Final essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 11

Final - Essay Example She outlines the theme of oppression and power in similar ways. The struggle for power was between the slaves and the owners of plantations who were equally ruling these slaves (Butler 9). However, the novel also shows the struggle for power between the slaves themselves. The slaves were struggling to be in higher or better ranks of slavery that is, the â€Å"field-hands† slaves were fighting to become â€Å"house slaves.† This was because the slaves who worked in the whites’ homes were entitled to proper housing conditions, could eat better foods and were expected to perform less harsh jobs. In her article, Octavia reiterates that in as much as the slaves had to vie to work as house slaves, working in the whites’ houses came with many challenges. These problems were mostly faced by the women who worked there since those roles could mostly be taken up by the females. She gives an example of female slaves who reported rape cases within themselves to maintain their positions of being house slaves. They never had their personal freedoms with their sexual body and could be inhumanly harassed by their owners. This condition of slavery makes Butler create a portrait of emotional charge showing the cruelty in slavery with all the accuracy in history that she can muster (Butler240). The novel points out the aspect of feminism in the slaves’ oppression. Dana is an example of the female slaves who went through domination in 1976, having attained only 26 years by the time of enslavement (Butler29). This shows how the most vulnerable of the blacks (the women) were exploited by the whites’ power since they could not fight for themselves. Dana further expresses her pain in parenthood stating that she seemed to be the worst possible parent. It felt so demeaning bringing up a child in a society where she felt so inferior (Butler 77). The theme of motherhood in slavery is equally emphasized in the novel.

The Welfare State In the United States of America (Microeconomics) Term Paper

The Welfare State In the United States of America (Microeconomics) - Term Paper Example Funded and managed by the U.S. government, these programs aspire towards ensuring economic security, universal access to resource for self-development and the reduction of social suffering, such as poverty and illness (Barr 4). Modern liberalism is the guiding philosophy of the United States Welfare System (McGowan 7). The philosophy says that individual liberty depends on positive rights such as social security, unemployment benefits, health care, and public education. Historically, welfare in the United States can be traced to the British Poor Laws, which distinguish between those unable to work due to age or physical challenges and those who are medically fit to work but are unemployed (Welfare Information welfareinfo.org). Monetary assistance was given to the former group while public service employment was provided for the later group by the government. Following the American Civil War, the United State Congress passed the Civil War Pension Program to provide aid to Civil War Ve terans and their families (Welfare Information welfareinfo.org). The United States welfare system, as currently known, started under President Franklin D. Roosevelt as a result of the Great Depression. During the Great Depression, one in every four of the American labor force was unemployed and many families underwent great financial hardship. The Franklin D. Roosevelt government stepped in to solve the problem. ... ty Income, Housing and Urban Development programs, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Head Start, Work Study, Medicare, and Social Security (Welfare Information welfareinfo.org). The politics, benefits and issues related to these programs as well as a comparison of United States welfare programs with welfare programs in other countries will be discussed in the term paper. Welfare programs in the United States: issues and politics Assisting the needy while not encouraging them to seek employment forms the foundation of the politics of the United States welfare programs. By the 1990s, welfare reform dominated the political scene due to a number of reasons. In fact, Republicans campaigned for an â€Å"end to welfare as we know it†, a policy theme, the President Clinton administration embraced (Politics and Social Welfare wps.prenhall.com). The reasons for these reforms were cogent and apparent. First, was the fact that most women can continue to work after childbirth and th ere was no reason for welfare mothers, who stay at home to claim welfare package. Another reason was the observation that some Americans were having more children in order to receive more aid. Furthermore, there was an alarming increase in unmarried mothers, for which welfare package was the incentive. Last, was the increasing number of voluntary unemployment among the labor class. Thus there was increasing dissatisfaction with welfare as epitomized by Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) among many Americans, and welfare reform forms a hot topic in the 1990s. In 1996, the United States Congress passed the Welfare Reform Act that gave the control of welfare system to states. Abolishing the AFDC, the Welfare Reform Act of 1996 support a system of block grants to states, constraining the