“The Men We Carry in Our Minds”
Journal #3

In the essay by Schott Russell Sanders, “The Men We Carry in Our Minds”, Sanders expresses his opinions towards the differences in men and women’s lives, specifically work. He believed that women were the homemakers and men did the dirty work. Sanders describes his childhood and how he grew up learning about the work that men went through. Several men were carpenters, steel-workers, coal miners, etc. He explains that the hours that the men went through were extensive and tiring. Many men would get up “before light, worked all day long whatever the weather, and when they came home at night they looked as though somebody had been whipping them” (348). The work that these men would do physically drained them day-to-day and resulted in life-long injuries. The men didn’t think much of these health concerns because they did not know of different working environments. They thought that was what was expected from them. Next, Sanders defines the life of a soldier. Unlike the previously described workers, soldiers often suffered from extreme boredom. Their days consisted of waiting, but it was occasionally they would practice for war. These men work lead up to “killing themselves or preparing to kill others” (349). Once Sanders went off to “rich-kids” college, he ran into many people with opposing opinions on this subject. One girl believed that “men were guilty of having kept all the joys and privileges of the earth for themselves” (349). Clearly that statement was against everything that Sanders stood for. Slowly, he realized that that views towards the genders began to switch. He recognized that “women feel such pressure to be everything, and do everything” (347). Women have to make many choices about working and taking care of the children; this results in a lot of responsibility for women. Sanders believes that times