Society's Greatest Role Models

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There has never been a female president in the United States. Since the country's inception over 200 years ago, females have been classified as having no say in "a man's world." In the world today, most people are still offended that men get paid more than women, and also have better jobs. Unlike 2 centuries ago, women are now elected to Congress and are CEOs of Fortune 500 Companies. I do not think men or women have a say so until they walked in the opposite sex's shoes. In "The Vastness of the Dark" by Alistair MacLeod and "The Men We Carry In Our Minds" by Scott Russell Sanders, both genders and their respective stereotypes are compared and contrasted in detail. Within these essays, both MacLeod and Sanders show how gender roles in society have changed drastically throughout the past.

In MacLeod's "The Vastness of the Dark", the roles of each gender is made apparent. "For today I leave behind this grimy Cape Breton coal-mining town whose prisoner I have been for all of my life," this sentence MacLeod shows how miserable a town James lives in (367). His father and grandfather have been miners all their lives, and want him to take over their same sense of accomplishment and pride that they have had. However, the mine has closed. James' grandfather states, "Once you start it takes a hold of you, once you drink underground water, you will always come back to drink some more. The water gets in your blood. It is in all of our blood. We have been working in the mines here since 1873" (367). James did not want to be like them at all. He wanted to go on his own. He watched what the work did to his grandfather and father, who both had gnarled hands, worked in extreme hazardous conditions, worked long hours, and suffered the effects of their occupation long time. They were forever going to rescue other miners whose mines have caved in, and James remembers that. He also saw the anguish his father went through due to being laid off since the mine closed. Now, his mother and he take care of his father's drinking binges and abusive behavior due to it.

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