Analysis Of Barbara Ehrenreich's Pathologies Of Hope

Hope is defined as a feeling of expectation and desire for a certain thing to happen. Growing up as a little child I always believed that if I hoped enough, I would get what I hoped for. I was childish and foolish. I used hope as excused to believe that I wouldn’t have to face reality to get the things I desire. Hoping that I will do good as oppose to actually doing good is too different things. Barbara Ehrenreich is a well-known author, feminist, and most importantly, she is diagnosed with breast cancer. Ehrenreich first sentence states, “I hate hope”(Ehrenreich 1). Just reading this statement shows how Ehrenreich feels about hope. Barbara Ehrenreich wrote, “Pathologies of Hope” to emphasize her argument of how hope is blindly used to face …show more content…
She does this to have that “lingering” affect. Ehrenreich would go in depth of how certain products mentioned in her essay gives you more self-esteem. It gives you a sense of positivity to have a positive attitude. “"With a positive attitude you can do, have and be everything you want in life!" Bereaved? You can put the fun back in funeral by replacing it with a "celebration" of the deceased's life”(Ehrenreich 1). After going all in depth with this, she changes her focus to the opposite side. She talks about all these products that help oneself positivity and bam, changes her gears into how positivity cannot help an individual. By comparing two different opinions helps give an insight of how she feels towards “hope”. Juxtaposition can also be applied to the “real” world and the “dream” world. If we lived in a perfect world that whatever we may hope for comes true, then do we really learn something? No, instead we learn that we can get anything we may desire without any sacrifices. On the other hand, reality is working hard so that what you hope for may come true. Comparing the two gives a bigger insight of how society uses hope. Hope in society is just a word with no