Historical Writing Analysis

      Wollstonecraft is a famous women's right advocate who throughout her life has been on the side of equality for the human race. This is the same type of stance that other writers like Voltaire, Busbecq, and Howard Zinn each in his own respective lifestyles and belief take. The similarity in their diction all lead to the fact that each dislikes an unbalance inpower, rights and social status, and would seek to remedy each situation in their society with morals, and ethics. However the tone in each of their essays and their specific view of the opposition lead readers to believe that essays, nevertheless their styles of writing are nowhere near the same realm of thought and conclusions. Mary Wollstonecraft's work bears resemblance to those of Voltaire, Busbecq, and Howard Zinn in terms of the position that they are campaigning and/or arguing for. Their goals are similar as they seek the rights for "lesser" of two categorized factions, as the various writers recognized oppression and/or unfairness in each of their respective societies. The difference between Wollstonecraft's writing and the others are how she points out the wrong in her society and of what the degree she presents it to be.

     Each writer has done his or her part in naming the victim and show how they have been victimized. This leads to different tones in their essays as the level of severity differs between each writer. For Centuries women have not been given their full rights. They have been stripped away from numerous opportunities which lacked the chance of them displaying their full potential as independent individuals. Examples of such leisures are; education, and roles in political affairs, which would enhance their knowledge, and make them qualified to become divine as man. In addition they have been made slaves of their own husband, there main roles were stay at home moms, which included cleaning, providing meals for the family, a nurturing mother, and a loving wife to their husbands. According to the feminist Mary Wollstonecraft women are degraded and are used as sexual objects rather than human beings. Consequently they are traded and often sold to corrupted man. Indian women were taken captive by Spaniards, who then transported them to Europe to become servants and sex slaves. Although in Voltaire’s essay requests to have respect for each other and love one another because God has demanded so. Man, however look at the bible as another reason for condemning women. The Genesis book for example depicts Women as weak individuals with no comprehension. That is a prime example why women were considered to be viewed by man as incompetent individuals who were inadequate to run any country or state. In comparison to the three other essays the authors mentions the topic of religious tolerance. For instance Busbecq says that you need to let others have complete freedom to practice any religion in which the chose without dictating the religion you wish for them to convert to. Voltaire claims that if an individual does not have a religion you should assume that they would be necessarily condemned to hell or to exile them. Wollstonecraft's essay and the other essays provided both talk about equality but they both have their different stances on what should be equal. One says that "just give us the same rights as men" and the other says "let anyone do anything they want and they should not be restricted."

   The writer's position in their essays are critical to the overall message because some as Wollstonecraft not only advocates for the less fortunate in her eyes( which are women) but she is in a place to give personal experience and is able to bring her feelings into it as she is part of the victimized. ForMary Wollstonecraft she is blunt with who she views as the eiron. It only seems sugar coated because she views two parties as the eiron. She views both men and women as the eiron or villain. She sees men as an eiron, because they form a barrier between women and recognition and logic. They stand between the women by using things like "place" and "roles" to define women and place them in society. Mary views women as eirons, because they allow the men to do such things. Women too often allow their emotions to play the main part in their actions and this prevents them from seeing the logic that sits on the other side of the barrier that is man. The other three writers in contrast tend to not place blame directly. They state reasons for situations; however, they do not directly place blame. Instead they work their way around placing blame while shining light on the party they hold responsible or as the villain. This allows for manipulation where Mary Wollstonecraft places direct blame and cannot say anything to the contrary because placing direct blame is almost like setting something in stone. You cannot take back what was said and it becomes very hard to change meaning or impact because of the fact that it was blunt. Whereas, those that circle placing blame have room to shift and affect the impact or change it entirely. They also have the opportunity to not retract their statements but to manipulate the impact by manipulating the message because room was left for manipulation.

