The Men We Carry in Our Minds

In his essay “The Men We Carry in Our Minds,” Scott Russell Sanders examines the problems that exist between gender inequalities. These problems mainly took place during the early 20th century. Men had the choice of either being factory workers or soldiers, while women only had the option of staying home. Sanders uses argumentative strategies to help the reader establish and see clearly the difficulties between this issue.
His essay expresses how only certain men were forced to do hard labour in order to provide for their family, while others just had it handed to them. He also argues about how women were never given the equal opportunity to follow their dreams and were told that only men were capable of being successful. As a child, Sanders witnessed many men go through the same routine of life, being forced to do hard labour in order to support their families. He knew men such as marginal farmers, carpenters, steel workers and many others who all laboured with their bodies.
But he also knew of another sort of men, “… men, who did not sweat and break down like mules” (Sanders, 326). These other sorts of men were soldiers. To Sanders they appeared like they barely worked at all. But he later learned that these men would soon be off to war, to fight for their lives and for their country. At first, appearance meant everything but later Sanders learned that it wasn’t just hard working men who had hardship, every man did. Sanders was given an opportunity that many in his social class were rarely given.

He was offered a scholarship into college, which taught him the different views of people towards life. Being in college allowed him to interact with different types of people, especially women and these interactions opened his views into the issues that concerned many women. He learned how women were tired of always being in the shadow of men, and that they wanted to be recognized as their own individuals. Sanders soon realized that the main influence towards these women views were the men in their lives.
The fathers who brought them up and taught them that only men were capable of being successful. Women strongly believed that they had equal rights of being as successful as men. From the interactions with women around him, Sanders finally realized that women were just as equal, but to society it was still the same. In the end men were to be seen more successful than women. Scott Russell Sanders. “The Men We Carry in Our Minds. ” Essay Writing for Canadian Students with Readings. 6th ed. Eds. Kay L. Stewart, roger Davis, Chris J. Bullock, and Marian E. Allen. Toronto ON: Pearson, 2008. 324-329