Jane Adams Essay -- essays research papers

& axerophthol9&9&9Jane Addams&9Even as a bittie girl in the serene community of Cedarville, in northern Illinois, Jane Addams was " ready with the old question eternally suggested by the inequalities of the human lot."(Pg.47 Ch.1) There were not many inequalities in Cedarville, but even there were poverty and foiling the war widows, the desolate old couple who had lost all five-spot of their sons, the farmers who were victims of the postwar depression, and the newcomers who could never really get started. And when she visited the neighboring town, she was shocked by the appearance of the dwellings and, characteristically, wondered what could be done to make them less horrid. She could sympathize with the misfits and the victims of order for she herself felt in truth less than perfect as she describes "an ugly, pigeon-toed little girl whose crooked back obliged her to walk with her head held very much upon one side,"(pg.44 ch.1). She was constantly afrai d that she might embarrass the heavy(a) father she adored. Her father John Adams was a successful businessman and political leader who tried to pass on to his daughter his ideals of hard work, achievement, democracy, and equality. He taught her tolerance, generosity, and surd work ethics which were all traits of his Quaker faith. He encouraged her to hire higher education but not at the cost of losing her womanhood and the prospect of marriage and motherhood. John Addams was Cedarvilles most re...