Today, I will be comparing the societal values of the past, the present, and the puritan period. I will be using the lessons and excerpts we have read as sources for the Puritan values. I will get today’s values from my own personal experiences and my past values from Ann Hedden. Ann is my 91 year old grandmother. She was born in Sacramento, California and she lived most of her early life in the California areas. There she received education that is equivalent to a 10th grade student by today’s standards. As I interviewed Ann, she gave me plenty of information about life during her early days. Contrary to Puritan beliefs and similar to today’s standards, Ann claims that she never felt undermined as a women. She was the oldest in her family and she had 5 younger brothers, but she was never …show more content…
She said that she never recalled disliking working on the farm. It was just her job and it was what she was meant to do; there was never really an option to work or not work. She even moved to San José at sixteen because she wanted to work. “I would take a bus out there, to San José, and my father would come get me and I would say ‘No, I want to work.’ And that was that,” she said as she told me about her days working as a Car Hop and then a waitress. She worked because she had to in order to survive. There was never any other choice for her. Times have definitely changed for the better since Puritan times. It seems that my grandmother’s family, and town, was much more modern than they realized at the time. While there is a lot more stigma towards work in today’s society, it seems that their views on human rights were about the same as they are today. I’m glad that the American people have moved past the values that all women are built for housework and that all whites are better than blacks. I feel as though our country has really matured and I hope that we continue to do