Egalitarianism is defined as a belief in human equality, a social philosophy that promotes for the removal of any inequality among people. The concept of egalitarianism is that all people should be seen as equals in society and in their worth. People should be equal in all of the four main institutions which are government, education, family and religion. It shouldn’t matter your gender, economic status or religion, each person should be offered the same opportunities and rights that other may have.
Martin Luther King Jr said, “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed”. This quote was put in a letter he wrote while in Birmingham Jail after being arrested for leading anti-segregation protests in Birmingham. He is trying to say that an oppressor won’t hand out freedom to you, you must fight to earn the freedom you believe and know you deserve. We can see an example of people fighting for their freedom in the short story “Children of the Sea”, which is about the time of the dictatorship of Duvalier. Lovers are writing letters to each other about what is happening to them. People are killed for speaking out against the soldiers or protesting Duvalier. People are not free in Haiti so some try to escape on boats like the girl’s lover only for the boat to sink in the middle of the ocean. Fear is silencing people from fighting back against the president and trying to interfere in the activities of the soldier. For example, the girl says to her lover in a letter, “We saw a soldier shoving a woman out of a hut, calling her a witch, he was shaving the women’s head, but of course we never stopped” (Danticat 19). By putting fear and dehumanizing people in front of their families and others it causes people to become scared and not want to speak out of stop what is happening like the girl’s father didn’t do for that women or their neighbor Madam Roger. An example of not being given the freedom to choose or speak out is shown when soldiers enter families home and hold a gun to a son and mothers head or daughter and father and force them to sleep together (Danticat 12). These examples go to show how freedom isn’t given voluntarily, how you need to fight for it even if it means leaving behind the people you love.
A movie that best goes with the quote by Martin Luther King Jr is In the Time of the Butterflies. It is set in the Dominican Republic during the time of Trujillo’s reign. It’s the story of the Mirabal sisters who took down the dictatorship of Trujillo. It started with Minerva who wanted to be a lawyer but at the time woman were not allowed to become lawyers. The family ends up going to Trujillo’s house for a party and there she asks Trujillo to allow her to become a lawyer, he declines and when he touches her inappropriately she slaps him. This leads Trujillo having her father arrested and put in a prison in an undisclosed location as a consequence for hitting him and he ends up dying anyways from all the torture he received while in prison. Minerva creates a rebellious group that goes by the name “The Butterflies” after Minerva’s nickname. Her sisters end up joining her cause to take down Trujillo. Trujillo has the three women’s husbands taken to prison to try and keep them from protesting and being rebellious. It doesn’t work though as Minerva begs Trujillo to release their husbands and he agrees. When the Mirabal sisters go to visit their husbands in prison to tell them the good news, on their way home they are stopped by some of the cops and taken into a field and beaten to death. Trujillo ends up being assassinated in retaliation for what was done to the sisters. This goes to show the you must fight hard to be free to a point that it could potentially cost you your life.
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