. The plight of wives is expressed in terms of their performing various jobs untiringly and being happy in the happiness of others. This implies that both men and women have hard life; however the understanding of the difficulties of their counterpart is not apprehended.
Conclusion
The troubles of both men and women are reflected in the two articles discussed in this paper. The in-depth analysis of the articles leads to the establishment of thesis that both men and women have tough lives while carrying out their respective duties.