      What one finds to be moral might not be viewed the same way by others; for each of us have different perspective on world and the people. "Every individual is in this respect a world in itself." Mary Wollstonecraft implies that there is not another individual that we care about but ourselves. We strive to improve our own life, taking everything that is in our path and because of these need we do not pay attention to those who are prominent in our lives. Columbus for example became greedy, that passion for gold and the title by which he would be remembered made him heedless to the suffering that he was causing among the Indian tribes in the Bahamas Island. What it seems to him natural, we find it to be monstrousness and selfish. Who was he to condemned Indians to an unwanted life, a life in which they were treated as nothing but slaves? Man see women as property, sex slaves denouncing them as threat to society, and a distraction to man preventing the industrialization of their cities and states. "Are we not all the children of one father and creatures of the same God? (Voltaire)" Should not women be considering as fellow sisters, shouldn’t they have the same authority in the world as do man? We are of course created by one being, and yes, we have represented that being in many ways: to Christians he is Jehovah; to Jews he is known as Yahweh. With all those names that we have given to our creator, our belief on one God has brought us all together. Mary Wollstonecraft is careless of morality, to her been reason is far most imperative and it’s logic which makes on valuable.

   Wollstonecraft, Voltaire, Busbecq, and Zinn writings all are successful in demonstrating to the reader that they believe the unfairness and mistreatment of others is wrong and all write in great detail about what inequality does in all aspects. (Religion, Sexism, and some forms of Tyranny.) While these texts have similar structures in writing (i.e. main idea, example, reasoning) you can tell that each has his or her own reasons for writing which results in different word choices, clauses, and rhetorical devices in order to influence the reader, mainly because each writer has a different audience that he or she is addressing. Wollstonecraft being an advocate of women's rights spends a lot of the time criticizing men and victimizing women which leads to different tones and word choice in her essay as opposed to someone like Voltaire who is talking to the clergy, the church and all the religious tyrants of his time. Even though the goal is the same they are writing for different reasons which may or may not influence their credibility/morality. Howeverthat depends on who the reader is.

Fast or Slow

The case of life in itself must be taken slow. A fast life might be more efficient, but a slow life provides better quality by allowing individuals to absorb all experiences, whether joyful or tragic, along with patience permitting better opportunities to experience within life, and your mind is not bombarded with an overwhelming amount of material by taking things slow and making the best of what one’s existence has to offer. A fast life does not allow you to embrace the experiences which take place day-to-day. As Thoreau said, "Why should we live with such hurry and waste of life? We are determined to be starved before we are hungry.” These words by philosopher, Henry David Thoreau, imply that people rush through life trying to accomplish our goals, without thinking twice about it. When in the process of trying to succeed, we fail to learn any lesson from rushing. A slow paced life style hands several opportunities to individuals, and enables the mind to soak in whatever it pleases.

​Not all experiences we encounter will put a smile on one’s face, but traumatizing moments may create the opposite effect. Although there are distinct rough patches, they make us who we are and what we will become, shaping us into the person we aspire to be, and creating the meaning of life. According to an anonymous writer “Living slowly ultimately means living deeply”, which can interpreted as, a slow lifestyle makes one more aware of their surroundings. The slower life is taken, the more individuals will be able to take in everything life throws at them. For instance, a sponge’s purpose in its existence is to soak up all liquids, and remove rough stains from surfaces. This is comparable to the human life, where we are made to walk through several trials in life, whether good or bad, and let them sink in. The tougher areas we face must be eliminated through acceptance, but soon washed away in search of a new challenge. People may ask why someone would want to encounter all the imperfections of this life; well the simple answer is growth. Without making any mistakes and learning from them, we simply go through time not knowing the difference between happiness and misfortune. The troubles faced within a person’s lifetime make them who they are, along with their past mistakes.A slow life truly helps all individuals cope with the dreadful moments encountered daily. For example, the lost of a loved one would have a much larger effect on a person that is rapidly moving through life than it would on one who is going at a slow pace, due to the loss of time spent with the deceased. All the memories that have been shared would be easily forgotten, so they are left with more grieving then they are reminiscing. Onthe other hand, an individual who spent more time with their loved one will remember all the good and the bad things and would enjoy every reflected moment. When considering the true meaning behind the word “life,” it is truly the art of learning, and when educating oneself, retaining all knowledge is the key to success. Living amongst others is a battle, and the competition is fierce.

