One question from the Socratic Seminar for The Invisible Man that stuck out to me was the concept of how women are treated in the novel and in general in our society. In the novel, women were seen as something to be used whether it was Mary who the narrator used for care and nourishment or Sybil the wife of a Brotherhood leader that the narrator slept with just to get back at the Brotherhood. Women were also used in The Power of One and The Fountainhead as well, in The Power of One it was Dee and Dum who just cleaned and served Peekay or in The Fountainhead it was exemplified by Catherine Halsey who allowed herself to be treated like dirt by Peter Keating just so she could please him. In society, gender roles have been in debate for the past 160 years making advances such as giving women the right to vote and giving equal payments for jobs. In fact, Hilary Clinton ran for President of the United States five years ago, something which would be unheard of when these books were written.
In my own personal opinion I believe that women should have equal rights as any man in addition to people of different races and sexual orientations. I believe that every human on this planet should be considered equal when in the case of physical traits. In my opinion I believe that equal opportunity is the most important concept in this problem. In our society I believe that women are still in some cases used and taken granted of, for example in some jobs like secretaries or nannies in which the purpose is to serve is taken up mostly by women. Unlike the past I consider women to be more respected now than as in the novels. In closing, my final thought is that these issues of gender, race, and sexual orientation will only get better with time.
