Fighting for survival and status within the world has been in affect since the Stone Age. It startswith man against beast battling for survival. Astime goes on, so does the type of battle, from beastto man against man. When conquerors from Europecome over to North America they push the Indianswest because they, the Indians, do not fit into thesociety the white man creates and there aredifferences that are noticeable. Later on therebecomes discrimination against blacks with the JimCrow Laws and the silencing of women. Throughouthistory there are more examples where people do notfit into the “norm” of society. Betty Friedan andRichard Wright in their novels The Feminine Mystiqueand Black Boy both experience different forms ofoppression. As Betty Friedan discusses a problemthat has no name, but mainly how a woman is enslavedin a man’s society, while Richard Wright tries toovercome the Jim Crow south by attacking racialidentity.“But forbidden to join man in the world, canwomen be people” (Friedan 50)? Friedan illustratesthis point throughout her book. The fore-sisters ofFriedan fought for the passage of the nineteenthamendment which was passed in August of 1920. Thepassage of this amendment was largely due to thewomen’s contribution to the war effort, the goal wasdeclared about seventy-two years before, during theSeneca Falls convention in 1848. Throughout thistime, women became immersed in their education andtheir own self-worth. Searching for jobs and nothusbands is the focus. During this period thenational birth rate declines since the women are nothome at the man’s beck and call.As the times change so does the written wordabout the female place in the world. According toFriedan, experts are telling the women that the onlyway to seek fulfillment in their lives is as a wifeand mother. Which in one word is femininity. Now,the dream is of an American woman behind the stove,not behi...
