Compare And Contrast Jane Addams And Sumner

Have you ever decided that you wanted to fulfill your passion and you knew before you left this earth, you would? Helping the poor, saving lives, shielding families and inspiring individuals: this paper will compare and contrast Jane Addams and William Sumner. Although Addams and Sumner bear some superficial similarities, the differences between the both of them are clear. Although Addams and Sumner share a similar background, they each have their own worldview. Addams’ main focus was to contribute in any way that she could to help the poor and impact lives for a more efficient society. Sumner believed that the supply of wealth was based on people’s skills and those that have better skills and characteristics would more likely be wealthy while

Sumner graduated from Yale University and upon graduating he went back to the university becoming a professor. Sumner was the first to teach a course titled “Sociology”. Addams, on the other hand, did not attend the college that she had chosen, Smith College. Instead, she had the opportunity to attend Rockford Female Seminary. This specific college was a missionary college. Another similarity between Addams and Sumner is that they both came from families that were considered well rounded. Additionally, they both lost their mothers at a fairly young age. Sumner comes from a hardworking family. Addams’ main influence in her childhood was her father, John Addams. Addams was very much influenced by her father’s strong ethics. He helped shape his daughter to become more benevolent to the less

Sumner persuaded many Americans to accept Social Darwinism, but not Addams. The attitude of allowing the fittest to survive and the rest to go under completely goes against Addams whole approach to social, political and economic problems. In the reading, “What Social Classes Owe to Each Other”, Sumner argued that social programs developed to help the poor worked against nature and weakened the hardworking individual of his expected reward. Sumner believed in natural selection and he blamed poverty on individuals who were too weak to be able to become wealthy. Sumner defended laissez-faire to the end. He believed that good qualities earned people wealth and because of that the government should not get involved to help the economy. In addition to Sumner and Addams differences, in the reading, Democracy and Social Ethics, Addams argued that providing education and opportunity was more significant than advocating morality. Sumner insisted that the wealthy are wealthy because they deserve to be. Sumner believed that good qualities earned people wealth. Addams argued that it was the responsibility of the middle class to help the lower class, however Sumner opposed that the poor were inherently