Why So Oppressed?

             Oppression is best defined as “prolonged cruel or unjust treatment or control.” Oppression can vary in type because there’s such a wide range of unjust things in the world. Martin Luther King once said, "Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." This means that to achieve freedom, the oppressed must face their fears and/or their oppressor. Oppressors thrive on power and the control they get; the oppressed victims are the ones that need to change the situation. Sometimes freedom can come as easily as saying something to stand up against the mistreatment but sometimes people are pushed too far and get themselves in too deep.

“The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin shows the oppression of a woman, Mrs. Mallard. She wasn’t in love with her husband anymore but stayed wit him because in the time this story was written, divorce was non-existent. When Mrs. Mallard is told her husband was killed in an accident she cries her eyes out, then goes to her room to be alone and locks the door. Inside, she’s terrified by an unknown feeling, “She said it over and over under her breath: "free, free, free!" The vacant stare and the look of terror that had followed it went from her eyes. They stayed keen and bright. Her pulses beat fast, and the coursing blood warmed and relaxed every inch of her body” (Chopin). Even though she and her husband loved each other, and she's saddened by his death, she feels liberated and free for the first time. She looks forward to the days ahead instead of dreading them. Finally, Mrs. Mallard comes out of her room, newly resolved, and she and her sister start to go downstairs. Just then, Mr. Mallard comes in! He actually survived the wreck and when Mrs. Mallard sees him, she has a tremendous shock and dies. Mr. Mallard didn’t treat his wife cruelly or even tried to oppress her but back then it was very common for women to not be able to express themselves the ways they needed. Chopin shows in her pieces that women are just as human with the same needs as men. The only way Mrs. Mallard felt free was when Mr. Mallard was dead and tragically that was short lived and ended in her own death.

Gender oppression isn’t the only form of oppression people use. Verbal beat downs and bullying are also oppression; they’re sometimes considered exclusion. In today’s society people may be a little overly sensitive but on the other side, some people are extremely mean! Those bullies are the oppressors, feeding off the “weaker” people they pick on. In Taylor Swift’s song “Mean” she writes all about how one day she’ll be big and successful but that the bully is going to be stuck in the same city and never grow as a person. The song starts with Swift comparing the bully’s words to “knives, and swords and weapons” that are used to hurt her. Then the chorus goes, “Someday I'll be living in a big ol' city, and all you're ever gonna be is mean. Someday I'll be big enough so you can't hit me, and all you're ever gonna be is mean. Why you gotta be so mean?” The chorus shows Swift moving on and growing up to be different and stronger! The only way Swift sees herself getting her freedom is getting away and realizing that the bully is, “a liar, and pathetic, and alone in life and mean” (Swift). Conclusively, Martin Luther King Jr.’s words mean that a person has to find their own freedom. In “The Story of an Hour,” Mrs. Mallard sadly found her freedom in her husband’s death and then again in her own. In “Mean,” Taylor Swift finds her freedom by not taking the bully’s words to heart and realizing that all a bully really is just mean.