Erich Fromm Escape From Freedom Analysis

A majority of people that chose to accept freedom believing it would give them better opportunities in life soon realised that life as a free person wasn’t as positive as they initially thought.

An American essayist, H.L. Mencken stated, “The average man does not want to be free. He simply wants be safe”. I disagree with this statement because an “average man” wants to live. In order to live you must have two necessities; freedom and safety. I believe neither is more important than one another because being free gives you the opportunity to a safe nation, and a safe nation allows you to be free. You cannot live a life without exploring and growing because that would not be considered living. On the other hand, you cannot expect to be free without safety around you.

When someone hears the phrase “held captive”, usually wild animals come to mind. No one ever really thinks of humans as being held captive. However, in Daniel Quinn’s 1992 novel Ishmael, the character of Ishmael tries teaching the story’s narrator to think of ways in which he has been held captive by both internal and external forces. Society has a way of making people feel like they need to do certain things to be successful, so basically society is holding people captive by holding them back from living the way they want to. As humans, we also have ways of holding ourselves captive. Ishmael compares our captivity with a form of blindness. Throughout the novel, Quinn helps the reader realize what they are blind to and what they are

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion,” is a quote written by Albert Camus, which displays the complexity of defining the term freedom. Jean-Paul Sartre’s play “The Flies,” defines the concept of freedom as the accountability of one’s own guilt, which allows individuals to recognize their own freedom. Furthermore, an individual that accepts accountability for one’s own guilt and responsibility for the city, or complete isolation, is living in freedom. Likewise, Zora Neal Hurston’s novel Their Eyes Were Watching God explores the notion of being or becoming absolutely free, finding her voice,

True freedom is the ability for each person to live as they desire; such a place is described as a utopia. Unfortunately in the dystopian novel, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the novel portrays a completely controlled society that has absolutely no freedom. Although you do have the few dissatisfied individuals who set out for a form of change. These individuals represent the optimistic part of the novel, despite conditioning, drugs and biological engineering; the human naturally wants more to life than just following orders.

The definition of freedom depends entirely on how the phrase “freedom from…” ends. Perhaps a most straightforward understanding of freedom is the laissez-faire emphasis on limiting the power of government to interfere in economic and social matters. In this state of absolute freedom, however, inequalities exist between people, so that freedom from a controlling government does not imply individuals’ freedom of contract, movement, legal protection, equal rights through citizenship, or political voice. In light of the persistence of slavery in the US through the 19th century, freedom as an individual’s legal status separated people who could be citizens from people who were lifelong slaves. Even among legally free people, economic

When someone is forced into the hands of a bigger power, they do not have the capability to be apart from the rest. Because of the restrictions and restraints put on the citizens of 1984 and Anthem, they are not able to live apart from the rest, and the citizens do not have the capability to experience freedom. When an individual is raised under strict conformity and told that being part of the world of “we” is for the greater good, they are not able to endure leaving their restraints because it is what they have grown to think that state of being is what is normal. Similarly, Equality 7-2521 of Anthem and the Rabbit of Terrible Things live under the rules of their leaders with fear of being caught every day only to realize

From the earlier times in our lives till now, we humans have been struggling hard to be free and independent of the things that limit our right to be free. And even though some people say that having security in life can regulate our lives and messy societies, I believe that too much security or limitation causes more dilemmas. Also, by being independent and free, one can learn new things rather than just by sticking to some widely held beliefs. We can see many examples related to this assumption everywhere in our lives, movies, books, and history.

Captivity is a subject that has been discussed thoroughly by many people. Captivity is the main concept touched in Daniel Quinn’s novel, Ishmael, and Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. Plato makes the compelling argument that people are captives of the world of ignorance. Ishmael complements Plato’s allegory by agreeing that there are two groups of people, that it would be difficult to distinguish the truth, and that people are being deceived.

“We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”

Eric Foner had earned his doctoral degree at Columbia University, where he currently teaches as the DeWitt Clinton Professor of History. As a Historian, Author, and Researcher, Foner wrote Gateway to Freedom: The Hidden History of the Underground Railroad to display the reality of how the Underground Railroad thrived. The book describes the abolition movement and how it developed through individuals and societal groups and its works to help fugitive slaves gain their freedom. While there was a decline, the abolition movement proved to be effective with its rise of The New York Vigilance Committee and the New York City Anti-Slavery Society.

The staple of societal thought, freedom, is the power to act, speak, or think as one wants without the concern of being oppressed (Webster). Freedom, is a unique element to the mixture of liberty across the United States. Martin Luther King Jr’s a “letter of Birmingham Jail,” and Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence both advocate the claim for freedom. Both of these historical figures make this apparent by arguing for the protest against tradition, a change across unjust laws, although they differ between the kinds of change to be enforced.

The first major component in life is to know that there is no such thing as being completely free. In the world, to be free means, one must have money and to be able to make sacrifices. Additionally, in order for one to earn the freedom they shall defend countries that already spoken as free, to stay free. A great President, Harry Truman, once said, “we must assist free peoples to work out their own destinies in their own way (Doc 1 A).” This President spoke of freedom, and the problems of the government. President Truman also said, “ the present moment in world history nearly every nation must choose between alternative ways of life. The choice is too often not a free one. One way of life is based upon freedom of

“The only way to deal with an unfree world is to become so absolutely free that your very existence is an act of rebellion.” (Albert Camus). Since the beginning of time, many have been seeking the chance of freedom. During the Pre-Civil War era individuals were free, only under the specific circumstances. Mark Twain, author of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, knew that many people who were known as outsiders were on a quest to be free from society, one example being the slaves.

Freedom means, to carry out one own choices, actions without coercion or constraint by necessity or circumstances. Fate often take a hand in the distillation of freedom. When this distillation occurs at weaker levels, benevolent slavery begins. A benevolent master usually receives gratitude from those slaves who are aware of their good fortune and will, in turn, work willingly. This form of slave's future is relatively certain, assured and predictable. Their offspring, born into a benevolent slavery, find the thought of freedom disturbing.