​In the case of life in the realm of competition, one would assume that being swift in all things guarantees success.  We submit to you, however, to consider that there are far more opportunities in taking your time, reflecting, and observing the world around us in order to attain your goals.  Take for example the classic fable of the Tortoise and the Hare, which gave the common and cliché phrase, "Slow and steady wins the race."  We ask that you do not look at the act of being slow or sluggish, as those are negative connotations, but instead look at the opportunities that are presented to us individuals and have a sense of patience.  When things are done with haste you tend to finish first; you are not necessarily left with victory. In other realms of competition, like the workforce, leaving you with wasted opportunities that could possibly increase the quality of your work, or check for mistakes in what you have already provided.  Notice that not all papers you submit to teachers or professors can be taken back once submitted.  This of course would be something to consider to anyone wanting success in education or the workforce in general.  In the place of other forms of competition in the sports industry, merchandise, and direct competition in general, brings us back to the old fable of the Tortoise and the Hare.  Again it is not the act of slowness that gave the tortoise victory but the vices and negative attributes with being fast or speedy, cockiness, unwillingness to consider other things, and even laziness due to his extended nap during the race.  It can also be told from other versions of this fable that the slow tortoise had plans and tactics which lead him to victory while the narrow-minded hare thought raw speed was a better strategy.  All of the examples give the same message, not necessarily that slow and steady wins the race, but careful thinking, patience and planning guarantees you success.

​Living slowly is one venturing through life, and abiding by the occurring events. An individual who attempts to journey through life at a slow pace focuses on one detail at a time, and typically proceeds from there. People don't often place themselves in overwhelming situations they can't necessarily handle. Adding extra stress and hardships to one’s life makes a more chaotic approach on living a carefree and stressful lifestyle. Such as the times of adolescences that are disrupted by the rigorous academic courses expected from school, students are incapable of actually enjoying and maintaining the essential years of being a teenager. With the intensive workload given, they are both trapped with multiple tasks to handle, and drowned in a pool of stress; separating skills that must be retained over time by instructing at a slower speed makes for, not only a limited amount of anxiety, but a better understanding of material. There several benefits to life in general, but they differ between the person’s interests. For example, many people find love to be one perk. When in a relationship it is better to take things slow so the partner will not be overwhelmed by sudden showers of affection, oppose to moving fast where things fall apart quicker. In order to be content, you must be free. Free from troubled thoughts, and free from the pressures that are faced daily.

​A slow life makes for a better life, because being able to absorb all events that occur within one’s lifetime, being able to see what is ahead before taking chances, and keeping the mind at a state of tranquility, enables the mind to experience the benefits of life. From all the examples we have shown, it is to be believed that in general terms slow is better than fast in most aspects of life and it differs in specific areas. Taking your time in life can have a plethora of benefits in the long run, than rushing through it hastily. It is to be believed that many would rather have a life that was lived to its fullest than one without substance. The state of slow has many positive connotations than negative ones and therefore can both be interpreted and used positively, as slow could be described as taking your time, having patience with someone or something, and getting all the details by using your senses more acutely. All these things could be associated with the word slow. Coincidentally these are also attributes that we believe someone should have, if not want to have, in order to live a happy or fulfilling life. This is not to say that being fast does not have its place in the world. There are times in which one must accomplish tasks with haste in order to achieve his or her goals and receive opportunities, but how would one know to move with a certain pace if they never took the time to discover why they must do so? The question can be changed from "What is better fast or slow?" to “What gives a better chance at succeeding in life?”, and “What would make me happier in the long run?” As writer Bonnie Mohn once stated “Life is not a race-but indeed a journey,” meaning that taking time in one’s existence is essential, therefore making it an experience of a lifetime.  There is no telling where life may lead anybody, because life just isn’t that simple. Life is harsh sometimes, that is by no means a reason for trying to escape it, for one is stronger by just going day-by-day at a slow pace. Living life means taking the time to appreciate every flaw that it has, it is growing with it and admiring its beauty. By moving at a faster pace there are no mistakes to learn from, beauty or growth detected, there is only a finish line. Moving rapidly does not carry memories, for they are all forgotten because the mind was not strong enough to hold on to them. The slow life is a Pandora’s Box of memories that are to be treasured when the last breath comes. It is at the death bed when one realizes whether they had lived or not. If one is to look back and see nothing but clouds then what life have they lived, but if one is to look and see the sun or rainbow over the sky after a storm then they have truly lived life. For life is standing strong through the storms to see the beautiful rainbow over the sky. We submit to you that going at a slow pace through life does not only make one stronger, but gives one a chance in discovering the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.