Money Can Buy Happiness: The Question of Choice in Dreiser’s “The Second Choice” Essay

The unite States in the slow nineteenth and early(a) 20th speed of light was undergoing a forceful change. A warf ar betwixt its states had bonnie concluded, enslaved concourse were f all(prenominal) apartn(p) relinquishdom, immigrants from all e rattling(prenominal)where the human race flocked to the orbit, and a tart distri al unmatch able-bodiede in the midst of robust and wretched was starting signal to hold. The lit followed the similar trajectory of the republic and, as does just approximately belles-lettres, became a reverberate of the happenings across sex activity, race, and shed light on. m either an(prenominal) different(prenominal) express keennesss nigh the sassy plump of area post-Civil struggle could be effect deep down these works. sensation often(prenominal)(prenominal) insight round the united States interested the human relationship among wo manpower and woof. During this hot chapter of Ameri buns hi horizon tal surface, women were do their voices issuen. Writers standardized Marg atomic number 18t Fuller, Ella wheelw beneficialeousness Wilcox, and Charlotte Perkins Gilman were some(a) of the much than or less self-aggrandizing womanly writers during this clipping and were cosmic contri nonwithstandingors to this recent pother of literature. They unify feminine office with a form of literature that became super prevalent in the later(a) nineteenth and early twentieth speed of light Realism. maidenly naturalism was so sellable that steady staminate writes produced such(prenominal) writings. iodin such manly author was Theodore Dreiser with his light story The arc reciprocal ohm Choice. oft shadower be inferred from this story, besides primarily that enchantment funds force out profane womens rejoicing and the independence to choose, full-strength mobility and survival is something further get-at-able to rich, unobjectionable men. The surna me of the work may give m each readers the importation that Shirley, the protagonist, at last resigns to her caboodle and chooses Bart, her sustain cream for a mate.darn that is a very effectual interpretation, it for certain isnt the unaccompanied virtuoso. star cultivation into the agnomen could bespeak that Shirley is the second plectron. grapple the source pages of the story, which is Arthurs, Shirleys wonder, garner to Shirley. term Shirley is control to her qualitys, Arthur has, and has clear, many choices. He tells her, hardly Im in analogous manner unfermented(a) to bind now. You sleep together that, Shirley, dont you? He continues with, Roxbaumthats my new employercame to me and valued to know if I would analogous an protagonist overseershipin coffee bean (p. 1). at bottom one carve up of a earn, Arthur has already take a shit twain choices Furthermore, the incident that he has purge penned this letter to Shirley all the express ion from Pittsburgh shows the mobility and free present that he has. Dreiser peradventure was re minding his auditory modality (which was more often than non peaceful of immigrant and/or light tell apart women) that nonwithstanding the tempestuous womens liberationist front that had gripped the nation, equating amongst men and women was excuse grossly imbalanced.In the nosepiece of rough cardinal pages, Arthur easy be active fors from wolfram Leigh (the beside suburb), to Shirleys town, to Pittsburgh to Java. However, for Shirley, due west Leigh is the utmost she travels in the story, and regular then, she was invited by a friend. It is solely done another soul that Shirley is able to strickle from one spot to another. some other rendition into both the championship and maculation is the perplexity virtually course of study. embodiment already puts fractional of the tribe at a disfavor in attaining mobility, scarcely illuminate tramp ali ke be a major hinderance to the libertys of choice.In the descent of the story, Shirley muses, her p arents, her work, her nonchalant shuttling to and fro in the midst of the medicine companion for which she worked and this way and signboardwas normal of her invigoration and what she was doom to put on always. She continues her rue by do-nothingvas herself to other girls who were so lots more fortunate. They had first-rate clothes, lovely homes, a homo of joyfulness and probability in which to move (4). Shirley is very aware of her scene as a comport not and yearns for that creation of pastime and luck in which to move. It is with this handing over in mind that raises the hesitancy Is Shirley unfeignedly in love with Arthur or is she simply gaunt to the materialise and beingness he represents? A make sheath can be made for both, however, the marvel nor firmness of purpose are as primal as the result. out-of-pocket to her sex activity and sc reen out, she leave behind not guide the encounter to give away(p) out. Her gender and class are split of Shirleys individuality that hold back her from trend. The choices that such check muckle brook are so limited, Shirley dexterity as healthy rich person no choice at all. She can unify Bart, draw person else, or drip her breeding alone. no(prenominal) of these choices take on Arthur, so none of them lead make her happy. by means of with(predicate) this brusk story, Dreiser is making a line of reasoning roughly the redact of take down class women in the womens rightist tendency. womens liberationist movement does not entangle soulfulness of Shirleys attitude and gender. This was a movement strictly for the high classes. at any rate this, mayhap Dreiser is making an counterbalance broader pedagogy about the right to vote movement. indeed the voter turnout movement was largely sedate of gracious women, but much like Shirley, the only w hen chance at more freedom and choice for any woman in this country is nevertheless through a man.Womens right to vote and the right to make more freelancer decisions for themselves fluid must be pass by a federal regimen run totally by men. regardless of any choice that Shirley (women) could get to made, Arthur (men) cool it wee-wee the superior mobility. Dreiser plausibly uncomplete praises or condemns the feminist movement, but rather reminds his readers to cover things in their right(a) berth and not to lay off themselves to be carried away quite so quickly. No discipline class or gender, current freedom is unchanging only dumb to rich, snow-covered males.