Freedom : A Short Story

Shad Helmstetter once said, “Choosing to live your life by your own choice is the greatest freedom you will ever have.” It is important that people are able to choose the paths of their own lives. As the quote suggests, the ultimate freedom is choice. Nonetheless, many people are denied this ultimate freedom. In relation to Afghanistan, many women are denied the ability to choose the course of their lives. The oppression of women in Khaled Hosseini’s, A Thousand Splendid Suns, subjects them to total control by men, however, when the prominent woman characters in the novel, such as Mariam and Laila, are able to maintain a sense of control, they pave the paths of their own lives.

Freedom allows one to do as they please to achieve happiness. In modern society, individuals who have freedom, use it to make choices for themselves and do so for their own benefits. Throughout Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, it is learned that lack of freedom leads to the absence of individuality, high standards in society and loss of emotions. Therefore, the key message in the novel is that freedom is required for true happiness.

America is the universal symbol of freedom. But is it really free? Does the history of the United States stay true to the ideas of our forefathers? Or has the definition been altered to fit American policies? Has freedom defined America? Or has America defined freedom? I believe America was at first defined by freedom, then after time, America defined freedom, altering the definition to fit the niche it fits in, but still keeping key components so it still seems to be staying true to the ideas of America’s founding fathers.

The freedom writers diary is a beautiful piece of writing written by a group of young teenagers struggling with finding themselves. Many argue that the award winning book “The freedom writers diary”written by the freedom writers themselves should be strictly for those of mature audiences.That the book should not be allowed for reading till a certain age limit. The freedom writers diary is based on a group of exciting students who have experienced unfortunate events in their past, present and future. Each student honored and recognized of the achievements. There are entry topics ranging from family members deaths to student concerns such as dyslexia. The book the freedom writers diary should be allowed for kinds of all ages to read at school and home bounds.

Throughout history freedom has had many different meanings and definitions; based on race, gender, and ethnicity. According to the dictionary freedom means the state of being free or at liberty rather than in confinement or under physical restraint (“freedom” def. 1). Freedom may seem like something given to everyone however it was something workers had to fight for. Not everyone believed that workers’ rights needed to be changed, which led to a long battle between workers, employers and the government. To the working class people freedom meant making higher wages, having regulated hours, workable conditions and the right to free speech.

“I am self-propelled; fueled from within. I appreciate people’s opinions, but I am not attached to them. I learned a long time ago that if I give them the power to feed me, I also give them the power to starve me.” -Dr. Steve Maraboli. When I read this quote I thought he was describing that no one can hold him back and he is going to be free. My question is what does it mean to be free? Does it mean not caring what others think about you? Or is it being free to accomplish your dreams with no regrets and nothing holding you back? Being free means different things to different people. In the poem “Caged Bird,” by Maya Angelou, she talks about two types of people one being caged and one being free. In his poem “Mother to Son,” Langston Hughes talks about there will bumps in the road of life, but you have to forge your path to be free. In the poem, “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost discusses the two roads a person can take, either you can be free and not care about other's opinions, or you can be trapped by everyone’s thoughts about you. You can be free by not caring about others opinion’s on you, but by making your own path. So will you choose to be free or will you choose to be dragged down by other’s opinions about you?

Olaudah Equiano, The Interesting Narrative depicts one man’s journey of being enslaved to finally obtaining his freedom. The autobiography begins with narrator transporting the reader back to his early youth. Equiano provides a very detailed description of his village life in Eboe, Africa. However, Equiano life and freedom is quickly taken from him, as he is snatched and thrust into the chains of slavery. Along Equiano enslavement he experiences religion, theories of the enlightenment and the brutally of slavery before he is finally able to obtain his freedom. Equiano experiences through enslavement led to his enlighten optimism and his evangelic pessimism. The controversy surrounding the historiographical authenticity of Equiano narrative depict experience of slavery can be linked to fictitious authorship found within the eighteenth century.

The power or right to act, speak or think as one wants without hindrance or restraint. A word created by man to escape the bonds of tyranny to express the idea of what it means to persist one's own ambitions. Freedom. Freedom is not the absence of confinement but the will to achieve freedom when imprisoned. After carefully concluding the reading done over this semester one is able to clearly understand the confinement these early Americans felt and their decision to achieve a form of freedom. Freedom has always existed but it is the history of this nation that will define what actions freedom takes.

America is the land of the free and the home of the brave. Well, at least half of that sentence is true. America, a nation-state founded by freedom, equality, and protection of individual liberties, was soon becoming a nation-state where everyone was not protected. Many groups of people were not getting the representation they were guaranteed. Many citizens rallied behind one another, calling for the government to intervene. They believed it was up to a strong unified nation-state to protect everyone’s individual liberties. We can see in excerpts from the North, the South, and also from Russia, that people believed a strong unified nation-state is the best way to protect their individual liberties.

The American Ideological Consensus is that “…the American people have shared much of the same ideals, the same basic principles, and the same patterns of belief” (McClenaghan 104). When America filled itself with ideologically homogenous people, their beliefs started to define our nation and became American identities. If asked what they think of America, peoples of other nations would say that the roads are made of glass, opportunity is in the air, and civil rights are plentiful. These accounts maybe accentuated; however, the underlying message is that the American people have more freedoms then the peoples of other nations do. The most widely known American identity is freedom, and even though that American identity has been tried and

In the movie, The Freedom Writers Mrs. Erin Gruwell (Hillary Swank) plays a role of a dedicated teacher who did all she could, to help her students learn to respect themselves and each other. She has little idea of what she's getting into when she volunteers to be an English teacher at a newly integrated high school in Long Beach, California. Her students were divided along racial lines and had few aspirations beyond basic survival. Mrs. Gruwell was faced with a big challenge when a group of freshmen students showed her nothing but disrespect which made it hard for her to communicate, teach and understand them. However, Erin Gruwell was determined that no matter the cost she would teach her students not only

Awakening or to awake means “to wake up; to be or make alert or watchful” (Webster 23). This is what Edna Pontellier experienced in The Awakening.

What is the price for FREEDOM? It's obvious that the price for freedom is not free but that it is rather large. After obtaining freedom, we look back and wonder was it worth it? Was freedom overpriced? In other words, did we sacrifice and pay too much to be free?

After reading “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin the reader can see that the text reveals a major theme about freedom with the use of a few characters, a basic setting, and plot. This text was written to address the crisis of the restricted lives women were forced to live during that time period. In the beginning of the story, the narrator is discussing how they were being careful to break the news of Louis husband’s death because she had a heart problem. In the middle of the text, we learn how the news was accepted. Finally, in the end of the text, the author adds an interesting plot twists that brings the meaning of the story together. Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour,” is the best story because it developed the theme of the loss of freedom can be detrimental through her use of plot, setting, and character.

of us fail to cherish and value our granted freedom. Many of us do not