Nevertheless, Steinem did make a point in substantiating many of these claims with the references to the thematically relevant academic and non-academic sources. My Life on the Road is best defined as an autobiographical novel, which is the reason why most argumentative claims, contained in it, appear strongly reflective of the author’s own subjective perception of the surrounding social reality and the discursive significance of how the latter manifests itself. For example, throughout the book’s entirety, the author never ceases to apply an extensive effort into trying to convince readers that the society is a continually evolving entity of its own, which suggests that its overall agenda cannot be merely summative of the individualistic agendas of each of its members. At the same time, however, there appear to have been many “holistic” aspects to the author’s intent, in this respect.

In its turn, this can be explained by the author’s strongly individualistic outlook on what accounts for the driving forces of history: “As in history, a potentially powerful majority is being divided by an entrenched powerful few”. As it was implied in the Introduction, in her book Steinem aimed toĪdvocate the idea that it is specifically by adopting a socially active stance in life that an individual can attain self-actualization. Therefore, there is nothing odd about the fact that many critics refer to My Life on the Road in terms of a powerful feminist statement. As she noted: “The accusation that feminism is bad for the family leads to understanding that it’s bad for the patriarchal variety, but good for democratic families that are the basis of democracy”. According to the author, however, this does not undermine the value of the concerned social movement as a “thing in itself”. This implies that the social movement of feminism is, in fact, historically warranted – despite the fact that in the patriarchal society a woman’s strongly feminist stance is often considered symptomatic of her mental inadequateness. At the same time, in her book Steinem succeeded in representing the cause of women’s liberation as such that has been brought about by the process of more and more women all over the world beginning to experience essentially the same desire to be able to live in the gender-egalitarian society. The reason for this is that being concerned with the author’s personal experiences of informal socialization with different people across the planet, the book provides a strong humanist dimension to the cause of feminism, which in turn causes readers to relate to the book’s ideas/claims on an emotional level – something that naturally results in increasing the book’s overall appeal to the audience. Learn More Analysis There can be only a few doubts that My Life on the Road helps toĮnhance one’s understanding of social movements.

Gloria steinem on the road