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  • Essay / Book by Jane Addams “Subjective Necessity of Social Feelings”: Summary

    AuthorJane Addams was born in 186o and lived until 1935. She lived longer than Booker T. Washington but shorter than Andrew Carnegie. She was one of the most distinguished and tireless social reformers. She graduated from Rockford College, Illinois, in 1881. After graduation, she decided to study medicine in Philadelphia. She wanted to examine the efforts being made by Europe and England to combat urban poverty, so she went there for a tour. Upon her return, she decided to team up with Ellen Gates Starr and founded Hull House on the West Side of Chicago in 1889. This was inspired by the Toynbee Hall that Jane saw in London. Hull House was a settlement house and social center for immigrants. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Addams explains how Hull House will contribute to the benefit of society. It attempts to deal with “the subjective necessity of social regulations, to analyze the motives which underlie a movement based not only on conviction, but on genuine emotion”. She explains three reasons that affect “pressure for social regulations.” Summary and Analysis: The three motifs she describes really help refine her argument because they allow the reader to see what she is thinking. The first motive she speaks of “contains the desire to democratize the entire social organism, to extend democracy beyond its political expression.” She explains this by saying: "we refused to go beyond the position of its 18th-century leaders, who believed that political equality alone would guarantee the good of all men." She believes that society is stuck in one place and stagnating. She clarifies that people only choose the rules they want to follow. She is obviously against it and thinks that this happens because society believes that everyone has the same rights as everyone else. It was wrong. This is what she affirmed: “we hasten to give immigrants the right to vote for the sake of justice”. She also points out that just because you believe in equal rights doesn't mean men are good people, but to truly understand this you have to remember that Addams was a feminist. His opinions were slightly biased. The next motive she speaks of is "the impulse to share racial life and to bring as much social energy and accumulation of civilization as possible to those parts of the race which have little of it." This sort of deviates from the first point, but at the same time it doesn't. She's talking about equality for immigrants here, but the way she separates that from the first point is to show readers what will happen if they believe in equality. Not only do they believe, but they practice. She wants people to share their culture, to talk to each other about different ideas. It was difficult in those days when people were considered immigrants as workers, but Addams stands up for them and wants the chance for their voices to be heard. The last reason she states “arises from a certain renaissance of Christianity, from a movement towards its beginnings”. humanitarian aspects”. As she advocates for immigrants and fights to help make America a better place for immigrants with the Hull House, she only asks one thing of them in return. She wants them to accept Christianity and she has a subtle way of showing it. Even though it wasn't his intention, the reader kind of gets a sense of where he was trying to go with religion. Keep in mind: this is just one.