Lucky girl and Unprepared - Essay Example

? Lucky girl & Unprepared Number] [09/12 Summary of the stories The first story is about a seventeen year old girl, who has no money and hitches ride with strangers for unknown destinations. She describes two unpleasant experiences that she had with the drivers, how one driver indecently exposed himself, then slapped and robbed her. While, the other driver offered her cash to satisfy his sexual needs, which she refused. She expected verbal and physical violence from the 2nd driver, but he left her in peace. The girl was afraid because of the wide killings of black people at that time, and since she was a black too, she was concerned about her safety. She describes further about white killing Negros, discarding their bodies in dumpsters, strangling young boys; murders which did not stop. The second story is about a nineteen year old girl who gets pregnant and due to financial constrains and young age, decides to get an abortion. In 1962, abortion was illegal, and the girl found it hard to find a place where she could get an abortion. She first consulted a gynaecologist, and then went to San Juan’s Women Hospital, but the hospital demanded two hundred and fifty dollars in cash, which she did not have, but there was none other option as well. She borrowed money from her office, went to San Juan’s and after a lot of trouble, got an abortion. It was a painful process because there was no anaesthesia and the man operating on her used a newspaper-lined metal. Illegal abortion in the U.S. accounted for seventeen percent of death in the year 1965. Similarities The three main similarities between the two stories are as follow: • The protagonist is troubled and poor in both stories. The girls are troubled because they do not have money and their problems needs to be resolved on wider scale. The first girl does not have a home, and she hitches ride with strangers, even though she is afraid of strangers as being a Negro. The second girl is troubled because she wants to get an abortion and does not have enough money for it. • Both girls are afraid of something; the first girl is afraid of being raped, robbed or murdered by the driver because she is a Negro, and the second girl is afraid because of not getting an abortion on time. The first girl fears being abused and robbed because she went through this when she was twelve years old; a man took her to an ally, slapped and robed her and even after all these years, she fears that this might happen again. The second girl fears that if she does not get an abortion sooner, it would be too late, and she might have to raise a baby, live in her boyfriend’s house or if she goes for the abortion, she might suffer serious health consequences. • Both the girls are brave as they did not give up; the first girl did not submit to the desire of the driver, and the second girl did not give up on abortion, even when it was illegal and finding a place to get an abortion was extremely difficult. Real life The two stories are very close to real life situations. Even in the early twentieth century, stereotype notions weren’t completely eliminated for African American and they faced biased behaviour in many countries, specifically in United State. Due to anti-discrimination laws, the situation did get better but the roots of discrimination were deeply embedded. In the same era, African American had a confused identity; some of them portrayed themselves as white to have a better lifestyle and to get rid of discrimination. In 1911, a woman was killed by a streetcar, and it was found that she was not a white, but pretending to be one. The woman’s sister was immediately divorced by her husband. In the past, black men were not supposed to look at white women, weren’t allow to cross path of any white, and they had restricted restaurants, where whites didn’t eat. African Americans were supposed to sit in the back seats of a public bus, and against this stereotype behaviour Montgomery Bus Boycott occurred in 1956 (Painter,250). Their schools were separate, hence, at all levels African American faced lack of respect as equal human beings. Consequently, in movies, they were portrayed as members of gangs, aggressively breaking public property, getting into fights or as criminals. Abortion is an ethical and moral issue, which has faced controversies from policymakers and critics. However, abortion is practiced in countries, even where the law has declared it an illegal act. High frequency of abortion was observed in the early twentieth century as compared to the twenty first century, because birth control pills/ contraception weren’t commonly available by then, increasing the chances of pregnancy. Twenty first century introduced numerous birth control methods, which reduced pregnancies, simultaneously bringing down the abortion rate. Countries should revive their abortion laws, according to the values of people living. Keeping in view the second story, the girl was distressed because she did not want to raise a baby at such a young age and she did not have money or any plan for raising a baby. In addition, because of anti-abortion laws, the girl had to face numerous problems like, finding an abortion hospital far away from her home town, getting a large amount for the abortion through loan and the pain, which she faced due to inadequate health facilities. Hence, abortion laws are made because religious parties strongly condemn the idea of one individual taking the life of another. Recently, two essential steps have been taken for the safeguard of women in military. Jeanne Shaheen states that women should be given the right to an abortion, in case they are raped or incest. The current law shows that if a pregnancy endangers the life of a military woman, only then she can get an abortion (“Two important Steps for Women”). Such proposition is not considered controversial as sexual assault is a common problem among the service members. Several Bills have been passed which oppose the idea of abortion, like the Heart Beat Bill, proposed by Thomas Niehaus, who is the president of the Ohio Senate. The Bill is passed to oppose the Supreme Court decision of legalizing abortion. Work Cited Top of Form Painter, Nell I. Creating Black Americans: African-American History and Its Meanings, 1619 to the Present. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print. Bottom of Form Two Important Steps for Women. 2012. Web. 7 Dec. 2012. . Read More